A study of the history of the documentary film in South Asia, including the advances made after independence in Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Seated among the enthralled audience which had paid one rupee apiece for entry was Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatwadekar. He became so enamoured of the new art that within a couple of months he had made arrangements to screen shows of his own. He imported a motion picture camera from London for 21 guineas and made two films: one on a wrestling match and another on the training of monkeys by wandering minstrels. The films were sent to London for processing and screened in an open air theatre in Bombay in 1898. These, the first "topicals" or factual films to be shot in India, were the precursors to the documentaries that were to come later.
To Bhatwadekar, or Sawe Dada as he was known, also goes the credit for making the first newsreel of a public event. He filmed a reception held in honour of R.P. Paranjpe, the first Indian to become a Senior Wrangler at Cambridge University. This was followed by a spate of topicals depicting the coronation and installation of various maharajas, the Delhi Durbars, celebrations of festivals and fairs, and so on.
Then, another great moment arrived in 1910 when Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, or Dadasaheb, walked into the America India Picture Palace at Sandhurst Road in Bombay to see The Life of Christ. The film so impressed him that he decided to make one on the life of the divinity Krishna.