Panorama of Calcutta (1899)
Length: 1:20
Description: This is one of the earliest films to be shot in India - it was filmed in 1899.
The film apparently shows the Calcutta ghats as seen from the perspective of a boat travelling along the Hooghly river, a tributary of the Ganges.
However, although the film's title states that this is Calcutta, the footage was in fact shot in the holy city of Varanasi (also on the Ganges). The filmmaker from the Warwick Trading Company clearly had a short memory or a limited sense of geography. (Robin Baker)
This film is included on the BFI DVD of Jean Renoir's 'The River' - http://filmstore.bfi.org.uk/acatalog/info_106.html
You can watch almost 1000 other complete films and TV programmes from the BFI National Archive free of charge at the new BFI Mediatheque - http://www.bfi.org.uk/mediatheque
Author: BFIfilms
Source: YouTube
