Cinemascapes of the city - A history of cinema in Hyderabad

The research located in the intersection of film history and urban history, examines the inter-relationship between cinema and the city of Hyderabad in the long duree from the coming of cinema from the 1890s to the new millennium. It is specific history of the city as revealed by the study of cinema as an institution. It conceptualizes cinema as a social, political, cultural and economic institution. When I study cinema I study the actors involved in constituting the institution of cinema and the network it conjures up for its operation. I study this inter-relationship at two historic junctures: a) cinema under the Nizam state- when film first came to the city b) cinema in the linguistic state- when film was organized as an industry in the city. I draw the study to the contemporary by studying the Ramoji Film City. The thesis examines the idea of princely modernity in the context of film as a symbol of modernity in the nineteenth century. In the post colonial state, it examines film as an industry and its implications on the spatial geography of the city. After 90s- it examines film and tourism nexus in making city as a space for spectacle. Through this it comments on changing nature of state, changing nature of economy and in turn changing nature of the city. The dissertation engages with the concepts of princely city, cantonment town, colonial city, linguistic city, and global city.