Yamini Krishna

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA will explore the question of modernity and citizenship in cinema in the erstwhile princely states of Hyderabad, Kolhapur, Jaipur, and Indore. To understand the history of cinema outside of the framework of film as an industry and profit-making enterprise, this project will examine how rulers of the princely system viewed and engaged with cinema as patrons. Yamini Krishna is the Coordinator for this project. 

Yamini Krishna works on histories of film, urbanity and the Deccan. She received her PhD from The English and Foreign Languages University, Hyderabad. She has been the recipient of the Asia Art Archive – Sher-Gil Sundaram Arts Foundation archival grant (2022), Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute Independent Research Grant (2022), Philip M Taylor Award for best article by a new researcher (2021) and Charles Wallace India Trust fellowship (2017). Her work has been published in South Asia, Urban History, South Asian Popular Culture, and Widescreen. She is working on her first book on cinema history in Hyderabad. She is a member of the Khidki Collective, a group of scholars committing to reimagining and building perspectives on regional identities to challenge established narratives around history, nationhood and belonging. She currently teaches at FLAME University, Pune. Given her experience of working on marginalised histories, Yamini is best suited to be the Coordinator of this Foundation Project by IFA. 

The story of film and modernity in the Indian sub-continent has been told predominantly from colonial cities such as Bombay, Madras and Calcutta with the perspective of film as an industry and profit-making enterprise. As a result, we have a unilateral understanding of film and modernity associated with colonial structures. This project explores the question of modernity and citizenship in the site of cinema in the princely states, which were not directly controlled by the British. It focuses on three interconnected relationships - a) technology and visual culture, b) state sponsorship and the film industry, and c) artists as subjects and citizens. 

Princely states in the early twentieth century were interesting intersections of monarchic order, feudalism, modern state consciousness and citizenship. They were reimagining themselves as modern states, not necessarily within the framework of the Indian nation. Princely states, which earlier had official photographers of the court, later on, adopted film as an extension of it. Many princely states had commissioned films for official visits, celebrations, coronations or other ritualistic occasions. Several of these states were clients of American and European film companies who made films for them. Examination of the visual culture of these films will give insight into the political relationship of the princely states within the sub-continent and with the larger world. This project will explore how the princely states employed these films to present them in specific ways and the implications of such presentation. It presents an alternative history of the ‘oriental’ image, where it posits itself in the transnational exchanges of the time and claims the agency of the princely states in fashioning their image. This project will thus tell the story of an alternative modernity, where the modern is not a western technology adapted to local needs but that of technology being deployed strategically by colonial subjects towards specific ends.

In continuation with the idea of the modern citizen, the project will closely examine the figure of the artist and the changing artistic subjectivity in the film industry. When a film in colonial cities sought its personnel, many came from the artists patronised by the princely states. The project will try to understand the shift in the subjectivity of being artists in a court to salaried employees and entrepreneurs in studios and how it affected the existing caste-patronage structures. It will explore these questions through multi-location archival study and oral history. 

The outcomes of this project will be an essay, an exhibition, and audiovisual documentation from the field. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with the reports, will be an essay, documentation of the exhibition and audiovisual documentation from the field.  

This project suitably addresses the framework of IFA’s Arts Research programme as it looks into the early cinema histories of India that have received very little or no attention from the mainstream scholarship. 

 IFA will ensure that the project is implemented on time and that the funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is complete and deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with the Trustees.