Early Indian Cinema: Saving A Lost Heritage
Early Indian Cinema: Saving A Lost Heritage by Georg Wirsching 02/10/2015 Devika Rani in an iconic scene from ‘Bombay Talkies’ studios classic film Durga 1939 My German Grandfather Was A Pioneer In Indian Movie-Making. A New Book Will Contain Hundreds Of Never-Before-Seen Images From His Personal Collection Josef Wirsching, my grandfather, was a pioneering master of cinematography. In 1923, he was working as a cameraman with the Emelka Film Studios in Munich, Germany when he was directed by his studio to help an ambitious Indian lawyer, Himanshu Rai, shoot a silent film called “The Light of Asia.” The film, shot entirely on location in India in 1925 with the help of three other German technicians, was released in 1926 to rave reviews throughout Europe due to its vivid visual authenticity. The first ever Indo-German Cinematic collaboration of this magnitude, it was also the most expensive movie ever shot at the time. The grandeur of the film lives on because it was the first...