The avid watchers of India's old school travelling cinemas Published duration 27 September 2017

image copyright Amit Madheshiya

For seven decades now, travelling cinemas have been transporting the magic of movies to audiences across rural India.

Often travelling as a part of religious and entertainment fairs, they bring the big screen magic to millions.

Huge tents are hitched to the back of gigantic trucks and films are screened using hand-cranked projectors.

However with advancing technologies and widespread connectivity these touring cinemas have started losing audiences who prefer watching films on DVDs and mobile phones.

Award winning photographer Amit Madheshiya began chronicling India's famous travelling cinemas in 2008. Here's a selection of his pictures and an account of the project, in his words:

image copyright Amit Madheshiya

I began working on the travelling cinemas project in early 2008.

This was the time when many single screen theatres were shutting down, giving way to malls and multiplexes.

Watching these temples of cinema razed to the ground, my collaborator Shirley Abraham and I began to travel the length and breadth of the country.

image copyright Amit Madheshiya

We did not know what we were seeking.

But we found a taste of it as we sat bunched up with excited children under a neem tree, where an old man was showing scraps of film on a hand cranked projector.

Then, like a distant mirage, huge tents hitched to the back of gigantic trucks appeared. Age-old cinema projectors began whirring away.

image copyright Amit Madheshiya

Outside, thousands sat crouched by the beam of the projector, soaking in the magic of movies. It was like being transported back in time.

image copyright Amit Madheshiya

Travelling cinemas are believed to have become a part of the mythology of cinema.

It was a reminder that although the technologies with which audiences experience cinema may have changed, the wonder of movies remains unchanged.

image copyright Amit Madheshiya

We soon realised this was a largely untold story.

For about seven decades now, travelling cinemas have brought the magic of the movies to audiences living far from permanent theatres in rural areas of the western state of Maharashtra.

image copyright Amit Madheshiya

An enchanting world of fairgrounds, bulbous tents, stately projectors and film cans, these travelling cinemas are now trying hard to lure patrons who have moved to slicker and more individualised modes of watching movies like DVDs and mobile phones.

One of the last stops of travelling cinemas in the world, this ancient yet unique cinema culture faces being lost to history

image copyright Amit Madheshiya

This inspired me to make my film, The Cinema Travellers.

It premiered at Cannes Film Festival in 2016 to a standing ovation and won the Special Jury Prize for L'Oeil d'or: Le Prix du documentaire.

image copyright Amit Madheshiya

Through these years I learnt that cinema is the most profound form of human expression, and the immersion it commands unites us across language and borders.

I believe these portraits of audiences - immersed in their movies, will bind readers across the world in a magical experience that only cinema can create.

In collaboration with Galleryske, Delhi-based gallery PHOTOINK is holding a show Cinema Travellers, an exhibition of colour portraits by Amit Madheshiya.