30 September,2013 08:55 AM IST | | Shakti Shetty
117 years ago, two travellers from France Louis and Ausguste Lumiere visited Bombay, on their way to Australia. They decided to film the city and ended up with 45 minutes of rolls. They showcased these films at Watson Hotel.
Max Lefrancq Lumiere, grandson of the Lumiere brothers. Pic/Satyajit Desai
Unfortunately, the duo behind these films could not attend their show. But they turned out to be the first filmmakers to ever shoot in India. And on Saturday night, their work was screened to an audience constituting mainly of those from the industry and media.
Audience during a special screening. Pic/Pradeep Dhivar
Also present in the audience was Max Lefrancq Lumière, grandson of the Lumière brothers. After the screening, Max Lefrancq countered some curious questions. One of them was why his family stayed away from filmmaking despite being the pioneer in the field. "I don't know but it never occurred to us. We are no way connected to cinema today but my grandfathers were," said the 83-year-old gentleman.
On being asked why he thinks the films haven't been screened across the world as often as it should, Max had an amusing word to quip: "Politics, maybe." Film personalities like Irrfan Khan, Subhash Kapoor, Dilip Tahil, Anant Mahadevan and the likes enjoyed the show.u00a0
