This film is part of Free
Indian Scenes
A happy New Year from 'India'
Overview
An Indian temple girl and handmaidens perform rituals outside a simple set of an Indian temple and display a banner reading ‘Happy New Year’. This unusual 17.5mm format film is wider than the usual silent film frame but with half the picture area of 35mm quality suffers. This was most likely one of the films provided with the Biokam, an early home-movie camera of 1899. Most of the films supplied with the camera were reductions made of Warwick Trading Company films, so it's possible this is a film they took at an event like the Greater Britain Exhibition in 1899.
Related
Unidentified Chinese Men (c.1900) Unidentified Chinese Men (c.1900)
Non-Fiction 1900 2 mins Silent
How did these Chinese gentlemen end up in a Blackburn basement?
Breakers Breakers
Non-Fiction 1896 0 mins Silent
A handful of passers-by watch waves breaking gently onto a shore
Panorama of the Ophir Before Leaving Sydney Harbour Panorama of the Ophir Before Leaving Sydney Harbour
Non-Fiction 1900 1 mins
See the royal yacht Ophir at anchor in Sydney Harbour on its tour of the Empire
Wedding Ceremony in a Church Wedding Ceremony in a Church
1900 2 mins Silent
Who doesn't love a wedding? This breezy film squeezes the whole service into two minutes flat
Crude Set Drama Crude Set Drama
Comedy 1896 1 mins Silent
A basic bit of early comic storytelling on film
Laura Mulvey in Conversation Laura Mulvey in Conversation
Inside Film 2025 76 mins
Laura Mulvey in conversation, following her BFI Fellowship Award.
George Clooney in Conversation George Clooney in Conversation
Inside Film 2025 74 mins
George Clooney visited BFI Southbank to look back on his life and career.
Chloé Zhao Screen Talk | BFI London Film Festival 2025 Chloé Zhao Screen Talk | BFI London Film Festival 2025
Inside Film 2025 65 mins
The Oscar®- winning director of Nomadland discusses her unique approach to filmmaking and the inspiration behind the adaptation of Hamnet.
Edgar Wright on The Running Man Edgar Wright on The Running Man
Inside Film 2025 28 mins
The director talks to Mark Kermode about putting Stephen King's dystopian life-or-death gameshow thriller through its paces.
Richard Linklater Screen Talk | BFI London Film Festival 2025 Richard Linklater Screen Talk | BFI London Film Festival 2025
Inside Film 2025 69 mins
Richard Linklater discusses his remarkable and wide-ranging body of work, including Blue Moon and Nouvelle Vague.
Daniel Day-Lewis Screen Talk | BFI London Film Festival 2025 Daniel Day-Lewis Screen Talk | BFI London Film Festival 2025
Inside Film 2025 73 mins
Daniel Day-Lewis, the ultimate actor’s actor discusses his career in conversation with Mark Kermode.