The association to a city through daily experiences is true for the inhabitants of the city as shown through various forms of media; cinema, books, television, newspapers, advertisements, billboards, etc, have the strongest impact on people’s mind.

1. Reading city through cinema
SK. INTEKHAB ALAM
M.ARCH[UR]

2. CITIES AND CINEMA

3. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
The association to a city through daily experiences is true for the inhabitants of the city as shown through various forms of
media; cinema, books, television, newspapers, advertisements, billboards, etc, have the strongest impact on people’s
mind.
Aim Understanding Cinema and the city and the relation between both.
Objective: To analyze and comprehend the image ability of a city through the lens of cinema.
Need
1.Visual communication has the strongest impact on the minds of people.
2.Access of wider cross section of people and the popularity of cinema in India.
3.Provides a mediating pedagogy between the reality of the metropolis and its imaginary place in mental life.
Primary Case Study: New Delhi
Secondary Case Study: Mumbai (Bombay)
Source :Cinema as a tool for structuring the city of Mumbai Divya Vishwanathan, Department of Urban Design, 2009, Thesis

4. PORTRAYAL OF THE CITY
IMAGIBLITY
URBAN ISSUES
TRANSFORMATION OF URBAN SPACES AND CINEMA OVER FOUR DECADE
The films selected were all produced between 1968 and 2014. They represent a variety of genres
(drama, thriller, romantic comedy, docudrama, etc.), but are consistently effective in their depiction of
cities and the manners in which people inhabit them. As are all the films shown in urban design studio,
they were selected for reasons: they were shot primarily, if not entirely on location they portray people
actively engaged in claiming and using urban space,

5. INTRODUCTION
An outsider to the city perceives a city through medium that represents them. Among all forms of media the idea of city
as represented through cinema especially popular cinema influences and shapes peoples imagination of a ‘city’.
most.
1.MAPPING
As a medium of representation it allows a person to move through the city where there is a limitation in other
medium.
a.Culture
b.Building
c.Cityscape
d.Transportation
e.Urban form
2.STUDY AND ANALYSIS OF ALL THE ASPECTS MAPPED
3.IMAGINATING CITYSCAPES AND ENVIRONMENT
The intersection of physical, social and mental space gives rise to the imagined city. Cinema has allowed one to
imagine cities.
Background into Foreground: Film as a Medium for Teaching Urban Design by Roy Strickland

6. PRIMARY CASE STUDY
DELHI
1970-1980 Maasoom
1980-1990 Chashme buddor ,Special 26
1990-2000 Dil se
2000-2010 Oye Lucky lucky oye, Rang de basanti
2010-2014 Vickhy donor, Rockstar, Delhi-Belly
Refugee colony
Youth centric
Green Capital
Monuments
Farm House
Patriotism
Media City
Democracy
Power
Secularism
Rebellious nature
Freedom of expression
Protest
Pedestrian Vs Vehicular
Unauthorized colonies
Gourmet
Flyovers
Metro
High Class society

7. Building up of a national capital
Era of Habib Rehman
And Raj Rewal
City designed for
Vehicles
Wider road
Monuments
Green Capital
1970-1980

8. Wider road
City for vehicles
Monuments
Old city
Youth centric
Green Capital
1980-1990

9. Migration
Politics
Power
Democracy
Green Capital
1990-2000

10. Refugee colony
Relation of metro rail
Flyover
BRT Corridor
Bengali Colony
Street side hawker
Gourmet
1984 riot
Secular spaces
Green Capital
1980-1990

11. Unauthorized colonies
Urban villages
Youth
Parking issues
Society
2000-2010

12. Youth
Power
Political city
Defense
Secular state
Democracy
Media city
Education city
Protest
Historic city
2000-2010

13. Youth
Media city
Education city
Protest
Historical city
Sufism
Unauthorized colony

14. 2000-2014
Youth culture
Flyover
Old city condition
Rental chaos
Traffic congestion
Old city vs new city

15. CASE STUDY
MUMBAI
The research aims to explore the landscape of Bombay through
cinema from the 1970s to the present and to identify elements
or themes that are employed by the cinema to paint an
(realistic or otherwise) image of the city. The selected movies
are the biggest hits or trend-setters of Hindi cinema that have
Bombay (Mumbai) as the backdrop for the narrative. The
chapter will help in recognizing the vocabulary of the
cinematic city of Bombay (Mumbai).
1970-1980 Anand,
1980-1990 Salim Langde pe mat ro,
1990-2000 Satya
2000-2010 Slumdog millionaire, Sathiya
2010-2014 Dhobi Ghat,
Industrial city
City of extremes
Survival
Urban migration
Underworld
Relation to the sea
Skyline
Financial Capital
Concept of Chawl
Dharavi (Slum)
City of dreams
Traficking
Riot
24 X 7 city
Global city
Impact of colonialism

16. 1970-1980
1970-1980
Old city condition
Impact of colonial
Past
Old Mumbai
First Urban City of
India
Economic Capital
City of dreams

17. The film is set in the period of the Hindutva mobilization of the 1980s,
the consequent explosive communal conflict, and its impact on the
lives of the young men of the minority Muslim community, represented
by a working class Muslim family in Mumbai. Salim Pasha (Langda or
Lame) is a small-time thief and goonda and lives with his parents and
sister in a shady neighborhood where crime and illegal activities are
accepted professions.
1980-1990
Effect of mills on the life of
people
Muslim spaces
Gentrification
Ghetto Population
Unemployment
Relation of industry and the
city
Riot

18. Satya 1998, The first film of the
Indian Gangster Trilogy, tells the
story of Satya, an immigrant
who comes to Mumbai seeking
his fortune but instead gets
sucked into the Mumbai
underworld.
1990-2000
Importance of Festivals
Chawls
Urbanscape
Relation to the sea
Underworld

19. 2000-2010
Dependency on local train
Relation of the city to the city
network
Importance of local train in the
city
Rental chaos
Youth

20. 2010-2014
Survival
Living condition (slum)
Trafficking
Real estate
Migration
Riot
City of extremes
City of dreams
Underworld

21. 2010-2014
Urban migration
Muslim spaces
City of dream
Influence of Bollywood
Importance of monsoon
City that never sleeps
Multiple job profile
Relation of city and sea
Survival

22. PEOPLE

24. CONCLUSION
1. Provide an international survey of cities that enables both comparison and contrast of urban form and social life.
2. They depict cities from the metropolitan to the building scales, clarifying the relationships among the constituent
parts of urbanism.
3. The image formed by cinema can be both hypothetical and real, so it is becoming important that utmost care should
be taken when portraying a city in time.
4. Give hints to the transformation happened over the year to better understand the urban morphology.
5. Provide a rich resource to a glimpse of the spatial, cultural, economical, social, political aspect of a city
6. Helps in formulating/change the collective image ability of a city.
7. Highlights urban issues in a more entertaining way as compared to other mediums
8. Create a sense of belongingness to the city
9. Help archive a city.
10. An alternative virtual image of both the cities have been formed through these movies.