First Indian film museum opens in home of Bollywood

Costing 1.4 billion rupees ($19.6 million), India's first national film museum is spread across a stylish 19th-century bungalow and a modern five-storey glass structure in south Mumbai.

Movie-mad India today produces around 1,500 films a year, dwarfing even Hollywood's output.

The government-funded National Museum of Indian Cinema (NMIC) boasts stacks of memorabilia, recordings and film-making tools as well as interactive touch screens where visitors can watch clips from memorable movies.

Movie buffs can learn about India's first full-length feature film, the 1913 Dadasaheb Phalke-directed "Raja Harishchandra", and listen to recordings of K. L. Saigal, considered the first superstar of Hindi-language cinema.

They are also able to view hand-painted movie posters, including for internationally acclaimed director Satyajit Ray's 1955 hit "Pather Panchali", and click selfies beside a statue of Bollywood icon Raj Kapoor.

(AFP)