The Surviving Witness

In one photograph, Watson’s Hotel stands proud over 19th-century Bombay. In the other, the same building, now Esplanade Mansion, survives in a markedly different state. Between the two images lie not just the story of a hotel, but an early chapter of Indian cinema.

Built for English hotelier, John Watson between 1867 and 1869, Watson’s became one of Bombay’s grand addresses. Travellers, merchants and prominent visitors passed through its doors; Mark Twain stayed here.

Then came July 7, 1896. Frenchman Marius Sestier arrived in Bombay carrying films made by Auguste and Louis Lumière, the French brothers whose Cinématographe helped pioneer projected cinema. Moving images were not entirely unknown in the city: Edison’s Kinetoscope had already been demonstrated. What happened at Watson’s was different.

“This was really the first time you had a large crowd watching a series of projected films together,” said filmmaker, archivist and Film Heritage Foundation founder-director Shivendra Singh Dungarpur.

The hotel itself mattered. “Watson’s was a historic place. Europeans knew the hotel, merchants came there, and it gave Sestier the kind of audience he could begin this journey with,” said Dungarpur.

Admission cost one rupee. Six short films were projected, including “Arrival of a Train” and “Leaving the Factory.” Sestier later moved his screenings to the Novelty Theatre. Its original building is gone. Watson’s remains, as a part of Mumbai’s UNESCO-listed Victorian Gothic and Art Deco Ensemble.