The Fair City of Udaipur formed part of the ‘Secrets of India’ series, produced by the Gaumont-British Picture Corporation in 1934. These educational geography films were the by-product of the company’s involvement in a filmed flight over Mount Everest, footage of which appeared as Wings Over Everest (1934) (Low, 2005, 61). Among the crew were the cameraman S. R. Bonnett and director Geoffrey Barkas, who were also responsible for The Fair City of Udaipur.Several of the ‘Secrets of India’ series films were re-edited by Gaumont in 1937, when this documentary was re-issued as A Central Indian Town: Udaipur.
The city of Udaipur is in the state of Rajasthan in western India. It was founded by Maharana Udai Singh as the capital city of the Kingdom of Mewar following the fall of the former capital, Chittor, to Mughals in 1568. Udaipur is located in a mountainous region, which rendered the city safer from the attacks of mounted Mughal warriors. The kingdom nevertheless suffered continued attacks from its neighbours. During the early nineteenth century the Mewar rulers petitioned the British raj for protection. This was granted in 1818 when Udaipur was established as one of the Princely states of British India.
10 май 2015
