Sukhpreet Kahlon

This Foundation Project implemented by IFA investigates the legacy and visual practices of Kamat Foto Flash, a pioneering photo studio that shaped the visual culture of Bombay cinema from the 1940s to the 2000s. By treating the studio’s vast archive of production stills as a vital site of cinematic memory, the study explores how the technology of photography influenced film publicity, star-making, and aesthetic trends across decades. Sukhpreet Kahlon is the Coordinator of this project.

Sukhpreet Kahlon is a film journalist, critic, and PhD candidate in Cinema Studies at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her research explores private film collectors, positioning their collecting practices within the broader frameworks of fandom and cinephilia. She has co-translated the book Sone Chandi ke Buth, a collection of writings on cinema by KA Abbas. Given her deep interest in cinema, knowledge of conservation practices, and experience of having engaged with several collections, she is best placed to be the Project Coordinator of this Foundation Project of IFA.

In the arena of film, long before the advent of trailers, it was the production stills that offered audiences a mediated entry point into the film. These stills were meticulously captured on set to document a film’s visual style, narrative composition, and character presentation, including costumes, makeup, and hairstyles. For over six decades, the name Kamat Foto Flash routinely appeared in film opening credits, reflecting its indispensable role in film production, marketing, and publicity. As the definitive professional photo studio, it figures as a central node in the visual culture of Bombay cinema with its scale, archival survival, and sustained engagement with major production houses.

In terms of location, Mumbai will be the primary site for the research, though field and archival work will also extend to Delhi, Pune, Bangalore, and Kolkata. The research process will foreground extensive interviews with key informants, including film producers, distributors, cinematographers, photographers, and studio heads, who will offer vantage points for an in-depth examination of the studio. Vidyadhar Kamat, the son of Damodar Kamat, the founder, is a pivotal figure whose memory, practice, and professional experience will be foundational in constructing and navigating this history. The Kamat family archive will also be made available for this research. These interviews aim to reconstruct the production history of the film publicity industry from the ground up while critically engaging with the influences on visual aesthetics, technological frameworks, and labour practices across the period. Apart from the Kamat Foto Flash Archive (Mumbai), the project coordinator will also access public archives and collections, in particular the National Film Archive of India (Pune) and the Museum of Art and Photography (Bengaluru). Archives of magazines and newspapers will also be referred to understand technological shifts in cameras, film stock, and reels, as well as the innovations introduced by various companies.

The outcome of this project will include recordings of key informant interviews and a curated exhibition of images from the Kamat archive, focusing on the study of film ephemera and photo stills. The Project Coordinator’s deliverables to IFA, along with the final reports, will be the audiovisual documentation of the interviews and the exhibition.

This project aligns with the framework of IFA’s Arts Research programme, as it challenges and enriches the official history of cinema by proposing a more nuanced approach to global film historiography. Additionally, given its emphasis on the production still and the photo studio as the sites of inquiry, it promises to engage new audiences with the country’s cinematic history while simultaneously developing a critical understanding of preservation practices and heritage studies.

IFA will ensure that the implementation of this project happens in a timely manner and funds expended are accounted for. IFA will also review the progress of the project at midterm and document it through an Implementation Memorandum. After the project is finished and all deliverables are submitted, IFA will put together a Final Evaluation to share with Trustees.

The Project is part-supported by BNP Paribas India.