Bollywood Museum-Architectural Thesis

Bollywood Museum, Mumbai

The museum for Indian cinema referred to as Bollywood Museum, is an initiative by Ministry of film and broadcasting, Govt. of India to celebrate 100 years of Indian Cinema. The aim of project is to enlighten the people and future generations about the glory of our cinema industry and enlighten them about the people who made our country the largest cinema industry of world. As per the brief from the ministry, the major exhibits in the museum would be: Artefacts, equipments like Cameras, Editing, & Recording Machines, Projectors etc. Costumes, Photographs and other material are proposed to be kept in the Museum. The properties, dresses, sets, tapes, vintage equipment, posters, copies of important films, prints, promotional leaflets, developing equipment books, biographies, sound tracks, trailers, transparencies, Cinema magazines, statistics covering film distribution etc. to be displayed in a systematic arrangement depicting the history in a chronological manner, will be procured through donations and also by purchase.

Copies/Photographs etc. of the Vintage Items, Books and Booklets

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There will also be a Museum shop which will sell the copies/photographs etc. of the vintage items, books and booklets on the work of noted film makers and mementoes. The site chosen for the project is in the premises of the Film division office on Pedder road in south Mumbai. The site consists of existing office buildings, a library building in dilapidated condition which would be replaced by a new building in the design and a century old construction known as Gulshan Mahal. The rejuvenation of this building forms the major architectural concern for the project.

This building awarded with Urban Heritage award in 2001 was formly used as a shooting set and now would form the main component of the complex design. The building would be rejuvenated with an active plaza in front of it. The design of the museum was evolved from the basic unit of film industry… the reel. The form of the building was inspired from the spooling film over the reels. The circulation of the museum aims at giving the visitor a complete route of the Indian cinema industry from production to people, evolution to screening. The route of circulation defines the shape of building.

The dynamic form of the building makes it ‘filmy’. The design process started with identification of the programmes to be introduced in the building. The programme was divided into three major categories based on function named as museum, commercial and library. The museum building would house the administrative areas and the exhibits of the museum. The new library building is planned to replace the existing library building which was in dilapidated condition. The commercial area was planned to house a souvenier shop, cafeteria and a restaurant.

All the three areas were made approachable through the same plaza from the drop off point. The drop off point amidst the three building complexes was intended to give the visitor a feeling of apparently entering the building from the car. The design of the complex was made to frame the Gulshan Mahal in the new building, as viewed from the drop off point. The visitor is given a grand welcome in the museum building with a grand atrium with a skylight on top which introduces light inside and hence visually adds to the volume of the space. The museum galleries were designed as per the given requirement of the exhibit by the ministry.

The exhibits were divided as per their use in industry and its impact. Apart from the given requirements, some new galleries were introduced. The circulation of the building starts with the introduction gallery and with each changing exhibit area, the level rises upto 1m and hence viewing the different stages of production of a movie, the visitor reaches the higher level of building exhibiting the costumes and props used in the industry. from where it moves to the other part of the building through a connecting bridge exhibiting the life and works pf Dadasaheb Phulke known as the father of the Indian Cinema.

The similar concept of rising levels with the exhibits apply for the subsequent exhibition of the changing trends in the movies. Reaching the higher level, the visitor passes through the gallery exhibiting the life and works of film makers which connects the library building to the commercial building. Repeating the concept of rising levels, with music and dance galleries, the visitor reaches back to the museum complex through the gallery of life of actors/actresses. The highest level houses the screening area which intend to screen the rare and special movies or may be used while film festivals. he route of the museum acts like the film spooling over the three reels of musum, library and commercial building and thus defines the overall shape of the museum. The rising levels, connecting bridges give it its dynamic shape. The central plaza in front of the Gulshan Mahal is intended to add activity in the complex making it more lively and thus gives a welcoming approach to the Urban Heritage building which has lost its importance over time. This building shall be retained as a live shooting set which would act as a museum for the equipments used during shooting.

An informal seating space in the plaza is planned to address the groups educating them about the place and the industry. The concept behind the planning of Bollywood museum is to create a sculpture that relates to the industry it is exhibiting with interesting twists and turns which adhere to our masala Indian Movies.

Source:

1. NATIONAL MUSEUM OF INDIAN CINEMA Ministry of Information & Broadcasting Government of India Films Division Complex 24-Dr. G. Deshmukh Marg, Mumbai-400 026. Email : admin@filmsdivision. org / website : www. filmsdivision. org

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