: How Satyajit Ray achieved historical accuracy in his first Hindi film ‘Shatranj ke Khilari’ #IndiaNEWS In 1976, celebrated Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray visited the India Office Library (now part

How Satyajit Ray achieved historical accuracy in his first Hindi film ‘Shatranj ke Khilari’ #IndiaNEWS
In 1976, celebrated Indian filmmaker Satyajit Ray visited the India Office Library (now part of the British Library) to consult original 19th century Murshidabad and Lucknow paintings that would influence the set and costume design of his first Hindi language film Shatranj ke Khilari (The Chess Players), which was released the following year. Ray adapted his film from a short story by the noted Hindi writer Munshi Premchand (1880-1936). The story focused on two Awadhi noblemen addicted to the game of chess while totally oblivious to the political situation taking place that year (1856) when the East India Company took over the administration of the province of Awadh by deposing the provincial King of Awadh, Nawab Wajid Ali Shah (1822-1887). The novel though just had one line that gave a sense of the historical background of the period while the two men continued their game. In the script, Ray added a parallel narrative which looked at the transfer of power to the Company from the perspective of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah and Sir James Outram (1803-1863), the then English resident at Lucknow. The film, thus, demanded painstaking research not just to be truthful to historical facts, but also to authentically recreate the period on screen. Ray, who was always...Read more

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