Pint of View Lecture 4: Cinema Actually

Pint of View London presents

Cinema Actually

A history of cinema on the Indian subcontinent before and after freedom

On the Indian subcontinent, cinema has never stayed inside the theatre. It spills into songs people know by heart, stars who become almost mythic, political moods, wedding dances, and the way people imagine themselves.

But why and how did this happen? The answer lies in its history.

This lecture traces the history of this art form to its roots in classical and popular theatre and to the early 20th century, when Dadasaheb Phalke, widely regarded as the pioneer of Indian cinema, made Raja Harishchandra, South Asia’s first feature film. At a time when only around 6% of people on the subcontinent could read and write, cinema offered a different language.

The lecture delves into how this new art form shaped and was shaped by the politics of the time and changed the future forever. It also traces how cinema grew in the decades leading up to Independence, the changes after Partition, and how movies continue to reflect the politics of today.

This is for film lovers, artists, writers, and anyone curious about how an art form can shape a region and hold its politics. It is also an invitation to think about how we use art to change the world we live in.

Tickets include a free pint. Expect 45 minutes of lecture followed by a Q&A. Then we open it up for mixing, conversations, and meeting people who are just as curious as you.  For this one, expect less of a formal talk and more of a guided conversation, based on our speaker's preference and style.

About The Speaker

Dr Sunny Singh (she/her) is an anti-colonial writer, novelist, academic and public intellectual. She is Professor of Creative Writing and Inclusion in the Arts at London Metropolitan University, and her work sits across intersections of literature, cinema, race, gender and popular culture.

She is the author of several books, including the novels Nani’s Book of Suicides, With Krishna’s Eyes and Hotel Arcadia. Her non-fiction work includes Single in the City, Amitabh Bachchan for the BFI Film Stars series, and A Bollywood State of Mind, a personal, intellectual and emotional journey through cinema, modern Indian history and its global imagination. Her short story collection Refuge: Stories of War (and Love) was published in August 2025.

In 2016, Sunny launched the celebrated Jhalak Prize for literature by writers of colour. She is also the publisher of the bi-annual literary magazine Jhalak Review and founder and director of the Jhalak Foundation, which supports literary, artistic and literacy initiatives in the UK and beyond.

Information on us and tickets can be found on our main page here.