The Delhi Durbar
Charles Urban's greatest achievement was the Kinemacolor record of the 1911 Delhi Durbar. This spectacular ceremony was held in Delhi, India, to recognise the newly-crowned King George V as Emperor of India. Several companies filmed the ceremonies in black-and-white. Urban took four or five cameramen with him to film the entire royal visit to India in the Kinemacolor process. The resultant film show was first exhibited at the Scala Theatre in London on 2 February 1912, under the title With Our King and Queen through India. The show lasted some two-and-a-half hours. The Scala stage was turned into a mock-up of the Taj Mahal. Music was specially composed and scored for forty-eight pieces, a chorus of twenty-four, a twenty-piece fife and drum corps, and three bagpipes. The show was a sensational success, drawing many to come to see motion pictures for the first time, and it was exhibited in various forms and at various lengths across the world, winning plaudits for its colour, fidelity to nature and its patriotic spectacle.The text presented here, in six sections (see left-hand menu), is the description of the entire set of Durbar films from the 1912 Kinemacolor catalogue, plus a selection of contemporary press notices taken from the same catalogue. The description gives both a good indication of the contents of the films, as well as the unabashed imperial tone with which they were presented to an audience. The films were divided up into sections in the catalogue, each with a code number and code name, for exhibitors to cite when booking the films. Illustrations from the catalogue are given on the right-hand side. Today, only a reel from the Royal Review section (which took place after the main Durbar ceremonies) survives today. The remainder is believed lost.