Podcast Summary: New Books Network —

C. Yamini Krishna, "Film City Urbanism in India: Hyderabad, from Princely City to Global City, 1890-2000" (Cambridge UP, 2025)

Date: November 1, 2025
Host(s): Sneha Anavarapu & Khadija
Guest: Dr. Yamini Krishna

Overview

This episode features Dr. Yamini Krishna discussing her new book, Film City Urbanism in India: Hyderabad, from Princely City to Global City, 1890-2000. The hosts, both deeply invested in Hyderabad, explore Krishna's detailed historical and socio-political study of the evolving relationship between cinema and urban space, particularly focusing on Hyderabad’s transformation over more than a century. The conversation delves into urban studies, language politics, migration, infrastructure, and the intersections of film and city-making.

Episode Breakdown

1. Author’s Journey and Motivation

[03:19 – 08:04]

• Dr. Krishna describes her unconventional entry into academia, coming not from a planned path but as a response to disillusionment with corporate life and encouragement from mentors.
• Her long-standing connection to Hyderabad and media studies shaped her research focus.
• Quote:
  “Unless I finish this [writing about Hyderabad], other things won’t happen... because even when I was in my undergrad I had made a film on Hyderabad... the city was very fascinating for me always.” – Dr. Yamini Krishna [06:18]

2. Research Approach and Methods

[08:20 – 14:32]

• The book emerged from chance discoveries in the archives. Dr. Krishna began with curiosity about pre-Telugu cinema in Hyderabad.
• The project’s long timespan (1890–2000) required mixed methods: archival research for pre-1948, oral histories and labor union interviews for post-1948, and continual attention to language and researcher positionality.
• Krishna’s ability to speak Hyderabadi Urdu and Telugu provided unique access.
• Quote:
  “It was interestingly very... instrumental in getting out these narratives simply because, like I am, I've lived all my life in Hyderabad. So I speak what they call Hyderabadi Urdu quite well, and I speak Telugu also.” – Dr. Yamini Krishna [13:06]

3. Cinema and Urban Theory

[14:32 – 18:50]

• Examining cinema and city together disrupts the mainstream focus on colonial cities (Bombay, Madras, Calcutta) in film studies.
• Hyderabad expands the framework, offering insights on princely state dynamics, patronage, and competing modernities.
• Cinema is conceptualized not only as onscreen content but as an institution shaping and being shaped by urban processes.
• Quote:
  “Hyderabad in that sense challenges this whole framework... it helps you expand this understanding of city cinema and also challenge the existing frameworks which are so predominant... It is a new geography which nobody has really worked on.” – Dr. Yamini Krishna [16:42]

4. The Princely City: Cinema and Civic Space

[19:16 – 25:44]

• Focus on how cinema became part of Hyderabad’s modernization during princely rule.
• The Osmania Civic Palace illustrates cinema’s civic centrality—a shift toward public, paying audiences and the creation of modern citizens.
• Contrasts are drawn between princely city etiquette (inclusive, performative) and British cantonment etiquette (hierarchical, racially inflected).
• Quote:
  “That the state is imagining a theater is also a very significant thing because it's talking about a civic palace as instead of a palace for the kings, a palace for the people as such.” – Dr. Yamini Krishna [21:07]
• Memorable Anecdote: Nizam’s breach of "British etiquette" at a British-run cinema sparked diplomatic tension, exposing the limits of colonial control and competing ideas of civic behavior.

5. Language Politics and Shifting Identities

[25:44 – 36:17]

• The transition from a multilingual, Urdu-centered Hyderabad to a Telugu-dominant city is outlined, with deep ties to post-independence politics.

• Urdu’s marginalization is linked to national dynamics, Hyderabad’s disconnection from North India-centric narratives, and contemporary exoticization of Urdu.

• Quote:
  “Urdu is more common. Everybody knows Urdu, people can understand that sort of a common register of Urdu... is now becoming the exotic other.” – Dr. Yamini Krishna [30:38]

• Post-linguistic state, Hyderabad was viewed as linguistically "inferior" to Andhra (Madras) Telugu—this shaped the migration of Telugu film industry workers and infrastructural developments, recasting Hyderabad’s identity as more capitalist and "productive."

• Quote:
  “So Telugu for me is not just about just the language. It’s also about orientation towards a particular kind of caste capital. And that’s the transformation which happens via the film industry.” – Dr. Yamini Krishna [35:31]

6. Urban Expansion, Cinema Infrastructure, and Real Estate

[36:17 – 39:29]

• The Outer Ring Road (ORR) and multiplex boom illustrate new urban landscapes: film, real estate, and IT developments are intertwined, driven by caste capital and the availability of post-princely-state land.
• Hyderabad’s “model” is now emulated across India, though not always successfully.
• Quote:
  “There is a convergence between media, real estate and even information technology. All of them based on caste capital, the Kamma caste capital. And this was possible because of the fusing of the state power and the caste capital to the figures like NTR [N.T. Rama Rao]...” – Dr. Yamini Krishna [37:28]

7. Nostalgia, Fandom, and Shifting Cinematic Spaces

[39:29 – 41:01]

• Hosts reflect on the disappearance of iconic single-screen cinemas, the transformation of public rituals around cinema (fan clubs, suburban multiplexes), and the transplantation of local cinema culture abroad.
• Memorable Moment: Discussion of Pawan Kalyan fans in the U.S., recreating Hyderabad’s RTC Crossroads-style celebrations [39:29–40:40].

8. Post-Telangana Statehood: Representation and Industry Structures

[41:01 – 45:06]

• Since Telangana’s emergence as a new state (2014), a fresh wave of cultural representation in cinema has appeared—use of local settings, dialects, and festivals.
• However, industry structures (labor and capital) remain resistant to change; caste capital and established unions still dominate.
• Quote:
  “So the other way, I mean if you foreground political economy... there is this new kind of representation which is emerging without changing anything structurally. So there is no structural changes, but a new representation emerges.” – Dr. Yamini Krishna [44:34]

9. Future Work

[45:27 – 46:31]

• Dr. Krishna’s next project is an intellectual history of the Deccan, focusing on Syed Mohiuddin Khadri Zor, exploring Hyderabad’s Urdu world and its global interconnections beyond cinema.

Notable Quotes & Timestamps

• On personal trajectory:
  “Academia was never on the cards, but I had a professor who always used to say that you should be doing PhD. And when I was... done paying my loan, then I was like, okay, I'm free to do whatever.” – Dr. Yamini Krishna [05:18]
• On researching Hyderabad’s cinemas:
  “The archive does not have a category called as film or anything about film. And I found lots of material which is... maybe different kinds of records where film was present. And that's how the... book took shape.” – Dr. Yamini Krishna [09:17]
• On language as method:
  “Within this field work also I could see how the linguistic cultures of the city have changed because the sources and their prominent languages or their cultural languages are also changing as I'm speaking to them.” – Dr. Yamini Krishna [13:56]
• On cinema and city:
  “Film becomes so central to understanding the city... Film is re-educating the city to become more Telugu in that sense.” – Dr. Yamini Krishna [35:22]
• On post-Telangana representation:
  “Once the state has been formed... there's been a lot of films which have been attempting to represent the Telangana culture by setting narratives in... towns or places which are non-Hyderabad but Telangana, that sort of a thing through language, through incorporation of... state promoted festivals...” – Dr. Yamini Krishna [42:23]

Memorable Moments

• Nizam’s affront to British theater etiquette: His outspokenness led to high-level diplomatic discussion (and amusement at the limits of colonial power). [23:50–25:44]
• Personal nostalgia for classic cinemas like RTC Crossroads and the migration of fandom rituals to the diaspora. [39:29–40:40]

Conclusion

Through anecdotes, archival insights, and a close look at linguistic and industrial change, this episode both reveals the intricate and unique relationship between Hyderabad and its cinema, and explores the broader questions of language, caste, capital, and urban change in India. Dr. Krishna’s perspective offers not only a new history of the city but also a critical lens for examining contemporary debates around representation, industry, and urbanity.

Highly recommended for listeners interested in urban studies, South Asian cinema, language politics, and the lived realities behind the making of a “Global City.”