While I have made it my personal mission to very patronisingly preach to the Brits that Indian cinema is more than just the Hindi-language industry Bollywood, I can’t deny the fact that I grew up on a healthy dose of Bollywood. And it’s perhaps the overly melodramatic, vibrantly flashy 2000s-era Bollywood movies that drew many Indian students like me to study in London in the first place.

So, when Shah Rukh Khan’s titular protagonist in the period romance Devdas returns to his homeland after an educational detour to London, he remarks “There’s something quite different about London. Big people. Big talks. Big roads. And the pigeons at Trafalgar Square.”

Khan maybe had a fetish for playing Indian students in London as his dove-eyed hero Rahul Raichand in the three-and-a-half-hour-long drama Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (yes, that duration quite normal for us and thankfully Indian cinemas have an interval unlike the ones in the UK) similarly studies abroad fixated with London.

These are just some of many examples of Bollywood movies featuring London as an aspirational motif or many a time, as a shooting location too. Now, I carry on Khan’s legacy as I pursue my Multimedia Journalism (Print & Online) MA at the University of Westminster. And while I didn’t enroll in Film, Television, and Moving Imag MA (which my uni also offers by the way), London has a lot to offer for the cinephile in me.

Huge variety of film festivals in London

I hadn’t even completed a month in London last October and I had already been enticed to attend the then-ongoing BFI London Film Festival. I had only heard about the British Film Institute via a few Sight & Sound magazines that I had skimmed through in a library once. As soon as the tickets went live, I tried my best to book myself a Killers of the Flower Moon premiere but it only took seconds for the screening to be sold out.

I, anyway, managed to secure myself a spot for a screening of the haunting and subversive Holocaust-era drama The Zone of Interest. To my surprise, the film’s now-Oscar-nominated director and writer Jonathan Glazer also appeared once the credits had rolled, marking my first celebrity appearance in the city.

The second film festival and celebrity that I was destined to attend next was ironically the London Indian Film Festival. Anurag Kashyap, one of the finest Indian directors, was attending a Q&A session and a screening of his stylish neo-noir Kennedy. While I could never have the privilege to meet Kashyap in my home country, it’s only poetic that I had a chance to talk and shake hands with the maestro overseas.

It’s worth noting that the annual London Indian Film Festival mostly unfolds at our very own Regent Street Cinema. I describe the cinema as “our very own” because it lies right next to the University of Westminster’s Regent Street Campus. Widely renowned as “the birthplace of British Cinema”, this historical establishment opened its doors in 1848 and screened the first-ever motion picture shown in the UK.

Another historic cinema to definitively visit is the Prince Charles Cinema, a Mecca for old-school cinema aficionados that sits in the vicinity of central London’s Chinatown.

Apart from selectively screening contemporary movies, you can catch numerous mainstream and arthouse classics here with some even being screened in 35mm and 70mm film. If you have the stamina for movie marathons, Prince Charles can again delight you with double features and events like a Lord of the Rings binge and a Wes Anderson movie all-nighter.

The Regent Street Cinema

All this history aside, let’s come back to Regent Street cinema. What does its proximity to the campus mean? Student discounts, of course! So, while an average adult and student ticket can amount to 17 and 15 pounds respectively, UoW staff and students get tickets worth 10 quid.

With its dome ceiling and Art Deco-influenced architecture taking you back to the 1920s and the 1930s, Regent Street Cinema is the place to be for a movie date or if you just desire a cinematic escape all alone. The many branches of Picturehouse Cinema similarly offer decent student discounts.

Watching movies on a budget

But if you’re in the mood for even cheaper tickets, then Barbican will be your friend. The three cinemas in the Barbican complex have a Young Barbican programme that one can avail of while booking tickets online. If you happen to be a student and are under 25, the Young Barbican scheme can help you avail tickets for most mainstream movies at merely 6 pounds.

If you’re really stingy and in the mood to try out your luck, then keep an eye out on the social media accounts of cinema chains like Picturehouse, Curzon, and Vue. As promotional tactics, these chains often conduct lucky draws for exclusive premieres you can attend for free if you’re lucky enough. While a mate of mine attended the Oscar-nominated American Fiction’s screening at a Curzon, I similarly watched a British indie drama named Sweet Sue after winning a Curzon lucky draw (I got two visually arresting posters too in the process).

Gala screenings, film premieres and more

But even if you don’t attend a premiere, you can just join the paparazzi and fans at BFI Southbank whenever a major British release gets its gala screening. From Timothee Chalamet’s Wonka to Napoleon to the new Bob Marley biopic, most of the cast and crew of the movie appear on the red carpet at the BFI cinema, a sight you can soothe your sore eyes too by simply standing behind the barricades.

If you happen to intern or seek work experience with a film publication, keep an eye out for your editor if you have any spare tickets. As London is the hub of British cinema, it’s not surprising for any decent entertainment journalist to get invites at many such fancy screenings.

For instance, my first day of work experience at the reputed film trade publication Screen International (aka Screen Daily) ended with a correspondent asking me if I wished to attend a screening of the new Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal movie (All of Us Strangers). She just happened to have a free ticket to the UK Gala Screening. Obviously, my answer was a resounding “yes”. (That’s another thing that I had a late evening class at Marylebone campus that I skipped.)

The screening at BFI’s Southbank screen was worth it as I saw Mescal, Scott, The Crown actress Claire Foy, and BAFTA-nominated director Andrew Haigh all on the same stage. They were at a considerable distance and I could capture them on my phone only as blurry dots. But hopefully, one day, I wish to be a part of the rich cinema culture of this city, more closely.

Till then, I will just do some reading at the BFI Library. Again not to sound like I’m marketing for the BFI but this library is free, open till 7 in the evening, and has detailed global cinema archives to ponder upon. As I read the brittle-paged screenplay of an obscure German film, I hope you too find your own cinematic getaways in London.

Thanks for reading,

Thapa

For more insights from international students studying at the University of Westminster and living in the heart of London, please visit International Student Blogs