For more photos check out my wife's Instagram highlights story reel whatever thing on Hyderabad.
I have numerous posts on Hyderabad, based on my trip from December 2023. Most of the posts were written during and shortly after the trip. Other than this main post, they include:
Check those out. Also, since those post in very long, here's a table of contents:
Introduction
Stuff to Do
Weekend Getaways
Films Set in Hyderabad
Movie Theaters
Introduction
“The city of Hyderabad seems to have been dropped to the earth from an Oriental dream. It is the most Eastern city in this most Eastern land, and you are filled with a sense that it is not at all real, but especially staged and set for your amusement, and when you leave, it will all disappear… [it is] all a part of the pantomime, or a mirage caused by the brilliant sunshine of this Southland.” - Elizabeth Cooper
Fact check: Mostly true.
I spent five weeks in Hyderabad in December 2023-January 2024 and loved it. It was different from my expectations, in some ways underwhelming but in other ways pleasantly surprising. I felt very at home here, would have gladly stayed longer, and hope to return. I cried when I left.
Should you go? I wouldn’t rank it among the top places in India to visit as a tourist who only has a few days, but it’s certainly solidly mid-tier. It has more to explore than any of the other big South Indian cities, and it is great for longer stays for people who like to delve into places. There’s of course a rich history, but as far as modern India goes it is pretty nice, and there’s surprisingly a lot of natural beauty. There are several sides to the city and it thus has a lot to offer, given its Nizam and Qutb Shahi era histories as well as its status as the Telugu capital and as a modern cosmopolitan tech city. It is also the home of Rajamouli, which makes it something of a pilgrimage spot for cinephiles, myself included. My favorite places to live are ones that have rich heritage alongside the pleasures, comforts, and amenities of modernity, and Hyderabad has one of the better combinations of that in India.
I’ll start with some of what underwhelmed me. When it comes to its heritage, Hyderabad is very much a “you’ll get out of it what you put into it” city. If you just go and see the iconic sites, you will have a good time but probably won’t be blown away, though I loved a number of sites. I’d say there are a lot of very good sites that benefit from engaging with the history, which makes it good for a longer trip, but it doesn’t have any of India’s top things to see, nor would I say the city itself is a great attraction the way Mumbai or Kolkata are. The city of the Nizams may have been the richest and grandest of all of the princely states (said to be wealthier than all of the others put together), but I wouldn’t have guessed that from visiting, and it didn’t impress me as much as I expected. Compared to Rajasthan, it lacks the same calibre of big ticket attractions as well as the low key charms, being too big, chaotic, and modern to be transporting. I came here shortly after my stay in Ahmedabad and was actually surprised at how many categories where I’d rank Ahmedabad higher, including in its Islamic architecture.
Compared to other historical cities known for their heritage, the charms of Hyderabad are further beneath the surface. Faded grandeur describes many of India’s cities, but in Hyderabad the opulence and splendor feel even more long lost, with a large portion of it already bulldozed away. This includes the sorts of minor, quirky sites that add a lot of charm to cities. The rock house of Banjara Hills, I believe the first house in the neighborhood, is gone forever. MF Husain’s Cinema Ghar is gone. Most of the old palaces are gone. Chowmahalla Palace, which is the main palace of the Nizams that tourists visit, was once 45 acres but is now only 12 acres. Osmania hospital, one of the city’s top five buildings, is on the chopping block [edit: since I wrote this it’s apparently been saved…for now]. Beyond any specific site, it just seems that the old city area is more poorly preserved than the historic areas of other major cities.
It’s hard not to lament the poor state of much of the city’s heritage, but I admit my expectations were too high. I was expecting something akin to a Muslim Jaipur, or an Indian Istanbul. I think, given the city’s historical status, those expectations were reasonable, but they were very wrong. While Royal Rajasthan remains a tourist attraction, Royal Hyderabad is relegated to the history books.
Things might be different if the Nizam agreed to join independent India and the Indian army didn’t have to take it by force, and if more of Hyderabad’s elites stayed in the city rather than going to Pakistan and elsewhere. Things surely would have been different if the last Nizam stuck around, like other Maharajas, to keep the legacy alive, rather than going abroad and leaving the city’s heritage without a caretaker figurehead.
As for what survived today, the taste of the Nizams is kind of boring, in my opinion. A lot of the architecture is European inspired and is more blandly regal than awe-inspiring. That may have been enchanting at one point, like a weird royal mirage in the middle of this rocky desert landscape, but as the mostly ugly modern city builds up around it, it doesn’t have the zany style that many other princely states have to make it stand out.
Nonetheless, there are several great places to visit and the continuity with the past lives on, if you look for it. More than the Charminar, more than the museums in the old palaces you can visit, the old world of Hyderabad came alive while visiting to the 100+ year old Zinda Tilismath unani medicine factory (I went on a heritage walk with Deccan Archives, probably not open to the public), going to the 170+ year old Munshi Naan stall, dining at the home of the excellent homechef Dilnaz Baig who preserves the unique Hyderabadi cuisine that’s a world away from what the restaurants serve, listening to the Thursday night Qawwali at Dargah Yousufain, etc (and reading a lot of books). There is still a lot of great architecture, but for me the city stands out in experiences like these that give it its character. The whole is more than the sum of its parts.
Some of my favorite experiences in the city came when I was searching for some historical sites that nobody really visits. The old, long-gone Hyderabad was full of mansions, and they have mostly been destroyed, or they sit eroding away while the modern city develops around them. I went hunting some of them down (Errum Manzil, semi-visible from the metro station, and the Hill Fort Palace), walking down random alleyways to try to get some decent photos. I enjoyed the search, despite limited success at getting a good view of them.
When I went trying to get some shots of the King Kothi palace, where the last Nizam resided, one of the Nizam’s descendents saw us and was excited that we took an interest in it. He gave us a tour of part of the property that wasn’t locked up, telling us stories from the Nizam’s time, pointing out the windows of rooms where important family members lived. He showed us old photos of what the building used to look like, including a photo of Nehru standing in the same spot as us. He asked us if we’d been to Falaknuma Palace, which is the best restored Nizam era palace (run by the Taj, and very expensive to stay at or even visit for a meal), and when we said we hadn’t he told us he would get us a free stay there for a few nights. We were leaving two days later, but he told us to call him the next time we come to town. Could he really hook us up at the most expensive hotel in the city? I have no idea, but that he offered seems like a charmingly Hyderabad thing to happen.
A similar experience happened when I went to check out what I believe is the city’s oldest cinema still standing, the Yakut Mahal Deluxe Theatre, where the Nizam would see movies, and where there used to be a separate section for men and women. I was just going to take photos and buy a ticket to take a look inside, but the owner enthusiastically gave us a tour, showed us the projection booth and the 100 year old film projector that was imported from Chicago (and which he said was still in use until 2022!), offered us chai and snacks, and wouldn’t let me pay for anything. (More on this in the movie theater section later on.)
I read in some old articles and essays that Hyderabad has a more laid back and hospitable culture than other big cities in India, and when I read it I didn’t believe it was true any more, and that it’s probably just like any other megacity now. Maybe that’s mostly the case, but those experiences (both in my final days in the city) and a few others made me feel that yes, there really is something special about Hyderabad’s hospitality. I’m not saying anyone should walk in my footsteps and do what I did to find it, I’m just saying if you hang around long enough, go exploring, and show curiosity and enthusiasm, you too will be able to experience it! (I suppose that is the overarching theme of this entire blog, and my broad view of life in general.)
As a place to live, Hyderabad is in the upper tier in India. It’s not as happening as Mumbai, Delhi, or Bangalore (for me “happening” basically refers to the food scene, not sure what it means to other people), but it’s more liveable than the first two and with more character than the latter. More happening than Chennai or Ahmedabad, maybe tied with Kolkata. If you stay in the right areas it can be pretty nice. I liked Jubilee Hills a lot, it is among the nicer fancy neighborhoods in India.
I had a ton of fun in modern Hyderabad. I saw nine movies while I was there, six of them at Prasads, perhaps my favorite movie theater in India (do not underestimate how much this raises my opinion of the city). I had a lot of good food. I had fresh, raw camel milk at a Somali restaurant. My wife and I often go to work from cafes, and surprisingly Hyderabad is better for that than anywhere else in India, with many good quality, spacious cafes in nice environments. There’s even an excellent bean to bar chocolate factory/cafe, Manam, which I went to I believe four times. There is, for whatever reason, a commitment to lavish and often gaudy aesthetics in houses, cafes, restaurants, and high end stores, moreso than anywhere else in India. There’s even a fish shaped building, as well as what is apparently the world’s largest stainless steel structure, like that weird mirrored bean thing in Chicago but five times the size.
The winter weather was great. The pollution, though certainly bad, wasn’t as bad as most cities. The traffic was terrible but not unusually so. The metro was good but I only used it a handful of times, from where I was staying it didn’t make much sense to use it most of the time, unfortunately. Compared to other big Indian cities, two negatives are that I found it less walkable and harder to get Ubers.
What really surprised me is how beautiful the landscape is. Nobody told me how awesome the rocks are. You totally forget about this in much of the city, but when you go in and around Golconda you feel the grandeur of the Deccan, and you also get that feeling driving on the highways in various parts, especially around Jubilee Hills. Development in recent decades has encroached greatly on the rocky terrain, to the point where you don’t notice it amidst the modern city built on top of it. But then the rocks jump out at you and leave you in awe. Before coming to Hyderabad, the obvious symbol of the city in my head was the Charminar, but now it is the rocks that loom largest. The comparison people like to make is that the rocks are older than the Himalayas, and they are apparently billions of years old. They may not last another billion years, but I hope for as long as they are around, they can bring people joy as they did for me. I would actually say Hyderabad has the most natural beauty of any major Indian city today, which I don’t think I’ve heard anyone ever suggest (I previously thought it was Bangalore, the greenest of India’s cities, but I find the rocks more alluring than the greenery!). I didn’t get a chance to do one, but the “Society to Save Rocks” has monthly rock walks around the city, usually on the outskirts of it.
Hyderabad is, of course, the Telugu capital. Wikipedia tells me Telugu is the 14th most spoken language in the world with 96 million speakers (the most spoken Dravidian language, which surprised me), it was the fastest growing language in the U.S. for much of the 2010s, and “56% of all Indian student visas issued by the US in 2023 are from Andhra Pradesh and Telangana,” and it’s reasonable to expect the vast majority of those students are Telugu speakers. So, being the Telugu capital seems significant.
That’s not to say it’s a Telugu city. I can’t find what percentage of the city speaks Telugu, but Hyderabad is definitely diverse and cosmopolitan, and the history and sightseeing are geared around the Nizams and Qutb Shahis, so its Telugu-ness isn’t necessarily what stands out. I don’t feel I got any immersion into Telugu culture after spending over a month here. Still, the Andhra restaurants, the squiggly Telugu script on all the buildings, the Telugu names, the distinctive facial characteristics of some people (I only noticed it in bearded men), and the strong presence of the Telugu film industry let me know I’m somewhere distinctive. I also wonder if the over-the-top aesthetics present throughout the city is very Telugu, or if it's inherited from the Nizams, or is some fusion of the two. I like to think Hyderabad holds some fusion of the Telugu and Dakhni cultures, rather than just having them exist in parallel, but I’m not sure if it actually does.
I spent a lot of time reading and learning about the history of Hyderabad, which gave me a stronger connection to the city. It’s not necessary to do so to have a good time there, but it would add to your experience. Of course this is true everywhere, but I found this truer of Hyderabad than most places, which is full of wonderful and bizarre stories that bring the city to life. To help people connect with the city, I thought I’d write up some of the interesting historical tidbits I came across that go beyond the basic history but are hopefully accessible even to those who don’t know much of the history. I originally placed this here, but it is so long I decided to give it its own post. Check it out, if you’re interested.
Stuff To Do
Hyderabad has a lot to do and see. Much of it is spread out, a lot of it is great, and my favorite places usually aren’t high on people’s lists. I’ll list them in order of the impression they left on me.
First off, Hyderabad has one of the best heritage walk scenes in India. There are regular group walks on weekends at very low prices (around 300 per person), with the locations changing week to week. See Deccan Archives and Yunus Lasania (I believe tour information is posted in his Instagram stories, unfortunately for those of us not on Instagram we can’t see the stories or message him, thankfully my wife is on Instagram), I liked them both and did multiple tours with each. Some of the tours cover fairly typical places, some of them take you to neighborhoods few tourists would go, and some of them places that you wouldn’t be able to go to otherwise. The latter were my favorite, the Zinda Tilismath factory tour and the walk along the outskirts of the Golconda fort were two of my favorite things I did in Hyderabad. I enjoyed all of the tours, but some of the locations are really for nerds (like me) who want to delve deeper but may not necessarily be worth your time if you are there only briefly. Use your judgment. For the tours that take you to more typical places, their value depends partly on how much you plan to research on your own. In some cases I already knew a lot of the information, but they were still valuable in helping me piece it all together, and my wife got more out of it than I did. In any case, there are several tour options each weekend (or you can pay more for them on weekdays), and if I lived in Hyderabad I would continue to be a regular.
Before I get into my favorite places in Hyderabad, I should point out that I didn’t go to the one place where the heyday of the Nizams is preserved: Falaknuma Palace, now a hotel run by the Taj. It is my great regret that I did not go there, and if you can afford it you should probably go and arrange your trip around it, as I will do next time. I was planning to save it for the end of the trip but I got a cold and didn’t want to go there and spend a bomb while I was coughing and blowing my nose nonstop. I believe there are four ways to visit: stay at the hotel (like 50K a night), go for dinner (7.5k per person), go for high tea (5.5k per person), or go on a government run tour (2.5k per person, includes AC bus transportation and Chowmahalla, but my experience with government run tours in India is usually… not so good). I often hear people say to go for high tea, but I think I’d rather pay extra and get a proper meal out of it. Unless that’s pocket change to you, it probably isn’t worth the spend since there are so many far cheaper things to do in Hyderabad, but in the long run it seems like a must do to fully experience the city.
A lot of my favorite things in Hyderabad were in Golconda. This wasn’t really on my radar before visiting. I knew about the fort, but in the past I’ve often not loved the old forts with nothing in them which are, despite being spectacular sights, not that fun to walk through in the blazing sun. I also didn’t know who/what the Qutb Shahis were, or how striking the landscape was, or how in a 20 minute drive I could go from a busy, modern city to a completely different world.
Even more than the fort, which is pretty awesome and absolutely worth walking up (at least in winter), my favorite parts were the Qutb Shahi tombs and the heritage walk outside the fort walls. I did the outer wall walk with the aforementioned Deccan Archives. Can you do this yourself? I suppose it’s possible but I’m not sure how desirable or safe it is. The landmark is Golconda Watch Tower. The tombs, however, are a lovely park that I would go to repeatedly if I lived nearby. Walking around the tombs and watching the parrots fly around while the sun sets is as good as it gets. Don’t miss the pineapples, the hamam, the animal motifs, or the bits where you can see the tile work which used to cover all of the tombs. I did a tour of the tombs, but I think it’s perfectly satisfying to go on your own, though the narration of the history does make it more meaningful.
Keep an eye out for the old fort gates while driving through Golconda, which have interesting carvings. Some of my favorite things in Golconda are all of the animal carvings, which give it a lot of character and make the ruins come alive for me.
All of this would likely require more than one trip to Golconda. I did an early morning visit to the fort and then a late afternoon/sunset fort walls heritage walk, and then another day I did a late afternoon/sunset visit to the tombs. All of this is highly recommended. There’s a large green space in Golconda that I had planned on going for a late afternoon walk at, search for the Naya Qila, Hatiyan Jhad baobab tree, and Fateh Rahbar gun, but I ran out of time. More info on that here. For some quick recommended reading on the Qutb Shahis, here is a good short piece by Manu Pillai.
Probably for most people, the Golconda sites are the only Deccan sultanate ruins that they will ever visit, and I believe it is considered to be the second best collection of Deccan sultanate architecture after Bijapur (the only other former Deccan sultanate city I have visited, I loved it), though they are very different. Golconda’s sites are ultimately more evocative though as they are better integrated into the landscapes. It’s an interesting and little discussed period of India’s relatively recent history (they were contemporaries of the Mughals, and to illustrate how little anyone seems to care about the Deccan sultanates, the many lists of crimes of Aurangzeb never seem to include the siege of Golconda), and visiting Golconda is a good chance to get acquainted with it, at least in a putting faces to names kind of way. Note that some architectural elements are inspired by South Indian temple architecture. People like to point out the syncretism of Hindu and Muslim culture and the religious tolerance that developed under the better parts of Mughal rule, and from what I’ve read that seems to have been as much the case under the better parts of Qutb Shahi rule as well. One ruler in particular was a major patron of Telugu literature.
If you are doing a full day in Golconda, Film Nagar is a good nearby neighborhood to retreat to while the sun is beating down. I recommend Vibrant Living for lunch and/or snacks, pies, beverages and hanging out (vegan but don’t hold it against them, the pies are awesome, the food is light and healthy, it’s a mix of cuisines but the homestyle thali is very good, skip the sandwiches though), and Wool Cup or Aaromale for beverages and hanging out (Wool Cup has superior coffee and likely everything else but Aaromale is in a really cool old house, though apparently it’s not actually that old). Probably a bunch of nice new places have opened since I’ve been there.
Another favorite place is the Paigah Tombs, which are around 20 minutes away from Charminar and unfortunately not really close to anything else. They could potentially be clubbed with Falaknuma Palace, also around 20 minutes away, which is appropriate since one of the Paigahs built the palace which was a Paigah mansion before the Nizam took it over. Or it can be visited when going to or from the airport. Either way, it’s definitely worth the detour. The architecture here is interesting and unique, with varying designs from tomb to tomb and many intricate and occasionally strange patterns. Also, lots of pineapples. Compared to most great tombs in India, this is less about grandeur and more about the small details. The setting is very nice, and it was pretty quiet when I went in the morning. I did a tour here, but I didn’t feel it was necessary to appreciate it.
I didn’t find much to read on the Paigahs, so Wikipedia will have to suffice, you can see the list of palaces they built. Surprisingly they didn’t come up a ton in my reading about the city, other than the palaces. The gist of it is that they are historically the highest ranked family in Hyderabad after the Asaf Jahis, they often worked for them as administrators, and there were many intermarriages between the two families. They also commanded their own private armies.
In addition to some palaces strewn around the city, there are many Paigah palaces clustered in Begumpet (the Begumpet railway station was once a private station for the Paigahs), north of the lake. Many are wedding venues or private clubs now, and one was the US consulate for a while. You can walk around and catch glimpses of them, though I did that and it is very far from a must do, more of a moderately interesting curiosity if you’re nearby and have already done everything else (it probably would have been better as part of a tour that told stories about them and took you into some of the buildings, also notable in that area are the Spanish mosque which is kinda cute and Ronald Ross building which I didn't make it to). I’m putting this here since it is worth understanding the stature of the Paigahs when you visit the tombs.
The Osmanian Architecture, which is mostly just Indo-Saracenic architecture under a different moniker, is some of the best in the city, and hunting down the various great buildings and learning about them is a great activity. It is named after the last Nizam Mir Osman Ali Khan who presided over the city’s modernization in the early to mid 20th century, responding to the city’s needs for better infrastructure following the disastrous flood in 1908. This latter period Nizam era architecture is more Indian and Islamic than most of what the Nizams built, and therefore it is better (I’ve heard that some of the buildings were influenced by Kakatiya architecture and by Ajanta and Ellora, then under the Nizam’s territory, but I didn’t notice any of that, someone will have to point it out to me).
It seems only a few people ever referred to it as Osmanian Architecture, but I like the name and the architecture, and though he’s far from perfect I kinda love Mir Osman, my favorite Nizam, so I figure I’ll stick with it. This is one of the last great architectural periods in India, it deserves to be honored (post independence the only good architecture for public buildings is in the single screen cinemas and the 21st century airports, you won’t admit it but you know it’s true). Also, based on my readings, much of Hyderabad’s history, however fascinating, just seems like an exploitative, decadent, debt-ridden disaster that somehow stayed afloat, but Mir Osman’s rule transformed the city into one of the most modern in India. This is a good chance to explore the history a bit through some really cool buildings.
The two most iconic pieces of Osmanian architecture are the Osmania Hospital and the High Court, roughly opposite each other across the river. You’ll likely see them while driving around, but both are worth a closer look, at least from the road. Right by the court is the City College, also great and worth a look. In some cities you’d be able to enjoy this excellent waterfront architecture on a nice boat ride, but the Musi river today is pretty sad.
Those are all designed by Vincent Esch (along with Kachiguda Railway Station, which I didn’t get a chance to see). How is he not a household name? I know the names of many far worse architects. No other artistic medium is as corrupt and negligent in its recognition of greatness. At least he was made Commander of the Royal Victorian Order by the British crown. Real recognize real.
This academic article notes that Esch’s work in Hyderabad specifically incorporates Deccani elements which are missing from other Indo-Saracenic buildings in the city, which aren’t all that different from what you would find in buildings elsewhere in the country with their Mughal and Rajput influences. Someone should make a photo guide to explain the Deccani influences because I'm not sure I see them.
The next greatest Osmanian building is the Osmania University art college, which is far from anywhere else you would want to go so I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone, but if you have the time it is worth the trip out. It’s a great place to go at sunset. I went on a Sunday and it was closed, but on a weekday you may actually be able to go inside. It is worth taking a walk around the building. It was designed by the Belgian architect Ernest Jaspar who is famous for the Heliopolis Palace in Cairo. They have some similar elements. This was the first university in a princely state and the first university in all of India to have classes taught in Urdu (and possibly any Indian language?). Universities used to look so good. Now even the best universities look like rejected Star Trek set designs. You’ll spot other campus buildings when you drive around there but none are as impressive likely due to WW2.
Also from this period is the market arcade directly north of the Charminar and the Moazzam Jahi Market which is near Abids and Nampally, you’ll likely drive by these at some point. Both are very cool. When I went to Moazzam Jahi market a lot of stuff was shut since it was a holiday, so I can’t say what the experience is normally like, but I would like to go back, there are many very old shops in and around it. I did enjoy the old school fresh fruit ice creams from Famous Ice Cream at the market and Hameedi Confectioners across the street (known for their Jouzi Halwa which was a favorite of the Nizam, I don’t have a sweet tooth but the story behind the place is interesting!).
If you’re ever in Abids, keep an eye out for the State Bank of Hyderabad (now SBI, near St. Joseph's Cathedral). It’s pretty cool. Deccani Deco (I just coined this term right now but nobody will ever recognize this important contribution to the field because the gatekeepers of architecture are corrupt frauds). Interestingly, Hyderabad had its own currency which was managed from here, in use until 1959 (I didn’t see it but I’m sure they sell these around Charminar, it’d make a nice souvenir). The architect did some other cool stuff too.
Some other cool buildings from this period are the Aza Khane Zehra (near the Salar Jung museum) and the Unani Hospital just south of Charminar. The Jagirdars College, built to educate "sons of nawabs, jagirdars and other aristocrats and elites" and today called the The Hyderabad Public School, is a beautiful building (not sure if you can go in, I saw it from the road), as is the Town Hall, now the Legislative Assembly (though that is technically from an earlier era as its construction started under the previous Nizam).
I also like the Madina Building built by the last nizam, taxes from here were sent to poor people in Medina back when it was poor and Hyderabad was rich, which is hilarious to ponder. I didn’t get a chance to see the Asafia Library.
Also, tertiarily related, the Nizam provided initial funding for the London Central Mosque, though it never got off the ground in his lifetime and the final design came much later. Interestingly, the Nizams don’t seem to have built very memorable mosques in Hyderabad. All of the notable ones are Qutb Shahi era. Did I miss something? Was this by design, not wanting prayer spaces to be extravagant, similar to how they had simple tombs? As mentioned, I generally find the Nizam era architecture to be pretty staid up until the 20th century.
The Old City, mainly around Charminar, is the main place tourists make a bee-line to, I obviously don’t need to sell anyone on it. Not one of my favorite old cities but it’s fun, especially at night when it really comes alive. Usually I love walking for countless hours in old cities and finding hidden gems, but I found my random walking in the old city here to not be especially fruitful. Still, the highlights are worth seeking out.
Architecturally, I like the area around Charminar more than the Charminar itself, which I like in photos better than in person (the best views of Charminar are when you walk a minute or two west of it). The market arcade, the unani hospital, and the Mecca Masjid (where the nizams’ surprisingly humble tombs are) are all really cool.
The Badshahi Ashurkhana (a short walk from Charminar, opposite the Madina Building mentioned above) is the overlooked gem around here, definitely worth visiting. There’s some exquisite tile work, except it’s mostly damaged and has been redone by paint. Still, very pretty.
It is worth going up to the Charminar to get views of the city, and to see some cute animal carvings that you can’t really make out from the ground floor. Interestingly, three of the major old city monuments are Qutb Shahi era (Charminar, Makka Masjid, and Badshahi Ashurkhana). I had fun at the palace museums (more detail below). I just wish more of the area were better preserved. It’s mostly ugly modern construction around here, and is less cohesive than most old cities.
Still, the people are carrying on the traditions while the buildings have failed. There are several iconic old eateries, though as a vegetarian I’m a poor guide here. But the legendary Munshi Naan is excellent (eat it fresh, bring your own packet of Amul butter if you desire), and I thoroughly enjoyed Milan Juice Center (get the mulberry cream if it’s in season, or any of the seasonal fruit creams) and Matwale Lassi (salty lassi is awesome, they put ice cream in their regular lassi so ask for it without ice cream). I think chai and biscuits are an uninteresting waste of calories but Nimrah just south of Charminar seems to be the local favorite.
There’s much more than just food. Near the clock tower are great old book shops, sadly I only walked by fairly late when they were starting to shut. Some say Haziq and Mohi is the best. I don’t care about pearls but it was interesting to learn that Hyderabad has been one of the world’s greatest pearl markets for centuries (some info on Wikipedia). There are iconic old ittar (perfume) shops where they will customize blends for you on the spot. I would like to go back with someone interested in pearls and perfume and whatnot so I could experience this area in a more in depth way.
A few other highlights: I loved the produce market (I saw that in the morning though, perhaps it is less good at night when everything else is better). Also, east of the Charminar I saw a nice old mansion being renovated which will soon be an art gallery, cafe, and maybe hotel. I think it was Sardar Mahal, or it was something else on that lane. Worth exploring down there. I suspect there is more around here worth exploring. I drove by Paras Antiques and thought it looked nice and I suspect there is other good antique shopping around here. And my favorite place in the old city is, of course, the Yakut Mahal Cinema (mentioned above and below). I also saw a building called Balala Mansion which houses the Royale Degree College For Women, I’d describe the architecture as Islamo-deco. It was kinda cool.
The Nampally neighborhood has Dargah Yousufain which has live qawwali every Thursday night. That was awesome. There were women in burqas doing front flips and somersaults, which I’ve certainly never seen before (it was kind of scary, I hope nobody gets hurt!). I assume they had spirits inside of them that they were trying to expel? There were lots of aggressive beggars, if you’re white you’ll be harassed. I walked from here to Hazrat Shah Khamosh Dargah, which was closed at night but very pretty, and the walk there passing through old city gates was really awesome (though spooky at night and not recommended to most people, go with a group). The neighborhood is also known for its food, I have no advice here though (people swear by Subhan Bakery, which I walked into but nothing really interested me). For some old world charm, check out Bombay Watch Company. I also walked by the train station and the Tipu Khan sarai, both were cool to see.
Hyderabad has several worthwhile museums, many clustered in or near the old city and set in old palaces of the Nizams. I’ll rank them in order of preference. I’m glad I did all but on a short trip I think one or two is enough. In some cases it is more about seeing the palaces than the objects in the museums. (I think I went to all of the palaces open to the public except Falaknuma, which as I said earlier I feel comfortable recommending to anyone who can afford it.)
The Chowmahalla Palace is the one that I’d rank highest. It was the main palace of the Nizams once it was built (though the last Nizam lived in King Kothi, the durbar was still at Chowmahalla). It doesn’t have the wacky extravagance of many princely state palaces, but it’s pretty, and I like its mix of European and Indian elements. It's in the center of the old city and is a nice respite from the busy streets, with a nice courtyard. The cannons in the courtyard have really cool handles, you don’t want to miss those. The property used to be massive, but going by Wikipedia’s numbers it reduced from 45 to 12 acres, being eaten up by the growing city. The highlights for me were the grand durbar hall, the old photographs (look out for the picture from the fancy dress party), and the collection of qurans and other Islamic items (this is in a small, seemingly less visited room where you have to take your shoes off and you can’t take photos). The weapons section is cool, and there’s a fish shaped victory staff or something. I also recall crockery, clothes, and old cars. The palace grounds are nice to walk around, and there’s a cool clocktower. The gift shop is better than most in India. I was surprised to learn that Chowmahalla was only made into a museum in 2005, and just sat around deteriorating (like most of the palaces?) until Princess Esra basically rescued it along with Falaknuma and led the restorations.
If you want to revel more in the Nizamia, the Nizam Museum at Purani Haveli is worth a visit. This was the main residence of one of the Nizams, who had what is claimed to still be the world’s largest wardrobe, the main attraction of the museum. But there’s also a lot of other fun little things to see (many gifts given from foreign dignitaries are on display here), though the building itself is nothing special (part of it is a school now, and the courtyard is a dusty unofficial parking lot and cricket ground). There’s the lion throne, tea sets, elaborate vases and lamps, model buildings, stuff like that. If you want to see a good assortment of stuff from the Nizams, this is where you go. Outside is a silly looking fish fountain that I recommend seeing.
The British Residency is a must for anyone who has read White Mughals or has a hardcore interest in the city’s history. For the average visitor it probably isn’t that exciting unless you’re curious to see the most important British building in Hyderabad. I went on a tour which was great to do, I wouldn’t have gotten as much out of it otherwise. The building looks awesome in the old drawings, but in the present day the neo-classical structure doesn’t excite me much. It’s nice though, the interiors are more interesting, and there’s a small but decent informational museum inside. It’s a good chance to learn about the relationship between the British and the Nizams, and more broadly the British and the princely states in general. Make sure you go around the back to see the griffins, which also used to be in front but they were too bosomy and immodest for conservative Hyderabad so they got replaced by lions.
The Salar Jung museum is kind of insane and amazing, though I’m not sure how much I recommend it to someone here on a short trip. It is chock full of great stuff, but it’s massive and overwhelming, and only a few parts of the collection are very local to Hyderabad/Andhra/Telangana. For foreigners only visiting Hyderabad it may be more worth prioritizing as it is full of great Indian artifacts, though (I loved the South Indian bronze gallery). It’s basically Hyderabad’s answer to the major national museums in other big cities. But there are also great, noteworthy pieces from around the world (I gasped at the double sided statue). The collections are incredibly impressive, but I didn’t feel I needed to spend my time in Hyderabad looking at an excellent collection of Japanese wood carved furniture or whatever, and a few dozen other such categories. I loved some of the weird stuff though, like the collection of walking sticks, and an ivory chair that Louis XVI gave to Tipu Sultan.
It’s crazy that this all belonged to one person, and by the time you get to the end of the museum you totally understand why communism took hold in Andhra Pradesh. How did he store all of this stuff? Was it across several palaces or did it all fit within one? The museum was initially set up in the family palace, you can see some old photos on the museum website. The palace has since been demolished. Tragic.
If I had my way today, I would have Disney (apologies to Ramoji) renovate or recreate a palace and make that the setting of a dark ride where you sit in a cart on a track that takes you through the collection over a few hours, with light narration and themed music for different sections, with an interval of course, and set menus (veg/non-veg) recreating the recipes of the Salar Jung family which gets catered to you throughout the ride. That would make it more of a great Hyderabad experience rather than just a low budget version of the Met with the poor labeling of an Indian government museum. I would easily pay 10k rupees for that. You could have tiered pricings throughout the day to be more egalitarian, with a 1500 rupee breakfast tour, 6000 rupee lunch experience, 3,500 rupee high tea, and then a 10k dinner extravaganza. I realize even the breakfast tour is out of reach for most Indians though, and this is one of their favorite places in the city, so that would be a shame. It is fun watching the people there. It’s packed with people taking videos of their entire walk through the museum. What is the psychological impulse behind this? I think Indians love museums more than anybody in the world. I don’t quite get it. Do not go on a Saturday like I did. Or do, if you want that.
The Telangana State Archeology Museum is in an awesome Indo-saracenic palace which is for the most part more interesting than the museum, but there were a few great things inside that made it worthwhile. As far as the building goes, you get great views from the road and metro (along with the nearby assembly building) but it’s worth going inside to see the courtyard. Most of the museum was stuff I feel like I’ve seen before, sculpture work and bidri crafts and whatnot (also, a mummy), but there’s an amazing chariot in the courtyard, there’s some nice structures taken from ruins of ancient Buddhist sites in the region, and most interestingly is a gallery of replicas the last Nizam had commissioned of the cave paintings from Ajanta. Definitely recommended for people spending a lot of time here.
I also had a great time at the Birla Art Gallery and the YK Antiques Home Museum, more on those later on.
My next top recommendation is Ramoji Film City, which I really loved. It should be listed higher, because I had such a fantastic time, but I feel odd putting it over places that connect you to the city's heritage, and it’s far from a must do for most people. I’m obsessed with movies, keep that in mind. It also appealed to my childlike sense of wonder and joy, but you may not have that and might just find it to be cheesy and stupid. I ended up writing over 1000 words about it, so I thought I’d just make it into a separate post so that this section would remain readable. Read that and decide if it sounds good.
A great place for sunset is the very nice modern Birla Temple set on a hilltop. The temple itself is pretty but the real draw are the city views you get from there. I also greatly enjoyed the nearby Nirmala Birla art gallery, which has works by many big name Indian artists. I wouldn’t say I loved most of it, like a lot of art galleries I was like “lol how do people pay big money for these random paint blotches?” for half of it. But there were some highlights, for me the best part was an amazing series of large Ramayana paintings by an artist named Iqbal Hussain, and there were many others that I enjoyed seeing.
If you want a relaxing day and are tired of seeing historical sites, I enjoyed exploring some of the fancy neighborhoods like Jubilee and Banjara Hills. Traffic can be brutal around here, but the metro line runs through part of the area.
There is the very nice Kasu Brahmananda Reddy National Park where I saw dozens of peacocks. It unfortunately has limited hours, but I recommend it for a morning or evening stroll. There’s an interesting modern architecture mosque inside but it looks cooler in photos than in person (this was part of the grounds of a palace that the last nizam built but I don’t know where it is or if it still exists, nor can I even find photos of it!).
Beyond the park, Jubilee Hills and Banjara Hills stand out for the rocky landscapes. Walking in the bylanes of Jubilee Hills is fun, I saw some of the craziest houses I’ve seen in India. I love the new money energy of the neighborhood! The main roads in Jubilee are terrible for walking, but the inner lanes are nice. There are a lot of good restaurants and cafes around there too, and a few nice art galleries (Kadari, Shrishti, and State Gallery of Art, though the latter two were closed for renovations and exhibit changes when I went). In Banjara Hills there’s a cool community center/restaurant called Lamakaan (see my food section for more) which is walking distance from Kalakriti Art Gallery, which was nice (though I wouldn’t say any of the galleries are worth going out of your way for).
I guess people also would come to these areas for shopping and for breweries, but those aren’t my thing. I never got around to going to Luna Books, which looked nice. Cafe recommendations (mostly in Jubilee and Banjara Hills) are in the cafe section on my food page. For most of Hyderabad’s history this was a quiet forest area where the Nizams would go hunting, and the only people who lived there were thugs and gypsies. You can read more here, it’s pretty interesting. I want that movie.
Also, I’m not sure there’s a reason to go if you don’t have business in the area, but the tech area is the nicest glass-tower neighborhood I’ve been to in the country (it’s been around 8 years since I’ve been to Gurgaon, I recall it being nice from the metro and in the private complexes but from the road level it may as well have been a village, while this was nice all around). Walking the skywalk from the Raidurg metro station to as far as it went (the Verizon building), at night with the buildings all lit up, I felt like I was in a developed country. A glorious magic trick. Wah, wah! Though I'm not sure the illusion could work in the day. Not far from these areas is Shilparamam Craft Village, which looked nice, but I never made it there.
Some miscellaneous things:
I mentioned in my intro how I went palace hunting. That was fun.
I went to see the Rashtrapati Nilayam, which is the winter residence of the president of India and was previously the country house of the British Resident. It’s kind of interesting, and the large property is very nice (it’d be a nice park if you lived nearby) but it’s really far from the city. Nearby it is the YK Antiques Home Museum, which is an awesome collection of antiques in the owner Krishnamurthy’s house, mostly stuff from India but also some from his travels abroad. I enjoyed talking to Krishnamurthy about the items in his collection, how he built it up, and how he had to ship it all from Mumbai to Hyderabad when he moved. Be sure to reach out to him before going as the museum is at his house and operates with limited hours. He has a “give one, take one” community library outside, so bring a book if you have any to give away. I wouldn’t say either of these are something to drive out for, but both are really cool to see if you’re nearby for some reason.
I mentioned this above, but in Begumpet there’s the Paigah Palaces, Spanish Mosque, and Ronald Ross building. Not especially worth going out of your way for, but keep an eye out for them if you’re in the neighborhood.
I didn’t get to see much else in Secunderabad, which was the British part of the city. There is a train station, a clock tower, some irani cafes, churches… none of this seemed worth it to go out of my way for, though I would have if I had another weekend. Saidanima tomb and Bansilalpet stepwell both look really nice. Bansilalpet has events once a month or so, including music, dance, and Urdu poetry, I would love to go for them! See Tangy Sessions for more info.
I explored Abids a little bit. The history of the neighborhood is interesting, it is the border area between Hyderabad and Secunderabad, and it was the shopping district. I wouldn’t say anything is really a must see though. There are some nice churches (I went on a Christmas morning church walk, which was great, but otherwise I wouldn’t have bothered). A few nice buildings here and there, like the State Bank of India. I never went to Grand Hotel (the iconic Irani cafe), the Taj Mahal hotel (much loved for South Indian breakfasts), the book market, the Parsi fire temple, or the famous Deccan Pen Store. There’s also King Kothi, which I mentioned above.
I wouldn't say art deco is as essential to the character of Hyderabad as it is to Mumbai or some other cities, but there are nice scattered art deco buildings (some mentioned above and below in the cinema section). Here's a good Twitter thread on them, and there's the Art Deco Hyderabad Instagram account.
I never mentioned the lake, an icon of the city. I didn’t see it a ton. Mostly by road. I wanted to walk along Tank Bund in the evening but never got around to it, nor did I get to see the MS Maqta Art District or go inside NTR Gardens. Lumbini Park was a horrible waste of time. Indira Park is nice and recommended if you’re nearby (a good place to walk after eating at the S.A.V.E. Organization, discussed further in the food post). Some kid at that park stopped in front of me, dropped his jaw, stared, pointed, and exclaimed “Sai Baba!” I'll never know why.
Prasads Multiplex is one of my favorite places in all of India, up there with the Taj Mahal, the ghats of Varanasi, the ruins of Hampi, the Golden Temple of Amritsar, and Masque.
Weekend Getaways
I wanted to visit both Bidar (one of the Deccan Sultanates) and Warangal (the former Kakatiya capital) but I decided to stick around and explore Hyderabad as they weren’t close enough to do day trips (it’s possible but it seems like a hassle by train, and I hate being in the car all day) and I had been to a lot of similar looking historical sites in the previous year. But I definitely plan on visiting them at some point. There were a few other places I wanted to visit that were less historical and more fantastical. A few hours from Hyderabad is a giant snake temple, and there’s also a mythological theme park about an hour and change from the city. I imagine most people will find this tacky but I love this stuff! I hope to get to them next time (they are also near some forts, old temples, etc). I included it in its own post, but Ramoji Film City also counts as a getaway.
I wanted to stay on a farm for a few days and I found it hard to find one that seemed like a real farm, they were mostly “farmhouses” or farm resort type things, rather than just a lowkey farm stay. I did find a few 2-3 hours away but I wasn't enthusiastic about the travel. I ended up lucking out and finding a great one about an hour from the city called Oorna Farm where we stayed for two days (surprisingly easy to get to, we went by Uber for around 700 rupees). It’s a small sustainable and organic permaculture farm in a quiet village, run by a cool young couple who left the city life to set this up (Shilpa runs the farm while Harsha is an accomplished artist who has his workshop on the property).
A lot of people come to do farm work but I didn’t want to. I just wanted to chill out, read Telugu short stories, eat local village food from homegrown produce (simple but probably the best Andhra food I’ve had so far, and they also grow their own oyster mushrooms!), pet the buffaloes on the neighboring property, go for a walk down by the beautiful lake, etc, and I was very happy. I also enjoyed talking to the owners and playing with the dogs and cats that live there.
It isn’t luxurious, the basic room is in a shipping container, the bathroom is outside and has a squat toilet, etc, but it was clean and I was comfortable for a few days. The bed wasn’t especially comfortable but I somehow slept an astonishing amount when I was there, and I’m normally a pretty bad sleeper. It wouldn’t be an ideal place to work as cell reception is iffy and the tables probably aren’t the most comfortable for laptop use, but it would be possible to get some stuff done, you just might have to walk a bit to find a signal (though that may have improved by the time you read this). Still, better as a digital detox type stay. Recommended, if it sounds like your sort of thing!
Films Set In Hyderabad
I have a separate post on Telugu cinema, though I don’t think any of my recommendations are actually set in Hyderabad. As with fiction, I find Hyderabad to be underrepresented in cinema. There’s nothing I know of that makes use of the city’s rich history, which is to be expected for historical/socio-cultural/economic reasons (at this point if there’s a film set in the Nizam era I’d expect it to be offensively bad on several levels), but it’s still too bad.
First up, some old newsreel footage of Hyderabad! Awesome stuff. (In the second clip, many British people leave over a year after independence only when Operation Polo is under way. I found that interesting and surprising.) Here is 8 minutes of archival footage, fascinating to see for anyone who has spent a lot of time in Hyderabad. There are a handful of great buildings in there which I haven’t seen, I wonder if they still exist, and the public housing is surprisingly cool. (And did I see Muslim men going to pray at a Hindu temple?) More from Movietone here, I watched them all, they were all great, and from Pathe, though it’s mostly repetitive. I didn’t know they pronounced it “nye-zam.” Here’s the last Nizam’s visit to Delhi. Here are some photographs from the last Nizam’s funeral, and though I only skimmed, here’s the 1967 coronation (and part two) of the last last Nizam (the Nizam after the last Nizam). And here’s a great collection of old photographs of the city.
The one Hyderabad set film that stands out to me is the Hindi film Bobby Jasoos, a lighthearted mystery film set in the old city, starring Vidya Balan. I wrote this in 2014, before I ever came to India: This is a delightful little Bollywood female detective movie. It has sort of a cartoon noir feel to it, playing off tropes of the genre but in a lighthearted, charming way. Kinda like Tintin, I guess. It doesn't feel overly kiddy though, and it creates its own unique, cohesive mystery world that is detailed enough to be believable. It focuses as much on the character's home life and her relationships within the community than it does the plot, and the film is very funny with a colorful cast of characters. And it's a compelling mystery. The film's only misstep is a song in the second half that kills the momentum of the story, but that's minor and overall the film is very enjoyable and well done. 8/10
I’m having a hard time thinking of anything else I’ve seen meaningfully set in Hyderabad, other than some bad movies that throw in some establishing shots of the city’s monuments here and there. Apparently Dawaat-E-Ishq was partly set here, though I only remember it taking place in Lucknow. I thought that one was decently entertaining and charming if flawed and unremarkable (I gave it 6/10, it's not noteworthy enough to copy and paste the whole review). As for stuff I haven’t seen, there are a few films from Shyam Benegal, who grew up in Hyderabad, including Mandi, set in Hyderabad’s old red light district. Ketan Mehta’s Hero Hiralal is set there. Hyderabad is one of the three cities in MF Husain’s Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities. And there’s Nagesh Kukunoor’s debut Hyderabad Blues and its sequel. I have no idea which of these are good, but that’s my Hyderabad watchlist, they are all certainly worth watching for me, but I don’t know if I’d recommend them unseen to the average person. Those are mostly Hindi, though the latter film is in English. Recently was the well-reviewed Malayalam rom-com Premalu which, going by the trailer, seems to showcase the city quite nicely.
I also learned of a small movement of Dakhni language cinema. I have no context or understanding of this, but I’ve read that Dakhni is sometimes used in Hindi films in an over-the-top, comic, stereotypical way, but some full fledged Dakhni films have come out. The Angrez was the pioneering Dakhni film and is the most well regarded, some other titles are Aadab Hyderabad, Hyderabadi Nawabs, and Hyderabadi Bakra. I don’t think they look “good” but I will try to watch some one day and report back.
After writing this section I came upon a blog post on films set in Hyderabad, with ratings based on how successfully Hyderabadi they are. There are a few films in there I haven’t mentioned. I would love to watch all of these.
And I came across a documentary called A Tongue Untied: The Story of Dakhani. Not sure where to watch it, but it looks like a good look into the old world culture of Hyderabad
Movie Theaters
Hyderabad has a rabid cinema culture, perhaps the most rabid in the world, with the only other contender being Chennai. I didn’t have any crazy Hyderabad filmgoing experiences, and while I want to, I also don't want to (and I am sad to report a recent very tragic death from a stampede at a single screen theater that a film star visited). Even avoiding those crazy situations, theaters in Hyderabad were generally busier than in most places I go, and every weekend I’d look at seating charts across various theaters and I was surprised at how booked up they were days in advance even for non-major movies. I often felt there was a buzz of excitement at the theaters, a feeling I recognize from growing up but rarely ever feel anymore.
I visited several single screens (I mostly just saw the exteriors, but I was lucky to get a tour of the city’s oldest theater Yakut Mahal) and I saw nine movies in the city at four different multiplexes. I thought it was a pretty good city to see movies in, though much of that is because of Prasads, which is a contender for the best theater in India. There were some other very nice looking theaters that I didn’t get to, and there are also a lot of great old single screens still going strong. I’ll get to all of that, but first, my favorite topic, movie theater pricing regulations!
As with Tamil Nadu, ticket prices are regulated in both Telangana and Andhra, with different minimums and maximum for single screens and multiplexes as well as different rates if there’s AC or recliners. As of writing this, the maximum ticket cost in Telangana is 350 rupees, though producers can get legal permission to raise the ticket costs for big movies. When I was there, Salaar got permission to raise prices an additional 65 rupees for single screens and 100 rupees for multiplexes. In case you are interested in what that permission looks like, see here. Rest assured, this decision was made only “after careful examination of the matter.” The government also granted permission to add extra middle-of-the-night showtimes.
These price hikes happen regularly for Telugu movies with major stars, but I searched for major Hollywood movies of recent years and didn’t see any price hikes for them, even for massive superhero movies where they could easily sell tickets at much higher prices (in Mumbai, it’s not uncommon to see tickets cost over 1000 for those movies at prime theaters in the opening weekends). Is it an unwritten rule that only Telugu movies can apply? Do you need a certain level of political connections/favors to get the hike granted (like the star taking a picture with the approving bureaucrat or something). Or do you just have to pay a large enough bribe that wouldn’t be worth it for most movies (and Hollywood distributors don’t want to pay bribes)? Otherwise, why wouldn’t every movie with good commercial prospects ask for a price hike? What factors determine when price hikes are and aren’t granted?
In general, I have so many questions about these price regulations and don’t even know where to begin to get them answered. What is the history of this? Who are the constituencies for and against it? Is it such a political nonstarter that nobody would even think of changing it? Why does it even matter? Will people riot if ticket prices go up? Multiplex tickets are cheaper than in other big cities, but single screen prices in Hyderabad are about the same as in Mumbai, maybe even more expensive, so if left to the market I’m not sure how much of a difference it will make to the “common man” whom these policies are allegedly for. The market seems to be working fine, and I’m not sure what a market failure in this context even looks like. So opening weekend ticket prices would shoot up, only to come back down a few days later. Would there be riots by the die-hards who can’t afford the tickets? How about reverse surge pricing, where opening weekend prices are regulated and then on Monday they can jack the prices up? How about free markets for multiplexes and balcony sections while the frontbenchers still get their cheap tickets? (Am I speaking in an overly patronizing way about the “common man”? Yes, but I’m joking, and in any case the existence of these policies is highly patronizing as well.)
I read a dozen or so articles that came up on google on the topic but nothing was very substantive, ChatGPT doesn’t know very much, and the most information I can find is in incoherent Quora posts or Telugu language YouTube videos. Theater ticket price caps are self-evidently very stupid, so I want to know why it happens. Is there some entrenched interest here that I’m missing? I generally feel that in India corruption is a slightly overrated problem while populist stupidity is very underrated, and I think this is just a case of the latter.
What’s the impact of these regulations? The obvious answer is that theater quality is worse where ticket prices are regulated, but everyone knows this is not true and that theaters in South India, even with price caps, are on average better than in the north (though this is likely partly why there is no IMAX in Hyderabad). Part of this is my own personal preference. It doesn’t pay for theaters in Hyderabad to invest in “premium screens” if they can’t charge higher rates for them. However, I almost never like so-called premium screens, which most often prioritize gimmicks like 4DX, massive lounge seats that are actually less comfortable, food that gets delivered to seats, screens that are very large but don’t actually look any good, etc.
But putting my preferences aside, like much of the south, Hyderabad has many technologically advanced theaters, even at (no, especially at) cheap single screens. 4k laser projectors and Dolby Atmos are regular features at single screens, and they are advertised on the theater’s marquees and on the bookmyshow listings. I didn’t get to go inside any of these single screens to check out the quality, but I wonder how they can afford these upgrades with such low prices. I guess if the audience is demanding it then they can’t afford not to upgrade. I would be curious to see revenue statements from all of these theaters before and after their upgrades.
I’m not sure the price caps make much of a difference on theaters, which would rarely ever charge more even if they could. There might be some lame “luxury premium auditoriums” charging 1000 a ticket so you can sit in a La-Z-Boy recliner equipped with a USB port, there might be a few IMAX theaters, and there would be higher ticket prices on weekends for big movies, and theaters would profit more, but I have my doubts that it would change the actual theater quality. Most of the time theaters aren’t even charging the maximum prices that they are allowed to charge, so market factors are dictating the price most of the time. There’s certainly 5-10 weekends a year where theaters are missing out on some big money they could be making without price caps, and those weekends can make a huge difference in overall profitability. But most weekends it likely makes no difference, and in the long run I’m unsure what the impacts of highly variable pricing are.
(I went to an INOX at one of the city’s nicest malls, and despite the theater having a nice lobby and bathroom, the auditorium was pretty run down, full of broken seats. I thought if surge pricing were allowed they could afford to fix this, but a month later I went to an equally run down Cinepolis in a prime location in Mumbai and my doubts came back.)
I do wonder if consistently lower prices are better in the long run and chasing what is a relatively small amount of higher paying customers a few weekends a year in India is a bad idea. Prices in Hyderabad are hardly cheaper than in Mumbai for most movies on most days, but because the prices are consistent to a greater extent (they still fluctuate, but it’s between 150 and 350, not 150 and 700 like a lot of theaters I go to in Mumbai tend to do, with occasional tentpole tickets costing into the low thousands), it might also facilitate more consistent moviegoing habits and customer goodwill. That’s presumably why American theaters don’t surge price like Indian theaters do, and though prices are variable in the U.S. there’s a legible consistency to it that allows price discrimination without frustrating consumers (i.e. premium screns, matinees, discount days, etc, rather than India’s algorithmic pricing).
I wrote 2000+ more words theorizing about all of this with plenty of links and anecdotes on the topic, but it was really pointless and irrelevant to the rest of this so I deleted it. Believe it or not, I do have some editorial standards. Also, I’m not sure traditional economic thinking, or thinking in general, can apply so well to moviegoing in South India.
Now moving onto seeing movies in Hyderabad, and my views on different theaters. I’ll begin with multiplexes that I saw movies at, and then I’ll go on to some of the single screens that I saw and admired mostly from the outside.
First, I’ll say it was a pleasant surprise that there is no national anthem played in theaters in Hyderabad! I am slightly concerned that some segment of the audience gets 10% less exercise because of this, and I do miss having an extra 67 seconds to go to the bathroom and get settled in case I’m running late, but overall I welcome this, at least on a philosophical level.
Also, audiences were pretty bad in Hyderabad, I thought actually worse than in Mumbai, but after returning to Mumbai I found the audiences to be just as bad, so that’s good to know. I would have been sad to report that Hyderabad audiences were especially bad. I saw one kid’s movie in Hyderabad, which is the only time in India I was in a theater crowded with children, usually a terrible experience that makes me not want to go to kid’s movies, and kids in India are among the worst behaved in the world, but this was somehow (ironically, mysteriously, magically) among the best behaved audiences I’ve ever had in India. Model that.
Of the nine movies I saw in Hyderabad, six were at Prasads, which is one of India’s best movie theaters. I was sad to leave Hyderabad, but a lot of that came from being sad to be moving away from Prasads, where I saw some great movies and made some great memories.
Prasads has six auditoriums. Audis 1-4 I think are the same size, and they’re pretty large. Most multiplexes have one fairly large screen and these four are all as large if not larger than the typical biggest screen in a multiplex is. Audi 5 is on the smaller side, like a normal multiplex screen. Audi 6 is the giant PCX (formerly an IMAX) screen that Prasads is famous for, which I believe is the country’s largest screen at 64 feet high and 101.6 feet wide (to compare, the Wadala IMAX, which is Mumbai’s largest screen, is 38 feet high and 69 feet wide).
All auditoriums have 4k projection, and I believe all but the smaller screen (5) have Dolby Atmos. You can follow their technical manager Mohan Kumar on Twitter where he occasionally gives updates on these things. Subtitles are common for films of all languages, though they usually don’t list subtitled showtimes on bookmyshow until Friday when they can confirm subtitles, and sometimes not at all. I found a film critic on Twitter complaining that subtitles for regional movies are unreliable here, even when listed on the showtimes, and that PVR is better. I can only say that I didn’t have an issue with two Hindi movies and one Telugu movie. Unfortunately I couldn't find a way to contact the theater to find out subtitle information.
I saw four of the auditoriums, three of them the normal large screens (audis 1, 2, and 4) and one of them the smaller screen (5). I would have liked to check out the PCX screen, which is their killer app, but honestly I rarely ever like large screens (my experience is the projection tends to not be strong enough to support the massive size), and it seemed impossible to get a good seat for anything while I was there. It’s a dual 4k laser setup, though, and people seem to love it.
As for the other theaters, the small auditorium was solid, and the normal auditoriums were mostly great with both the picture and the sound. I don’t think there’s anywhere else in India where I have been so uniformly happy with the theaters. The images were always bright, crisp, and clean, and the sound was booming but well balanced. They’ve done recent renovations and upgrades and I hope they are able to keep the quality up as the years go by. There was one issue the one time I went to audi 4 where the color convergence was off, a sadly common issue at theaters, but it was fixed after the interval, which is amazing and heartwarming. Having a dedicated technical guy for the theater really makes a difference.
What’s great is that since five of the six auditoriums are large and they all seem to have good projection, I got to see a lot of movies on great screens. This is pretty rare, as usually smaller movies are relegated to smaller, not as nice screens, and I only rarely want to see the bigger movies. I wanted to check out more theaters in the city, but many of the films that I wanted to see were only showing on smaller screens at the other theaters (and I did go to a few of those smaller screens at other multiplexes and would take the small screen at Prasads over the others).
My wife got popcorn a few times, which she told me was much cheaper than at other theaters, though I forgot the cost. I thought it was pretty good, though I’m not a popcorn connoisseur (this was actually my first time having popcorn in over a decade). I usually avoid popcorn because I’m scared of the fake butter they put on, with the overly yellow color and the unnatural butter aroma, but this didn’t have any of that, nor was it oily to the touch at all. I would consider this a reasonably healthy, inexpensive snack! I didn’t try anything else here, though they have a filtered water jug that I filled my bottle with.
Prasads isn’t perfect. The bathrooms aren’t as spic and span as a nice PVR/INOX, though they were fine (I only used the urinals though), but the relatively small amount of urinals and stalls meant it could get very very crowded during intervals (unlike the PVRs I go to which have like 45 urinals and a dozen stalls). Also, I’m never fond of theaters having aisles down the middle instead of the side as it reduces the amount of good seats, but all of the auditoriums here except PCX have that middle aisle setup. I wish the seats could have more legroom. In audis 1-4, my favorite row was the last row in the lower section before the gap, which is row G. I think most people will like F, which is the first row in the upper section, and has plenty of legroom, though you may be distracted by people walking by and for me it was further back than I like to sit. I feel the gap is where most of the best potential row locations are, unfortunately.
Also, showtimes start on time, with no previews, ads, or national anthem (is it hard for independent theaters to make ad revenue, or is there just more value in packing in an extra showtime?). Sometimes the movie has even started a minute early! Not a big deal once you know the drill, but it was frustrating at first after being used to having a 10-ish minute buffer (and unused to the rhythms of Hyderabad’s traffic, though depending on where you are coming from you can take the metro and walk roughly ten minutes from Khairatabad station). After seeing a few movies there I just planned to start coming half an hour early. Also, you can’t bring bags inside the mall and have to check them outside, so that adds an extra minute or two. People walked in late a lot, even more than usual in India (which is an alarmingly high amount, especially for theaters that already start the movies 20-ish minutes late), so maybe they should reconsider this (but I guess if they change their practice, people will just start coming later accordingly, can’t help people who can’t help themselves, whatever).
What really irritated me, though, was one time when the previous film ran late and the film I was seeing started 15 minutes late, which is fine, but then they made up for that time by significantly cutting down the interval. I timed the interval, it was four minutes. I went to the bathroom, filled my water bottle, and when I walked in the movie started while I was still walking to my seat. Thankfully I didn’t miss anything, but I would have been pretty upset if I did. I wish they had a better way of dealing with potential delays and didn’t feel the need to cram the showtimes so close together. Anyway, I adjusted my expectations and for subsequent movies I would run to the bathroom without wasting any time, and I started bringing an extra water bottle so I didn’t have to refill.
My other quibble is that the programming here is very mainstream. This isn’t the theater’s fault, it likely just has to do with the audience that comes here. There’s a good range of regional Indian movies and big Hollywood movies, but that’s it. I was in Hyderabad when a number of independent English-language movies came to PVR/Inox (i.e. Priscilla, Dream Scenario, and a few others), and none were at Prasads. I skipped them as I didn’t want to go to see them in the smallest auditoriums of those other multiplexes, especially when I was uncertain of the theater quality. Still, I got to see some other non-tentpole Hollywood movies here that were only on smaller screens everywhere else, and even many small to mid-range Indian movies would be on bigger, better screens here than probably anywhere in the country, so it evens out.
Prasads multiplex is the centerpiece of the Prasads mall which is in itself fun. More of an entertainment complex than a shopping mall. I didn’t actually do anything other than see movies, but it’s nice to people watch. There’s rock climbing, arcade games, etc. It is a happy place. There is a mirror maze that I wanted to do but my wife never wanted to and I didn’t want to do it alone and now I’m sad that I missed it, even though I probably wouldn’t have liked it because I probably don’t like mazes. It is designed by Adrian Fisher, the world’s leading maze designer, who is the subject of a lengthy New Yorker piece which I couldn’t be bothered to read, but I’m happy to know it exists, which is how I feel about the mazes themselves.
Outside the mall is a giant Ambedkar statue, I think currently tied for India’s largest Ambedkar statue, and there’s the NTR park nearby which I never went to. Even if it’s only there because of dumb government mandates, I like the mall’s large Telugu and Urdu signage. The street it is on is still called IMAX Road. I like that nobody felt the need to put an apostrophe in the name.
Prasads was founded by Akkineni Ramesh Prasad (who goes by Ramesh) and is part of the larger Prasad group, started by his father L. V. Prasad who directed, produced, and acted in dozens of movies. An amazing factoid: "Prasad also had the unique distinction of acting in the first talkies of three different languages of Indian cinema; Alam Ara (Hindi), Bhakta Prahlada (Telugu) and Kalidas (a Tamil and Telugu bilingual film)." [Edit: I shared a fun L.V. Prasad story in my Raj Kapoor post.] Also according to Wikipedia, L.V. “was a pampered child, very intelligent, but never interested in studies.” All of this describes me quite well, but unfortunately I didn’t turn out so good.
Ramesh Prasad, on the other hand, took his father’s mantle and ran with it. He is said to be the "'Father of Modern Telugu Cinema' for his contributions to the Telugu film industry. He brought the latest technical equipment to the film-making environment which led to improvement in picture quality, VFX, sound design and more." Wikipedia didn’t have much else, but there’s some more information here. It sounds like he really was a major pioneer in helping modernize filmmaking in India, especially in post-production with Prasad Film Labs, which was started in Chennai in 1976 and is now a chain of post production facilities in India and abroad.
I was surprised to hear they are even in Japan where, according to their website, it sounds like they are focusing on digitization, preservation, and restoration. Some big global restoration projects include A Fistful of Dollars, Ben Hur, Gandhi, Lawrence of Arabia, and The Red Shoes. From Martin Scorsese: “The contribution of Prasad Corporation to The Film Foundation's 4K digital restoration of The Red Shoes was truly remarkable. Their commitment to the highest standards of quality was essential in bringing the film back to its original 3-strip Technicolor glory. The Film Foundation looks forward to restoring more cinematic treasures with Prasad Corporation.” In 2012 they bought DFT Digital Film Technology GmbH, the German company which is a leader in making film scanning machines. Pretty cool, though it’s very hard to find any decent restorations of classic South Indian movies, especially Telugu movies, so there is much more work to be done. I couldn’t find any interviews about the vision for the Prasads multiplex, but it’s clear that they have a commitment to quality.
In addition to this and the many films they produced, there’s also the L.V. Prasad Film & TV Academy and the L. V. Prasad Eye Institute which is apparently the largest eye-care network in the world with 275 centers in India. I like how this fits thematically with the rest of their endeavors. What’s the point of films that went through the right post production processes, have been well restored and preserved, and have been properly projected if you don’t have good eyes to view them with? As for how this came about: “L.V. Prasad, decided to invest a part of the profits of his blockbuster film Ek Duuje Ke Liye for a worthy cause. He donated rupees one crore and five acres of land for establishing the state-of-the-art Eye Institute.” If you don’t know, that film became semi-famous in the west because of Britney Spears. I wonder if royalties from Toxic are responsible for giving free eye surgery to villagers to this day. And how did that song begin? “Baby can’t you see?” Perfect.
Also part of the family is A. Sreekar Prasad, one of India’s top editors. Until I looked this up he was the only family member I had heard of. It is cool to know he comes from a prestigious lineage that has made contributions specifically (but not exclusively) to post production.
Other than Prasads, I only went to three theaters in/near Banjara Hills where I was staying, all in malls easily accessible from the metro line. I don’t have much to say about PVR Next Galleria (audi 7) or PVR Irrum Manzil (audi 2). Both were decent, standard PVRs, not great but not bad. My audis were small and from the seating chart none were that big, but the picture and sound were decent if unimpressive. I have no complaints. I wouldn’t recommend it for most movies, but if something isn’t showing anywhere else then it’s not bad.
Inox GVK One (audi 1) was at probably the nicest mall in the area but it was a much worse theater, at least from my auditorium (I read on twitter that the largest auditorium was renovated). The lobby and bathroom were nice, but many seats in the auditorium were broken and dirty and it just felt very rundown. The screen was a bit torn up at the bottom but overall the projection was actually fine. I got a chuckle at the Dolby thing that played before the movie where it shows off the surround sound by saying “All Around You” in differently located speakers, but since some speakers were broken/nonexistent it just said “All _____ You,” though to be fair this has happened to me at many theaters in India (I think PVR Irrum Manzil as well). The interval was 25 minutes, though this has randomly happened to me in Mumbai as well even at theaters it usually doesn’t happen in, so I won’t hold that specifically against this theater. But anyway, unless you know you’re going to a renovated auditorium I say stay away.
PVR has some nicer, newer theaters as well. The audis seem mostly on the smaller side, unfortunately, but I believe PVR Icon Madhapur, Preston Prime Gachibowli, and Atrium Gachibowli are all 4k. I didn’t make it to any.
The two theaters I really wanted to go to were AAA Cinemas (Ameerpet) and AMB Cinemas (Gachibowli), both part of the Asian Cinemas chain based in Hyderabad and both branded by Telugu stars (you’ll figure it out by the initials). I hadn’t heard of the chain but according to their website they “have 8 multiplexes and 12 Cineplexes in Hyderabad, Nizamabad, Waranagal, Bhadrachalam, Siddipet, Karimnagar and Manchieral along with 80 single screens across the state with a total seating of 98,000.” The website strangely does not mention the AAA or AMB cinemas, despite those being their nicest theaters.
Both theaters have “Flagship” large screens with 4k laser projection. AAA has an additional “Epiq” screen, also 4k laser. I’m pretty sure all auditoriums at both theaters are 4k, some more of them are laser, one of them at AAA is an LED screen (my favorite non-film format, so this is highly recommended though the LED screens are on the smaller size), and many of them have Atmos. AMB even has some of those luxury lounge seat auditoriums, even though prices are capped. I didn’t go because they don’t publish subtitle information for any of their movies (though some have them, but it’s a toss up, and there’s no contact number nor do they respond to messages on social media), and the English films I wanted to see were only on small screens so I figured I’d stick with Prasads. I hope to check these out in the future though. I don’t want to oversell this without going, and there are plenty of 4k laser setups that have not satisfied me, but I’m certainly impressed that these theaters exist! Does anywhere else in India have this quantity of technically high end theaters?
I also saw many cool single screens, which remain a vital part of the city’s film culture, and I hope someday to see a movie at one of them. According to a short but good article on the old world charms of Hyderabad’s single screens, “on the eve of Independence and merger with India, Hyderabad had 17 cinema halls. The number peaked to a high of 113 in the late 80s… now only about 62 survive.” They may be in decline, but they seem to be doing well. Many have 4k laser projectors and Atmos.
The single screen highlight for me, undoubtedly, was going to the city’s oldest surviving cinema, the old city’s Yakut Mahal Deluxe Theatre, dating from the 1930s (I’ve seen varying dates, the most reliable I think is 1938). Started by a nawab, this is where the Nizam would see films, and back in the day they had a separate section for ladies, separated by a purdah. It looks like an art deco castle. We were taking pictures of the exterior and I was going to buy a ticket to check it out inside, but before I could the owner asked what we were up to, since we didn’t look like we belonged. When we told him that we like checking out old theaters, he got excited and gave us a tour of the property.
This was a lot of fun, and incredibly kind of the owner (very Hyderabad!). The coolest part was seeing the projection room. Surprisingly, I think this was actually the first projection room I’ve been in. The owner was proud to show off the theater’s original film projectors made in 1927 in Chicago. They had two of them, in case one broke down, and they were still occasionally operating until just a few years ago (I found that surprising, and an article says they retired them in 2012, but I’m guessing the digital projector was mostly in use while they would use the film projector for showing older films from time to time).
It’s not a luxurious theater, it’s old and not exactly spruced up (though they are planning some renovations, hopefully without altering its character!), but I would recommend it to the adventurous nonetheless (there’s no longer a ladies section, so not recommended for unaccompanied women). The projection and sound were both much better than I was expecting, far superior to the single screens I’ve been to in Mumbai. And since I’ve been it has likely gotten even better, as the Bookmyshow page says that they now have a laser projector! [I wrote that around 10 months ago but it no longer says that, so I don’t know.]
It was very quiet when I went, only a handful of people there on a Saturday night, though they were re-running Animal over a month after it first released so it makes sense that there wasn’t a huge crowd. They said they still sell out for big movies, as they did for Salaar a few weeks earlier. I wish them continued success, and I thank the owner greatly for his hospitality (he wouldn’t let me buy a ticket, so I tried buying a water bottle which he wouldn’t let me pay for, and they offered us chai and snacks!). The owner inherited the theater from his father, who had the dream of owning a theater and purchased it a few decades ago, and he wants to keep his father’s dream alive. I told him I hope the theater is still around in 100 years from now. He laughed and said he doubts it, but I mean it!
That is the only single screen that I went inside, but there were some really cool ones I saw from the outside. The gaudy art deco Shanti was maybe my favorite. I was delighted by a few I saw that had South Indian design elements incorporated into the architecture, such as the Rama Krishna and Tarakarama cinemas (both owned by the NTR family). I also liked seeing the Sheesh Mahal, which was showing a 2013 Hindi film I’d never heard of called “Dirty Dancer”, and I did some research and let’s just say this is not a venue for families. There are many others I drove or walked by but those were some standouts. Sadly I never made it to RTC X Roads where there are multiple iconic single screens at one intersection. That’s top of my list for the next trip.
Here’s a blog post from a writer reminiscing on the theaters he grew up visiting. Some interesting details in there about the “twin theater” concept where on the same property there’s a 35mm and 70mm theater, which I noticed is still very much a thing in Hyderabad but I rarely ever see it elsewhere, or perhaps I haven’t looked properly. Now obviously the 35/70mm labels just indicate the size and not the projection, but were there actually so many 70mm theaters back then? He notes that Basic Instinct played for almost a year at one of the theaters, this must have been uncensored, otherwise who would have cared? (I doubt it was just because the ninth Nizam was a camera operator on the film…) Would have been fun to see that in theaters in Hyderabad, I can imagine the hooting. There are some other cool Hyderabad related posts on that blog, if you’re curious. Here’s another blog giving a personal rundown of Hyderabad’s old school cinemas, there is also good stuff on Hyderabad elsewhere on that blog if you search.
And while we’re at it, here is Roger Ebert’s writeup of his trip to Hyderabad. Unfortunately he does not name the theaters that he visited.
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