Qutb complex

 Woke up early in the morning and headed to the Qutb complex in Moharli. I took an uber rickshaw to the spot, and arrived there at 6:50 am. The place officially opens at 7:00 am, but they let me in before that. Except for a couple of guards and cleaners, I had the whole place to myself! So I made the best of the opportunity, and went through the complex, photographing the Qutb Minar first and then to the Iron Pillar behind it. Strewn around the complex are many spare stones and pieces of ancient Jain and Hindu temples, even older than the Qutb Minar. Behind the structure, and idea for framing the monuments are the remains of giant screens, some with preserved arches. To the left is the dilapidated Madrassa of Alauddin Khalki, home now to parrots, mynahs, pigeons and squirrels. It also houses his tomb. To the right is the more elaborate tomb of Iltutmish, which has some birds resting in the holes high above the arch. Parallel to the Qutb Minar is the unfinished base of Alai Minar, which would have been an even larger structure had it been finished. Back towards the front is the tomb of Imam Zamin which has some very intricate screen works, almost like clay was wielded like metal. Towards the front of the complex is Smith's Folly, which is under the process of restoration. This was for a short period of time, a sixth storey on top of the minar. In the middle of the garden is a memorial to Gordon Sanderson, the chief of the ASI, which is a nice small marble sundial. There is just so much history of this place. 

There was only one other couple that had come from south India that early in the morning, I took some photos for them. Apart from that, had the whole place to myself for a good forty minutes. After I had done my first tour, a watchman who had seen me photographing, came up to me and took me through the whole complex again, pointing out good locations to shoot from, telling me more about the history of the place, and even telling me about the exact shooting locations in various Hindi film movies. 

I was actually testing out the performance of the camera on the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra, so not sharing all the images here till the Embargo on the review lifts. Here are some shots taken from my iPhone though. I took a lot of photographs. 

After the adventure at the Qutb complex, I walked over to the nearby Bhool Bhulaiya, where a local artist was practicing a play performance in the wonderful acoustics. Some homeless people were still fast asleep, locals were jogging circles around the structure, and some tourists were taking a rest on the front steps. It was covered in graffitti. This was the tomb of Adam khan. The capital of the country is like a graveyard of the invaders, and I am surprised that Delhi is not called "City of Tombs" or something like that. 

Then I'm going to be embedding some YouTube videos below that showcase this beautiful complex. The guard made me interested in checking out these locations in the songs, but unfortunately, none of the spots that he mentioned lined up with any of the shooting locations! He went on for quite a while on how he gets to see the best locations for capturing photos based on the choices of cinematographers during the shoots, over the past 15 years. Seems like he just knew the best spots through his own experience, and was still boasting about the bollywood cinematographers for more credibility. Apparently, Raveena Tandon and Sanjay Dutt had just wrapped a shoot for Ghudhchadi two days prior to my visit. 

In Fanaa it's shown pretty prominently. The National Rail Museum and Purana Qilla are the other Delhi locations in the song, which I intend to visit. 

In this song from Kurbaan, the whole minar is not shown completely, but closeups of the complex and base of the minar are. They probably got a bench just for the shoot, which is not there at the location. Most of the clear shots of the complex are towards the end of the song. The main location is Humayun's tomb. 

This song from Jannat 2 gives a lot of footage to the location, and perhaps has the framing and shot locations closest to what I picked. If there is one movie that showcases the location to the max, then it is Jannat 2, and in this song, Tu Hi Mera.

Har Kisi Ko from Boss, the one with Shiv and Aditi, not Sona and Akki, has the location from about 1:44. This one is one of the few songs to capture the whole minar! It also has gives plenty of footage to the location towards the end of the song. 

Dil Ka Bhanwar Kare Pukar from Guide starts off at the top of the Minar, which has some excellent shots of the entire complex. The rest of the song takes place with Dev Anand and Waheeda Rehman descending the staircase, but in a replica set. 

Okay so the playbook for a song based in Delhi seems to be Purana Qilla, Humayun's Tomb, Lal Qilla and Qutb Complex for songs set in Delhi. This is a beautiful location lol deserves to have more movies shot here. Part 2 of this experience is coming up.