Headgear of the British Indian Army?

[Doug ex-em4]

My wife is watching a programme called Bollywood Something or Other (it’s on now). I’m idly browsing and glancing at the tv every so often. There is a sequence showing a battle scene which involves British soldiers and there was one last week as well. So, here’s the point of this rambling post. Are those weird hats they have the British soldiers wearing - are they correct? I’m no expert on this period and era (19th century India) so I don’t know. I’ve seen plenty of illustrations of uniforms of the time but this helmet doesn’t figure at all. It looks like something a skateboarder may wear. It has appeared in at least 2 different films the programme has shown clips of so seems to be accepted in Bollywood-land as authentic.

This is very much an idle curiosity but it’s nagging at me. Are these hats nonsense?

Doug

[marco55]

Are you talking about these? (pic)If you are they are sun helmets and most colonial armies wore them.The pics are a Belgian figure and the others are French.
Mark

[marco55]

http://www.militarysunhelmets.com/

[FifteensAway]

Movies and historical accuracy?  Bwahahahhhaa, bwahhhaahhaaa, bhahaw...wait...let...me...catch...my breathe.   

[Plynkes]

Are these hats nonsense?

Yes.

I believe that film was Manikarnika, which is about the Rani of Jhansi and set during the Indian Mutiny. I don't know what the wardrobe designers were thinking. Maybe they saw a covered forage cap from the period and thought it didn't look "British Colonial" enough so altered the design to make it look more like the iconic pith helmet. Because that's kind of what they looked like: The deformed offspring resulting from a sun helmet mating with a covered forage cap.

Or maybe they were just completely clueless.

[Doug ex-em4]

@marco55 - I’m familiar with those; they are the kind of thing I would have expected. The ones in question are not those😊

@FifteensAway - I know, I know, of course I’m not expecting historical accuracy; that would, indeed be most naive of me. But these helmets were so peculiar, I thought maybe they are something I’ve missed in my last 40+ years of war gaming and history reading. I thought “surely they wouldn’t have just invented a helmet - would they......?” Now that was naive of me😊.

@Plynkes. Thank you. So I wasn’t showing complete ignorance of colonial headgear - that’s a relief.

On reflection, these hats seem to have been heavily inspired by one of the many units to be found in the Imperial armies of the Star Wars franchise.

Doug

[georgec]

Do you mean this lot?  A quick peruse of the screen shot suggest there is a very good reason why they looked like cheap bike or skateboard helmets...!

[Andrew_McGuire]

If those are meant to be sepoys, I can understand why they'd have mutinied.

[WillieB]

If those are meant to be sepoys, I can understand why they'd have mutinied.

Yep. Coat tails, double white belts, German ankle boots and of course those jockey caps on steroids. Can't tell but they are probably armed with M16s as well. 

[WillieB]

Most common headdress during the mutiny ( for both sides) was the covered Kilmarnock cap.

[Romark]

Lovely job on that havildar WillieB,very martial