File:Pather Panchali (1955).webm

This work is in the public domain in India because its term of copyright has expired.

The Indian Copyright Act applies in India to works first published in India. According to the Indian Copyright Act, 1957, as amended up to Act No. 27 of 2012 (Chapter V, Section 25):

• Anonymous works, photographs, cinematographic works, sound recordings, government works, and works of corporate authorship or of international organizations enter the public domain 60 years after the date on which they were first published, counted from the beginning of the following calendar year (i.e. as of 2024, works published prior to 1 January 1964 are considered public domain).
• Posthumous works (other than those above) enter the public domain after 60 years from publication date, counted from the beginning of the following calendar year.
• Any kind of work other than the above enters the public domain 60 years after the author's death (or in the case of a multi-author work, the death of the last surviving author), counted from the beginning of the following calendar year.
• Text of laws, judicial opinions, and other government reports are free from copyright.

The Indian Copyright Act, 1957 is not retroactive, so any work in which copyright did not subsist when it commenced did not have its copyright restored, and is in the public domain per the Copyright Act 1911.