Home
The Indian film industry is the oldest and the largest in the world with over 1200 movies released annually. The majority of films are made in the South Indian languages mostly Telugu, Tamil and Malayalam, but Hindi films take the largest box office share. Mumbai (Bombay), Chennai (Madras), Kolkata (Calcutta), Bangalore and Hyderabad are the main film production centers. With more than12000 cinema halls, the Indian film industry turn out more than 1000 films a year to hugely appreciative audiences around the world.
The history of Indian Cinema can be traced back to 1896 when the famous Lumiere Brothers' of France demonstrated six soundless short films in Bombay. By 1899, Harishchandra Bhatvadekar made India's first short film. This was one of the major milestone in Indian Cinema. Throughout the first two decades, the trend continued with filmmakers.
Dhundiraj Govind Phalke who was generally known as Dada Saheb Phalke produced India's first full length silent film, 'Raja Harishchandra', in 1913. He laid the foundation for the beginning of a regular feature film industry in India. By 1920 there was a regular industry bringing out films starting with 27 per year and reaching 207 films in 1931. Many new companies and film makers came up during that period.
In 1886 the Lumiere Brothers Cinematographe unveiled six soundless short films at Bombay's Watson's Hotel. Soon after, Hiralal Sen and H.S. Bhatavdekar started making films in Calcutta and Bombay, respectively. Like Lumiere Brothers Bhatavdekar made India's first actuality films in 1899. Tough there were efforts at filming stage plays earlier India's first feature film Raja Harishchandra was made in 1913 by Dadasaheb Phalke who is known as the Father of Indian Cinema. By 1920 there was a regular industry bringing out films starting with 27 per year and reaching 207 films in 1931. Today India makes about 800 feature films every year.
Alam Ara (1931) was the genesis of the talkie feature films. The film's popular Hindustani dialogues and seven songs made it a big hit which resulted in other filmmakers to raise the number of songs in their films till it reached a whooping 71 in "Indrasabha". Film songs became a Pan-Indian phenomenon.
The post independence period saw the golden era of Indian cinema with melodious socials & melodramas. International recognition came with Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali in 1955. Satyajit Ray is considered as one of the greatest directors of all times. He was awarded an Oscar for life time achievement short before his death in 1995.
The 70's saw the birth of the parallel cinema which promoted realistic cinema. At around the same time was born the long lasting trend on the angry young man pitted against the Establishment as represented by Amitabh Bachchan, the superstar of the Indian Film Industry. Amitabh Bachchan was virtually a one man industry and this trend lasted till the late eighties.
The most remarkable things about the birth of the sound film in India is that it came with a bang and quickly displaced the silent movies. The first Indian talkie Alam Ara produced by the Imperial film company and directed by Ardershir Irani was released on March 14, 1931 at the Majestic Cinema in Bombay; The talkie had brought revolutionary changes in the whole set up of the industry. The year 1931 marked the beginning of the talking ear in Bengal and South India. The first talkie films in Bengali (Jumai Shasthi), Telugu (Bhakta Prahlad) and Tamil (Kalidass) were released in the same year.
Regional culture and craving to see-hear a film in one's own language caused the mushrooming of the regional film industries beginning with Bengali, Tamil & Telugu followed by Marathi, Gujarati, Kannada, Malayalam, Oriya, Assamese, English and several other dialects.
The 50's was a unique time in Indian cinema, blessed with talented directors and artistes who could stamp their individuality in their work.. The big turning point came in 1953 with the arrival of Bengali director Satyajit Ray and his classic 'Pather Panchali'. International recognition came to it with the Cannes award for the best human document, followed by foreign and national awards.
Apart from Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak and others made internationally acclaimed movies. They are known as the founding fathers of the new cinema in India. While, Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Aravindan, Ritwik Ghatak, Rituparna Ghosh were pioneering the nation's art cinema, around the same time India also had a kind of popular cinema with social themes - again, particularly in Hindi - made by commercial film-makers like Bimal Roy, Raj Kapoor, Mehboob Khan, Guru Dutt etc. Many of these films no doubt broke records at the box office. eg. Bimal Roy's 'Do Bigha Zamin', Mehboob Khan's 'Mother India', Raj Kapoor's 'Shree 420' and 'Awara', Guru Dutt's 'Pyasa' etc.
Another factor that encouraged truly good Indian cinema was the establishment of National Film Awards, the Film Finance Corporations, the National Film Archives of India and the Film and Television Institute of India. The first International Film Festival in 1952 held at Bombay, Chennai, Delhi and Calcutta had great impact on Indian Cinema. Introduction to international films left a deep impact on Indian film makers.
In the sixties and seventies, big budget films as well as off-beat films increased. The popular Hindi films of this period were: Kamal Amrohi's Pakeeza, Raj Kapoor's Bobby, Ramesh Sippy's Sholay, Kabhi Kabhi, Amar Akbar Anthony, Hum Kisise Kum Nahin, and Muqaddar ka Sikandar.
