Bollywood
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Bollywood is
the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in
Mumbai (Bombay), Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to
refer to the whole of Indian cinema; however, it is only a part of the total Indian
film industry, which includes other production centres producing films in
multiple languages. Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of
the largest centres of film production in the world.
Bollywood is
formally referred to as Hindi cinema. There has been a growing presence of
Indian English in dialogue and songs as well. It is common to see films that
feature dialogue with English words (also known as Hinglish), phrases, or even
whole sentences
Etymology
The name
"Bollywood" is a portmanteau derived from Bombay (the former name for
Mumbai) and Hollywood, the center of the American film industry. However,
unlike Hollywood, Bollywood does not exist as a physical place. Though some
deplore the name, arguing that it makes the industry look like a poor cousin to
Hollywood,it has its own entry in the Oxford English Dictionary.
The naming
scheme for "Bollywood" was inspired by "Tollywood", the
name that was used to refer to the cinema of West Bengal. Dating back to 1932,
"Tollywood" was the earliest Hollywood-inspired name, referring to
the Bengali film industry based in Tollygunge, Calcutta, whose name is
reminiscent of "Hollywood" and was the center of the cinema of India
at the time. It was this "chance juxtaposition of two pairs of rhyming
syllables," Holly and Tolly, that led to the portmanteau name
"Tollywood" being coined. The name "Tollywood" went on to
be used as a nickname for the Bengali film industry by the popular
Kolkata-based Junior Statesman youth magazine, establishing a precedent for
other film industries to use similar-sounding names, eventually leading to the
term "Bollywood" being coined. However, more popularly, Tollywood is
now used to refer to the Telugu Film Industry in Andhra Pradesh. The term
"Bollywood" itself has origins in the 1970s, when India overtook
America as the world's largest film producer. Credit for the term has been
claimed by several different people, including the lyricist, filmmaker and
scholar Amit Khanna, and the journalist Bevinda Collaco.
History
Film poster
for first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Irani's Alam Ara (1931)
Raja
Harishchandra (1913), by Dadasaheb Phalke, was the first silent feature film
made in India. By the 1930s, the industry was producing over 200 films per
annum. The first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Irani's Alam Ara (1931), was a
major commercial success. There was clearly a huge market for talkies and
musicals; Bollywood and all the regional film industries quickly switched to
sound filming.
The 1930s
and 1940s were tumultuous times: India was buffeted by the Great Depression,
World War II, the Indian independence movement, and the violence of the
Partition. Most Bollywood films were unabashedly escapist, but there were also
a number of filmmakers who tackled tough social issues, or used the struggle
for Indian independence as a backdrop for their plots.
In 1937,
Ardeshir Irani, of Alam Ara fame, made the first colour film in Hindi, Kisan
Kanya. The next year, he made another colour film, a version of Mother India.
However, colour did not become a popular feature until the late 1950s. At this
time, lavish romantic musicals and melodramas were the staple fare at the
cinema.
Golden Age
Following
India's independence, the period from the late 1940s to the 1960s is regarded
by film historians as the "Golden Age" of Hindi cinema. Some of the
most critically acclaimed Hindi films of all time were produced during this
period. Examples include the Guru Dutt films Pyaasa (1957) and Kaagaz Ke Phool
(1959) and the Raj Kapoor films Awaara (1951) and Shree 420 (1955). These films
expressed social themes mainly dealing with working-class urban life in India;
Awaara presented the city as both a nightmare and a dream, while Pyaasa
critiqued the unreality of city life. Some of the most famous epic films of
Hindi cinema were also produced at the time, including Mehboob Khan's Mother
India (1957), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign
Language Film, and K. Asif's Mughal-e-Azam (1960). Madhumati (1958), directed
by Bimal Roy and written by Ritwik Ghatak, popularised the theme of
reincarnation in Western popular culture. Other acclaimed mainstream Hindi
filmmakers at the time included Kamal Amrohi and Vijay Bhatt. Successful actors
at the time included Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor and Guru Dutt, while
successful actresses included Nargis, Vyjayanthimala, Meena Kumari, Nutan,
Madhubala, Waheeda Rehman and Mala Sinha.
While
commercial Hindi cinema was thriving, the 1950s also saw the emergence of a new
Parallel Cinema movement. Though the movement was mainly led by Bengali cinema,
it also began gaining prominence in Hindi cinema. Early examples of Hindi films
in this movement include Chetan Anand's Neecha Nagar (1946) and Bimal Roy's Do
Bigha Zamin (1953). Their critical acclaim, as well as the latter's commercial
success, paved the way for Indian neorealism and the Indian New Wave. Some of
the internationally acclaimed Hindi filmmakers involved in the movement
included Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihalani, Shyam Benegal
and Vijaya Mehta.
Ever since
the social realist film Neecha Nagar won the Grand Prize at the first Cannes
Film Festival, Hindi films were frequently in competition for the Palme d'Or at
the Cannes Film Festival throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, with some of
them winning major prizes at the festival. Guru Dutt, while overlooked in his
own lifetime, had belatedly generated international recognition much later in
the 1980s. Dutt is now regarded as one of the greatest Asian filmmakers of all
time, alongside the more famous Indian Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray. The 2002
Sight & Sound critics' and directors' poll of greatest filmmakers ranked
Dutt at No. 73 on the list. Some of his films are now included among the
greatest films of all time, with Pyaasa (1957) being featured in Time
magazine's "All-TIME" 100 best movies list, and with both Pyaasa and
Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959) tied at #160 in the 2002 Sight & Sound critics' and
directors' poll of all-time greatest films. Several other Hindi films from this
era were also ranked in the Sight & Sound poll, including Raj Kapoor's
Awaara (1951), Vijay Bhatt's Baiju Bawra (1952), Mehboob Khan's Mother India
(1957) and K. Asif's Mughal-e-Azam (1960) all tied at #346 on the list.
Modern cinema
In the late
1960s and early 1970s, romance movies and action films starred actors like
Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar and Shashi Kapoor and actresses like
Sharmila Tagore, Mumtaz and Asha Parekh. In the mid-1970s, romantic confections
made way for gritty, violent films about gangsters (see Indian mafia) and
bandits. Amitabh Bachchan, the star known for his "angry young man"
roles, rode the crest of this trend with actors like Mithun Chakraborty and
Anil Kapoor, which lasted into the early 1990s. Actresses from this era
included Hema Malini, Jaya Bachchan and Rekha.
Some Hindi
filmmakers such as Shyam Benegal continued to produce realistic Parallel Cinema
throughout the 1970s, alongside Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Ketan Mehta, Govind
Nihalani and Vijaya Mehta. However, the 'art film' bent of the Film Finance
Corporation came under criticism during a Committee on Public Undertakings
investigation in 1976, which accused the body of not doing enough to encourage
commercial cinema. The 1970s thus saw the rise of commercial cinema in the form
of enduring films such as Sholay (1975), which solidified Amitabh Bachchan's
position as a lead actor. The devotional classic Jai Santoshi Ma was also
released in 1975. Another important film from 1975 was Deewar, directed by Yash
Chopra and written by Salim-Javed. A crime film pitting "a policeman
against his brother, a gang leader based on real-life smuggler Haji
Mastan", portrayed by Amitabh Bachchan, it was described as being
"absolutely key to Indian cinema" by Danny Boyle. The most
internationally acclaimed Hindi film of the 1980s was Mira Nair's Salaam
Bombay! (1988), which won the Camera d'Or at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival and
was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
During the
late 1980s and early 1990s, the pendulum swung back toward family-centric
romantic musicals with the success of such films as Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak
(1988), Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994) and Dilwale Dulhania
Le Jayenge (1995), making stars out of a new generation of actors (such as
Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Shahrukh Khan) and actresses (such as Sridevi,
Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla and Kajol). In that point of time, action and comedy
films were also successful, with actors like Govinda and actresses such as
Raveena Tandon and Karisma Kapoor appearing in popular comedy films, and stunt
actor Akshay Kumar gaining popularity for performing dangerous stunts in action
films in his well known Khiladi (film series) and other action films.
Furthermore, this decade marked the entry of new performers in arthouse and
independent films, some of which succeeded commercially, the most influential
example being Satya (1998), directed by Ram Gopal Varma and written by Anurag
Kashyap. The critical and commercial success of Satya led to the emergence of a
distinct genre known as Mumbai noir, urban films reflecting social problems in
the city of Mumbai. This led to a resurgence of Parallel Cinema by the end of
the decade. These films often featured actors like Nana Patekar, Manoj Bajpai,
Manisha Koirala, Tabu and Urmila Matondkar, whose performances were usually
critically acclaimed.
The 2000s
saw a growth in Bollywood's popularity in the world. This led the nation's
filmmaking to new heights in terms of quality, cinematography and innovative
story lines as well as technical advances in areas such as special effects,
animation, and so on. Some of the largest production houses, among them Yash
Raj Films and Dharma Productions were the producers of new modern films. The
opening up of the overseas market, more Bollywood releases abroad and the
explosion of multiplexes in big cities, led to wider box office successes in
India and abroad, including Lagaan (2001), Devdas (2002), Koi... Mil Gaya
(2003), Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), Veer-Zaara (2004), Rang De Basanti (2006), Lage
Raho Munnabhai (2006), Krrish (2006), Dhoom 2 (2006), Om Shanti Om (2007), Chak
De India (2007), Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008), Ghajini (2008), 3 Idiots (2009),
My Name is Khan (2010),Dabangg (2010) and The Dirty Picture delivering a new
generation of popular actors (Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan) and actresses
(Aishwarya Rai, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukerji, Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra,
Katrina Kaif and Vidya Balan), and keeping the popularity of actors of the previous
decade. Among the mainstream films, Lagaan won the Audience Award at the
Locarno International Film Festival and was nominated for Best Foreign Language
Film at the 74th Academy Awards, while Devdas and Rang De Basanti were both
nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
The Hindi
film industry has preferred films that appeal to all segments of the audience
(see the discussion in Ganti, 2004, cited in references), and has resisted
making films that target narrow audiences. It was believed that aiming for a
broad spectrum would maximise box office receipts. However, filmmakers may be
moving towards accepting some box-office segmentation, between films that
appeal to rural Indians, and films that appeal to urban and overseas audiences.
Influences for
Bollywood
Gokulsing
and Dissanayake identify six major influences that have shaped the conventions
of Indian popular cinema:
The ancient
Indian epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana which have exerted a profound
influence on the thought and imagination of Indian popular cinema, particularly
in its narratives. Examples of this influence include the techniques of a side
story, back-story and story within a story. Indian popular films often have
plots which branch off into sub-plots; such narrative dispersals can clearly be
seen in the 1993 films Khalnayak and Gardish.
Ancient
Sanskrit drama, with its highly stylised nature and emphasis on spectacle,
where music, dance and gesture combined "to create a vibrant artistic unit
with dance and mime being central to the dramatic experience." Sanskrit
dramas were known as natya, derived from the root word nrit (dance),
characterising them as specacular dance-dramas which has continued Indian
cinema.The theory of rasa dating back to ancient Sanskrit drama is believed to
be one of the most fundamental features that differentiate Indian cinema,
particularly Hindi cinema, from that of the Western world.
The
traditional folk theatre of India, which became popular from around the 10th
century with the decline of Sanskrit theatre. These regional traditions include
the Yatra of Bengal, the Ramlila of Uttar Pradesh, and the Terukkuttu of Tamil
Nadu.The Parsi theatre, which "blended realism and fantasy, music and
dance, narrative and spectacle, earthy dialogue and ingenuity of stage
presentation, integrating them into a dramatic discourse of melodrama. The
Parsi plays contained crude humour, melodious songs and music, sensationalism
and dazzling stagecraft."Hollywood, where musicals were popular from the
1920s to the 1950s, though Indian filmmakers departed from their Hollywood
counterparts in several ways. "For example, the Hollywood musicals had as
their plot the world of entertainment itself. Indian filmmakers, while
enhancing the elements of fantasy so pervasive in Indian popular films, used
song and music as a natural mode of articulation in a given situation in their
films. There is a strong Indian tradition of narrating mythology, history,
fairy stories and so on through song and dance." In addition, "whereas
Hollywood filmmakers strove to conceal the constructed nature of their work so
that the realistic narrative was wholly dominant, Indian filmmakers made no
attempt to conceal the fact that what was shown on the screen was a creation,
an illusion, a fiction. However, they demonstrated how this creation
intersected with people's day to day lives in complex and interesting
ways."Western musical television, particularly MTV, which has had an
increasing influence since the 1990s, as can be seen in the pace, camera angles,
dance sequences and music of 2000s Indian films. An early example of this
approach was in Mani Ratnam's Bombay (1995).
Influence of
Bollywood
In the
2000s, Bollywood began influencing musical films in the Western world, and
played a particularly instrumental role in the revival of the American musical
film genre. Baz Luhrmann stated that his musical film Moulin Rouge! (2001) was
directly inspired by Bollywood musicals.The film incorporated an Indian-themed
play based on the ancient Sanskrit drama Mṛcchakatika
and a Bollywood-style dance sequence with a song from the film China Gate. The
critical and financial success of Moulin Rouge! renewed interest in the
then-moribund Western musical genre, and subsequently films such as Chicago,
The Producers, Rent, Dreamgirls, Hairspray, Sweeney Todd, Across the Universe,
The Phantom of the Opera, Enchanted and Mamma Mia! were produced, fuelling a
renaissance of the genre.
A. R.
Rahman, an Indian film composer, wrote the music for Andrew Lloyd Webber's
Bombay Dreams, and a musical version of Hum Aapke Hain Koun has played in
London's West End. The Bollywood musical Lagaan (2001) was nominated for the
Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and two other Bollywood films
Devdas (2002) and Rang De Basanti (2006) were nominated for the BAFTA Award for
Best Foreign Language Film. Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire (2008), which has
won four Golden Globes and eight Academy Awards, was also directly inspired by
Bollywood films, and is considered to be a "homage to Hindi commercial
cinema". The theme of reincarnation was also popularised in Western
popular culture through Bollywood films, with Madhumati (1958) inspiring the
Hollywood film The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975), which in turn inspired
the Bollywood film Karz (1980), which in turn influenced another Hollywood film
Chances Are (1989). The 1975 film Chhoti Si Baat is believed to have inspired
Hitch (2005), which in turn inspired the Bollywood film Partner (2007).
The
influence of Bollywood filmi music can also be seen in popular music elsewhere
in the world. In 1978, technopop pioneers Haruomi Hosono and Ryuichi Sakamoto
of the Yellow Magic Orchestra produced an electronic album Cochin Moon based on
an experimental fusion between electronic music and Bollywood-inspired Indian
music. Devo's 1988 hit song "Disco Dancer" was inspired by the song
"I am a Disco Dancer" from the Bollywood film Disco Dancer (1982).
The 2002 song "Addictive", sung by Truth Hurts and produced by DJ Quik
and Dr. Dre, was lifted from Lata Mangeshkar's "Thoda Resham Lagta
Hai" from Jyoti (1981). The Black Eyed Peas' Grammy Award winning 2005
song "Don't Phunk with My Heart" was inspired by two 1970s Bollywood
songs: "Ye Mera Dil Yaar Ka Diwana" from Don (1978) and "Ae
Nujawan Hai Sub" from Apradh (1972). Both songs were originally composed
by Kalyanji Anandji, sung by Asha Bhosle, and featured the dancer Helen.Also in
2005, the Kronos Quartet re-recorded several R. D. Burman compositions, with
Asha Bhosle as the singer, into an album You've stolen my heart – Songs From R
D Burman's Bollywood, which was nominated for "Best Contemporary World
Music Album" at the 2006 Grammy Awards. Filmi music composed by A. R.
Rahman (who would later win two Academy Awards for the Slumdog Millionaire
soundtrack) has frequently been sampled by musicians elsewhere in the world,
including the Singaporean artist Kelly Poon, the Uzbek artist Iroda Dilroz, the
French rap group La Caution, the American artist Ciara, and the German band
Löwenherz, among others. Many Asian Underground artists, particularly those
among the overseas Indian diaspora, have also been inspired by Bollywood music.
Genre conventions
Bollywood
films are mostly musicals and are expected to contain catchy music in the form
of song-and-dance numbers woven into the script. A film's success often depends
on the quality of such musical numbers. Indeed, a film's music is often
released before the movie and helps increase the audience.
Indian
audiences expect full value for their money, with a good entertainer generally
referred to as paisa vasool, (literally, "money's worth"). Songs and
dances, love triangles, comedy and dare-devil thrills are all mixed up in a
three-hour extravaganza with an intermission. They are called masala films, after
the Hindi word for a spice mixture. Like masalas, these movies are a mixture of
many things such as action, comedy, romance and so on. Most films have heroes
who are able to fight off villains all by themselves.
Melodrama
and romance are common ingredients to Bollywood films. Pictured Achhut Kanya
(1936)
Bollywood
plots have tended to be melodramatic. They frequently employ formulaic
ingredients such as star-crossed lovers and angry parents, love triangles,
family ties, sacrifice, corrupt politicians, kidnappers, conniving villains,
courtesans with hearts of gold, long-lost relatives and siblings separated by
fate, dramatic reversals of fortune, and convenient coincidences.
There have
always been Indian films with more artistic aims and more sophisticated stories,
both inside and outside the Bollywood tradition (see Parallel Cinema). They
often lost out at the box office to movies with more mass appeal. Bollywood
conventions are changing, however. A large Indian diaspora in English-speaking
countries, and increased Western influence at home, have nudged Bollywood films
closer to Hollywood models.
Film critic
Lata Khubchandani writes, "our earliest films ... had liberal doses of sex
and kissing scenes in them. Strangely, it was after Independence the censor
board came into being and so did all the strictures." Plots now tend to
feature Westernised urbanites dating and dancing in clubs rather than centring
on pre-arranged marriages. Though these changes can widely be seen in
contemporary Bollywood, traditional conservative ways of Indian culture
continue to exist in India outside the industry and an element of resistance by
some to western-based influences. Despite this, Bollywood continues to play a
major role in fashion in India. Some studies into fashion in India have
revealed that some people are unaware that the changing nature of fashion in
Bollywood films are often influenced by globalisation; many consider the
clothes worn by Bollywood actors as authentically Indian.
Cast and crew
for further
details see Indian movie actors, Indian movie actresses, Indian film directors,
Indian film music directors and Indian playback singers
Amitabh
Bachchan is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential actors
in the history of Indian cinema.
Bollywood
employs people from all parts of India. It attracts thousands of aspiring
actors and actresses, all hoping for a break in the industry. Models and beauty
contestants, television actors, theatre actors and even common people come to
Mumbai with the hope and dream of becoming a star. Just as in Hollywood, very
few succeed. Since many Bollywood films are shot abroad, many foreign extras
are employed too.
Very few
non-Indian actors are able to make a mark in Bollywood, though many have tried
from time to time. There have been some exceptions, of which one recent example
is the hit film Rang De Basanti, where the lead actress is Alice Patten, an
Englishwoman. Kisna, Lagaan, and The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey also
featured foreign actors. Of late, Emma Brown Garett, an Australian born
actress, has starred in a few Indian films.
Bollywood
can be very clannish, and the relatives of film-industry insiders have an edge
in getting coveted roles in films or being part of a film's crew. However,
industry connections are no guarantee of a long career: competition is fierce
and if film industry scions do not succeed at the box office, their careers
will falter. Some of the biggest stars, such as Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra,
Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan and Akshay Kumar have succeeded despite a lack
of any show business connections. For film clans, see List of Hindi film clans.
Sound
Sound in
Bollywood films was once rarely recorded on location (otherwise known as sync
sound). Therefore, the sound was usually created (or re-created) entirely in
the studio, with the actors reciting their lines as their images appear
on-screen in the studio in the process known as "looping in the
sound" or ADR—with the foley and sound effects added later. This created
several problems, since the sound in these films usually occurs a frame or two
earlier or later than the mouth movements or gestures. The actors had to act
twice: once on-location, once in the studio—and the emotional level on set is
often very difficult to re-create. Commercial Indian films, not just the
Hindi-language variety, are known for their lack of ambient sound, so there is
a silence underlying everything instead of the background sound and noises
usually employed in films to create aurally perceivable depth and environment.
The ubiquity
of ADR in Bollywood cinema became prevalent in the early 1960s with the arrival
of the Arriflex 3 camera, which required a blimp (cover) in order to shield the
sound of the camera, for which it was notorious, from on-location filming. Commercial
Indian filmmakers, known for their speed, never bothered to blimp the camera,
and its excessive noise required that everything had to be re-created in the
studio. Eventually, this became the standard for Indian films.
The trend
was bucked in 2001, after a 30-year hiatus of synchronised sound, with the film
Lagaan, in which producer-star Aamir Khan insisted that the sound be done on
location. This opened up a heated debate on the use and economic feasibility of
on-location sound, and several Bollywood films have employed on-location sound
since then.
Bollywood song and
dance
Further
information: Hindi dance songs, Filmi, and Music of Bollywood
Priyanka
Chopra performing at the 18th Annual Colors Screen Awards (2012)
Bollywood
film music is called filmi music (from Hindi, meaning "of films").
Songs from Bollywood movies are generally pre-recorded by professional playback
singers, with the actors then lip synching the words to the song on-screen,
often while dancing. While most actors, especially today, are excellent
dancers, few are also singers. One notable exception was Kishore Kumar, who
starred in several major films in the 1950s while also having a stellar career
as a playback singer. K. L. Saigal, Suraiyya, and Noor Jehan were also known as
both singers and actors. Some actors in the last thirty years have sung one or
more songs themselves; for a list, see Singing actors and actresses in Indian
cinema.
Playback
singers are prominently featured in the opening credits and have their own fans
who will go to an otherwise lackluster movie just to hear their favourites.
Going by the quality as well as the quantity of the songs they rendered, most
notable singers of Bollywood are Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Geeta Dutt,
Shamshad Begum and Alka Yagnik among female playback singers; and K. L. Saigal,
Talat Mahmood, Mukesh, Mohammed Rafi, Manna Dey, Hemant Kumar, Kishore Kumar,
Kumar Sanu, Udit Narayan and Sonu Nigam among male playback singers. Kishore
Kumar and Mohammed Rafi are often considered arguably the finest of the singers
that have lent their voice to Bollywood songs, followed by Lata Mangeshkar,
who, through the course of a career spanning over six decades, has recorded
thousands of songs for Indian movies. The composers of film music, known as
music directors, are also well-known. Their songs can make or break a film and
usually do. Remixing of film songs with modern beats and rhythms is a common
occurrence today, and producers may even release remixed versions of some of
their films' songs along with the films' regular soundtrack albums.
The dancing
in Bollywood films, especially older ones, is primarily modelled on Indian
dance: classical dance styles, dances of historic northern Indian courtesans
(tawaif), or folk dances. In modern films, Indian dance elements often blend
with Western dance styles (as seen on MTV or in Broadway musicals), though it
is usual to see Western pop and pure classical dance numbers side by side in
the same film. The hero or heroine will often perform with a troupe of
supporting dancers. Many song-and-dance routines in Indian films feature
unrealistically instantaneous shifts of location or changes of costume between
verses of a song. If the hero and heroine dance and sing a duet, it is often
staged in beautiful natural surroundings or architecturally grand settings.
This staging is referred to as a "picturisation".
Songs
typically comment on the action taking place in the movie, in several ways.
Sometimes, a song is worked into the plot, so that a character has a reason to
sing. Other times, a song is an externalisation of a character's thoughts, or
presages an event that has not occurred yet in the plot of the movie. In this
case, the event is often two characters falling in love. The songs are also
often referred to as a "dream sequence", and anything can happen that
would not normally happen in the real world.
Brazilian
model and actress Nathalia Kaur in the 2012 film Department
Previously
song and dance scenes often used to be shot in Kashmir, but due to political
unrest in Kashmir since the end of the 1980s, those scenes have since then
often been shot in Western Europe, particularly in Switzerland and Austria.
Bollywood
films have always used what are now called "item numbers". A
physically attractive female character (the "item girl"), often
completely unrelated to the main cast and plot of the film, performs a catchy
song and dance number in the film. In older films, the "item number"
may be performed by a courtesan (tawaif) dancing for a rich client or as part
of a cabaret show. The actress Helen was famous for her cabaret numbers. In
modern films, item numbers may be inserted as discotheque sequences, dancing at
celebrations, or as stage shows.
For the last
few decades Bollywood producers have been releasing the film's soundtrack, as
tapes or CDs, before the main movie release, hoping that the music will pull
audiences into the cinema later. Often the soundtrack is more popular than the
movie. In the last few years some producers have also been releasing music
videos, usually featuring a song from the film. However, some promotional
videos feature a song which is not included in the movie.
Dialogues and
lyrics
Music of
Bollywood
The film
script or lines of dialogue (called "dialogues" in Indian English)
and the song lyrics are often written by different people.
Dialogues
are usually written in an unadorned Hindi that would be understood by the
largest possible audience. Some movies, however, have used regional dialects to
evoke a village setting, or old-fashioned, courtly, Persian-influenced Urdu in
Mughal era historical films. Jyotika Virdi, in her book The cinematic
imagiNation [sic], wrote about the presence of Urdu in Hindi films: "Urdu
is often used in film titles, screenplay, lyrics, the language of love, war,
and martyrdom." However, she further discussed its decline over the years:
"The extent of Urdu used in commercial Hindi cinema has not been stable
... the decline of Urdu is mirrored in Hindi films ... It is true that many
Urdu words have survived and have become part of Hindi cinema's popular
vocabulary. But that is as far as it goes." Contemporary mainstream movies
also make great use of English. According to Bollywood Audiences Editorial,
"English has begun to challenge the ideological work done by Urdu."
Some movie scripts are first written in Latin script. Characters may shift from
one language to the other to express a certain atmosphere (for example, English
in a business setting and Hindi in an informal one).
Cinematic
language, whether in dialogues or lyrics, is often melodramatic and invokes
God, family, mother, duty, and self-sacrifice liberally. Song lyrics are often
about love. Bollywood song lyrics, especially in the old movies, frequently use
the poetic vocabulary of court Urdu, with many Persian loanwords. Another
source for love lyrics is the long Hindu tradition of poetry about the amours
of Krishna, Radha, and the gopis, as referenced in films such as Jhanak Jhanak
Payal Baje and Lagaan.
Music
directors often prefer working with certain lyricists, to the point that the
lyricist and composer are seen as a team. This phenomenon is compared to the
pairings of American composers and songwriters that created old-time Broadway
musicals.
Finances
Bollywood
films are multi-million dollar productions, with the most expensive productions
costing up to 100 crores rupees (roughly USD 20 million). The latest Science
fiction movie Ra.One was made at an immense budget of 135 crores (roughly USD
27 million), making it the most expensive movie ever produced in Bollywood.
Sets, costumes, special effects, and cinematography were less than world-class
up until the mid-to-late 1990s, although with some notable exceptions. As
Western films and television gain wider distribution in India itself, there is an
increasing pressure for Bollywood films to attain the same production levels,
particularly in areas such as action and special effects. Recent Bollywood
films have employed international technicians to improve in these areas, such
as Krrish (2006) which has action choreographed by Hong Kong based Tony Ching.
The increasing accessibility to professional action and special effects,
coupled with rising film budgets, has seen an explosion in the action and
sci-fi genres.
Sequences
shot overseas have proved a real box office draw, so Mumbai film crews are
increasingly filming in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the
United States, continental Europe and elsewhere. Nowadays, Indian producers are
winning more and more funding for big-budget films shot within India as well,
such as Lagaan, Devdas and other recent films.
Funding for
Bollywood films often comes from private distributors and a few large studios.
Indian banks and financial institutions were forbidden from lending money to
movie studios. However, this ban has now been lifted. As finances are not
regulated, some funding also comes from illegitimate sources, such as the
Mumbai underworld. The Mumbai underworld has been known to be involved in the
production of several films, and are notorious for their patronisation of
several prominent film personalities; On occasion, they have been known to use
money and muscle power to get their way in cinematic deals. In January 2000,
Mumbai mafia hitmen shot Rakesh Roshan, a film director and father of star
Hrithik Roshan. In 2001, the Central Bureau of Investigation seized all prints
of the movie Chori Chori Chupke Chupke after the movie was found to be funded
by members of the Mumbai underworld.
Another
problem facing Bollywood is widespread copyright infringement of its films.
Often, bootleg DVD copies of movies are available before the prints are
officially released in cinemas. Manufacturing of bootleg DVD, VCD, and VHS
copies of the latest movie titles is a well established 'small scale industry'
in parts of South Asia and South East Asia. The Federation of Indian Chambers
of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) estimates that the Bollywood industry loses
$100 million annually in loss of revenue from pirated home videos and DVDs.
Besides catering to the homegrown market, demand for these copies is large
amongst some sections of the Indian diaspora, too. (In fact, bootleg copies are
the only way people in Pakistan can watch Bollywood movies, since the
Government of Pakistan has banned their sale, distribution and telecast). Films
are frequently broadcast without compensation by countless small cable TV
companies in India and other parts of South Asia. Small convenience stores run
by members of the Indian diaspora in the US and the UK regularly stock tapes
and DVDs of dubious provenance, while consumer copying adds to the problem. The
availability of illegal copies of movies on the Internet also contributes to
the piracy problem.
Satellite
TV, television and imported foreign films are making huge inroads into the
domestic Indian entertainment market. In the past, most Bollywood films could
make money; now fewer tend to do so. However, most Bollywood producers make
money, recouping their investments from many sources of revenue, including
selling ancillary rights. There are also increasing returns from theatres in
Western countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, where
Bollywood is slowly getting noticed. As more Indians migrate to these
countries, they form a growing market for upscale Indian films.
For a
comparison of Hollywood and Bollywood financial figures, see chart. It shows
tickets sold in 2002 and total revenue estimates. Bollywood sold 3.6 billion
tickets and had total revenues (theatre tickets, DVDs, television and so on.) of
US$1.3 billion, whereas Hollywood films sold 2.6 billion tickets and generated
total revenues (again from all formats) of US$51 billion.
Advertising
Many Indian
artists used to make a living by hand-painting movie billboards and posters
(The well-known artist M.F. Hussain used to paint film posters early in his
career). This was because human labour was found to be cheaper than printing
and distributing publicity material. Now, a majority of the huge and ubiquitous
billboards in India's major cities are created with computer-printed vinyl. The
old hand-painted posters, once regarded as ephemera, are becoming increasingly
collectible as folk art.
Releasing
the film music, or music videos, before the actual release of the film can also
be considered a form of advertising. A popular tune is believed to help pull
audiences into the theatres.
Bollywood
publicists have begun to use the Internet as a venue for advertising. Most of
the better-funded film releases now have their own websites, where browsers can
view trailers, stills, and information about the story, cast, and crew.
Bollywood is
also used to advertise other products. Product placement, as used in Hollywood,
is widely practised in Bollywood.
Bollywood
movie stars appear in print and television advertisements for other products,
such as watches or soap (see Celebrity endorsement). Advertisers say that a
star endorsement boosts sales.
Awards
The Filmfare
Awards ceremony is one of the most prominent film events given for Hindi films
in India. The Indian screen magazine Filmfare started the first Filmfare Awards
in 1954, and awards were given to the best films of 1953. The ceremony was
referred to as the Clare Awards after the magazine's editor. Modelled after the
poll-based merit format of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,
individuals may submit their votes in separate categories. A dual voting system
was developed in 1956. Like the Oscars, the Filmfare awards are frequently
accused of bias towards commercial success rather than artistic merit.
As the
Filmfare, the National Film Awards were introduced in 1954. Since 1973, the
Indian government has sponsored the National Film Awards, awarded by the
government run Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF). The DFF screens not only
Bollywood films, but films from all the other regional movie industries and
independent/art films. These awards are handed out at an annual ceremony
presided over by the President of India. Under this system, in contrast to the
National Film Awards, which are decided by a panel appointed by Indian
Government, the Filmfare Awards are voted for by both the public and a
committee of experts.
Additional
ceremonies held within India are:
Screen
Awards
Stardust
Awards
The Global
Indian Film and Television Honours
Ceremonies held
overseas are:
Bollywood
Movie Awards – Long Island, New York, United States
Global
Indian Film Awards – (different country each year)
International
Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA) – (different country each year)
Zee Cine
Awards- (different country each year)
Most of
these award ceremonies are lavishly staged spectacles, featuring singing,
dancing, and numerous celebrities.
Film education
Film and
Television Institute of India
Satyajit Ray
Film and Television Institute
Asian
Academy of Film & Television
Popularity
and appeal
See also:
List of highest-grossing Bollywood films
Besides
being popular among the India diaspora, such far off locations as Nigeria to
Egypt to Senegal and to Russia generations of non-Indian fans have grown up
with Bollywood during the years, bearing witness to the cross-cultural appeal
of Indian movies. Over the last years of the twentieth century and beyond,
Bollywood progressed in its popularity as it entered the consciousness of
Western audiences and producers, with Western actors now actively seeking roles
in Bollywood movies.
Africa
Historically,
Hindi films have been distributed to some parts of Africa, largely by Lebanese
businessmen. Mother India (1957), for example, continued to be played in
Nigeria decades after its release. Indian movies have also gained ground so as
to alter the style of Hausa fashions, songs have also been copied by Hausa
singers and stories have influenced the writings of Nigerian novelists.
Stickers of Indian films and stars decorate taxis and buses in Northern
Nigeria, while posters of Indian films adorn the walls of tailor shops and
mechanics' garages in the country. Unlike in Europe and North America where
Indian films largely cater to the expatriate Indian market yearning to keep in
touch with their homeland, in West Africa, as in many other parts of the world,
such movies rose in popularity despite the lack of a significant Indian
audience, where movies are about an alien culture, based on a religion wholly
different, and, for the most part, a language that is unintelligible to the
viewers. One such explanation for this lies in the similarities between the two
cultures. Other similarities include wearing turbans; the presence of animals
in markets; porters carrying large bundles, chewing sugar cane; youths riding
Bajaj motor scooters; wedding celebrations, and so forth. With the strict
Muslim culture, Indian movies were said to show "respect" toward
women, where Hollywood movies were seen to have "no shame". In Indian
movies women were modestly dressed, men and women rarely kiss, and there is no
nudity, thus Indian movies are said to "have culture" that Hollywood
films lack. The latter choice was a failure because "they don't base
themselves on the problems of the people," where the former is based
socialist values and on the reality of developing countries emerging from years
of colonialism. Indian movies also allowed for a new youth culture to follow
without such ideological baggage as "becoming western."
Bollywood is
also popular among Somalis and the Somali diaspora, where the emerging Islamic
Courts Union found a bête noire. Chad and Ethiopia have also shown an interest
in the movies.
Several
Bollywood personalities have avenued to the continent for both shooting movies
and off-camera projects. The film Padmashree Laloo Prasad Yadav (2005) was one
of many movies shot in South Africa. Dil Jo Bhi Kahey (2005) was shot almost
entirely in Mauritius, which has a large ethnically Indian population.
Ominously,
however, the popularity of old Bollywood versus a new, changing Bollywood seems
to be diminishing the popularity on the continent. The changing style of
Bollywood has begun to question such an acceptance. The new era features more
sexually explicit and violent films. Nigerian viewers, for example, commented
that older films of the 1950s and 1960s had culture to the newer, more
westernised picturizations. The old days of India avidly "advocating
decolonization ... and India's policy was wholly influenced by his missionary
zeal to end racial domination and discrimination in the African
territories" were replaced by newer realities. The emergence of Nollywood,
Africa's local movie industry has also contributed to the declining popularity
of Bollywood films. A greater globalised world worked in tandem with the
sexualisation of Indian films so as to become more like American films, thus
negating the preferred values of an old Bollywood and diminishing Indian soft
power.
Asia
Bollywood
films are widely watched in South Asian countries, including Bangladesh, Nepal,
Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Many
Pakistanis watch Bollywood films, as they understand Hindi (due to its
linguistic similarity to Urdu). Pakistan banned the legal import of Bollywood
movies in 1965. However, trade in pirated DVDs and illegal cable broadcasts
ensured the continued popularity of Bollywood releases in Pakistan. Exceptions
were made for a few films, such as the 2006 colorised re-release of the classic
Mughal-e-Azam or the 2006 film Taj Mahal. Early in 2008, the Pakistani government
eased the ban and allowed the import of even more movies; 16 were screened in
2008. Continued easing followed in 2009 and 2010. The new policy is opposed by
nationalists and representatives of Pakistan's small film industry but is
embraced by cinema owners, who are making profits after years of low receipts.
Bollywood
movies are popular in Afghanistan due to the country's proximity to the Indian
subcontinent and cultural perspectives present in the movies. A number of
Bollywood movies were filmed inside Afghanistan while some dealt with the
country, including Dharmatma, Kabul Express, Khuda Gawah and Escape From
Taliban. Hindi films have been popular in Arab countries, including Palestine,
Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf countries. Imported Indian films are usually
subtitled in Arabic upon the film's release. Since the early 2000s, Bollywood
has progressed in Israel. Special channels dedicated to Indian films have been
displayed on cable television. Bollywood films are popular in Southeast Asia
(particularly in Maritime Southeast Asia) and Central Asia (particularly in
Uzbekistan and Tajikistan).
Bollywood
films are widely appreciated in East Asian countries such as China, Japan,
South Korea and etc. Some Hindi movies had success in the China and South korea,
Japan in the 1940s and 1950s and are popular till today. The most popular Hindi
films in that country were Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani (1946), Awaara (1951) and
Do Bigha Zamin (1953). Raj Kapoor was a famous movie star in China, and the
song "Awara Hoon" ("I am a Tramp") was popular in the
country. Since then, Hindi films significantly declined in popularity in China,
until the Academy Award nominated Lagaan (2001) became the first Indian film to
have a nation-wide release there in decades. The Chinese filmmaker He Ping was
impressed by Lagaan, especially its soundtrack, and thus hired the film's music
composer A. R. Rahman to score the soundtrack for his film Warriors of Heaven
and Earth (2003). Several older Hindi films have a cult following in Japan, particularly
the films directed by Guru Dutt.
However, the
2009 film 3 idiots would became the most popular Bollywood film in East Asia.
It grossed over $3 million in South Korea. The film had the longest showing
period at cinemas in Taiwan, for more than two months from December 2010,
breaking the record of Avatar, with over TWD $10 million grossed. It was the
first aired Indian film in Hong Kong, where it grossed HKD $22 million since
its showing from 1 September 2011, as of January 2012, and the equivalent of
over US $3 million as of 4 March 2012. In China, where it is known as San
Geshagua ("Three Idiots"), the film grossed $1.15 million in four
days in December 2011, eventually crossing the $2 million mark within 18 days,
and nearly $3 million within a month as of 5 January 2012. Alongside the
original Hindi version, a Chinese-dubbed version was also released, with the
popular actress Tang Wei (best known for Lust, Caution) voicing Kareena
Kapoor's role.
Indian films
are the most popular foreign films in Tajikistan, and Hindi-Urdu departments
are very large in the country.
Europe
"Bollywood
Steps" show from Bristol
The
awareness of Hindi cinema is substantial in the United Kingdom,where they
frequently enter the UK top ten. Many films, such as Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham
(2001) have been set in London. Bollywood is also appreciated in France,
Germany, the Netherlands,and the Scandinavian countries. Various Bollywood
movies are dubbed in German and shown on the German television channel RTL II
on a regular basis.
Bollywood
films are particularly popular in the former Soviet Union. Bollywood films have
been dubbed into Russian, and shown in prominent theatres such as Mosfilm and
Lenfilm.
Ashok
Sharma, Indian Ambassador to Suriname, who has served three times in the
Commonwealth of Independent States region during his diplomatic career said:
The
popularity of Bollywood in the CIS dates back to the Soviet days when the films
from Hollywood and other Western countries were banned in the Soviet Union. As
there was no means of other cheap entertainment, the films from Bollywood
provided the Soviets a cheap source of entertainment as they were supposed to
be non-controversial and non-political. In addition, the Soviet Union was
recovering from the onslaught of the Second World War. The films from India,
which were also recovering from the disaster of partition and the struggle for
freedom from colonial rule, were found to be a good source of providing hope
with entertainment to the struggling masses. The aspirations and needs of the
people of both countries matched to a great extent. These films were dubbed in
Russian and shown in theatres throughout the Soviet Union. The films from
Bollywood also strengthened family values, which was a big factor for their
popularity with the government authorities in the Soviet Union.
The film
Mera Naam Joker (1970), sought to cater to such an appeal and the popularity of
Raj Kapoor in Russia, when it recruited Russian actress Kseniya Ryabinkina for
the movie. In the contemporary era, Lucky: No Time for Love (2005) was shot
entirely in Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet film distribution system,
Hollywood occupied the void created in the Russian film market. This made
things difficult for Bollywood as it was losing market share to Hollywood.
However, Russian newspapers report that there is a renewed interest in
Bollywood among young Russians.
North America
Bollywood
has experienced a marked growth in revenue in North American markets, and is
particularly popular amongst the South Asian communities in large cities as
Chicago, Toronto and New York City. Yash Raj Films, one of India's largest
production houses and distributors, reported in September 2005 that Bollywood
films in the United States earn around $100 million a year through theatre
screenings, video sales and the sale of movie soundtracks. In other words,
films from India do more business in the United States than films from any
other non-English speaking country. Numerous films in the mid-1990s and onwards
have been largely, or entirely, shot in New York, Los Angeles, Vancouver and
Toronto. Bollywood's immersion in the traditional Hollywood domain was further
tied with such films as The Guru (2002) and Marigold: An Adventure in India
(2007) trying to popularise the Bollywood-theme for Hollywood.
Oceania
Bollywood is
not as successful in the Oceanic countries and Pacific Islands such as New
Guinea. However, it ranks second to Hollywood in countries such as Fiji, with
its large Indian minority, Australia and New Zealand.
Australia is
one of the countries where there is a large South Asian Diaspora. Bollywood is
popular amongst non-Asians in the country as well. Since 1997 the country has
provided a backdrop for an increasing number of Bollywood films. Indian
filmmakers have been attracted to Australia's diverse locations and landscapes,
and initially used it as the setting for song-and-dance sequences, which
demonstrated the contrast between the values. However, nowadays, Australian
locations are becoming more important to the plot of Bollywood films. Hindi
films shot in Australia usually incorporate aspects of Australian lifestyle.
The Yash Raj Film Salaam Namaste (2005) became the first Indian film to be shot
entirely in Australia and was the most successful Bollywood film of 2005 in the
country. This was followed by Heyy Babyy (2007) Chak De! India (2007) and Singh
Is Kinng (2008) which turned out to be box office successes. Following the
release of Salaam Namaste, on a visit to India the then prime minister John
Howard also sought, having seen the film, to have more Indian movies shooting
in the country to boost tourism, where the Bollywood and cricket nexus, was
further tightened with Steve Waugh's appointment as tourism ambassador to
India. Australian actress Tania Zaetta, who co-starred in Salaam Namaste, among
other Bollywood films, expressed her keenness to expand her career in
Bollywood.
South America
Bollywood
movies are not influential in many countries of South America, though Bollywood
culture and dance is recognised. However, due to significant South Asian
diasporic communities in Suriname and Guyana, Hindi language movies are
popular. In 2006, Dhoom 2 became the first Bollywood film to be shot in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil.
In January
2012, it was announced that UTV Motion Pictures would be releasing movies in
Peru, starting with Guzaarish.
Plagiarism
Constrained
by rushed production schedules and small budgets, some Bollywood writers and
musicians have been known to resort to plagiarism. Ideas, plot lines, tunes or
riffs have been copied from other Indian film industries or foreign films
(including Hollywood and other Asian films) without acknowledgement of the
original source. This has led to criticism towards the film industry.
Before the
1990s, this could be done with impunity. Copyright enforcement was lax in India
and few actors or directors ever saw an official contract. The Hindi film
industry was not widely known to non-Indian audiences (excluding the Soviet
states), who would not even be aware that their material was being copied.
Audiences may also not have been aware of the plagiarism since many audiences
in India were unfamiliar with foreign films and music. While copyright
enforcement in India is still somewhat lenient, Bollywood and other film industries
are much more aware of each other now and Indian audiences are more familiar
with foreign movies and music. Organizations like the India EU Film Initiative
seek to foster a community between film makers and industry professional
between India and the EU.
One of the
common justifications of plagiarism in Bollywood in the media is that producers
often play a safer option by remaking popular Hollywood films in an Indian
context. Screenwriters generally produce original scripts, but due to financial
uncertainty and insecurity over the success of a film many were rejected.
Screenwriters themselves have been criticised for lack of creativity which
happened due to tight schedules and restricted funds in the industry to employ
better screenwriters. Certain filmmakers see plagiarism in Bollywood as an
integral part of globalisation where American and western cultures are firmly
embedding themselves into Indian culture, which is manifested, amongst other
mediums, in Bollywood films. Vikram Bhatt, director of films such as Raaz, a
remake of What Lies Beneath, and Kasoor, a remake of Jagged Edge, has spoken
about the strong influence of American culture and desire to produce box office
hits based along the same lines in Bollywood. He said, "Financially, I
would be more secure knowing that a particular piece of work has already done
well at the box office. Copying is endemic everywhere in India. Our TV shows
are adaptations of American programmes. We want their films, their cars, their
planes, their Diet Cokes and also their attitude. The American way of life is
creeping into our culture." Mahesh Bhatt has said, "If you hide the
source, you're a genius. There's no such thing as originality in the creative
sphere".
There have
been very few cases of film copyright violations taken to court because of
serious delays in the legal process, and due to the long time they take to
decide a case. There have been some notable cases of conflict though. The
makers of Partner (2007) and Zinda (2005) have been targeted by the owners and
distributors of the original films, Hitch and Oldboy. American Studio Twentieth
Century Fox brought the Mumbai-based B.R. Films to court over its forthcoming
Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai, allegedly an illegal remake of its 1992 film My Cousin
Vinny. B.R. Films eventually settled out of court by paying the studio at a
cost of about $200,000, paving the way for the film's release. Some on the
other hand do comply with copyright law, with Orion Pictures in 2008 securing
the rights to remake the Hollywood film Wedding Crashers.
At the turn of this century, when the country
was poised for major social and political reforms, a new entertainment form
dawned in India-the Cinema. The first exposure to motion pictures which India
received was in 1896, when the Lumiere Brothers' Chinematographe unveiled six
soundless short films at Watson Hotel, Esplanade Mansion, Bombay on July 7. And
the first exposing of celluloid in camera by an Indian and its consequent
screening took place in 1899, when Harishchandra Bhatvadekar (Save Dada) shot
two short films and exhibited them under Edison's projecting kinetoscope.
Hiralal Sen and F.B. Thanawalla were two other
Indian pioneers engaged in the production of short films in Calcutta and Bombay
in 1900. Around 1902, J.F. Madan and Abdullah Esoofally launched their career
with Bioscope shows of imported short films. In 1912 , N.G. Chitre and R.G.
Torney made a silent feature film Pundalik which was released on May 18, and it
was half British in its make.
Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, more generally known
as Dada Saheb Phalke was responsible for the production of India's first fully
indigenous silent feature film Raja Harishchandra which heralded the birth of
the Indian film industry. The film had titles in Hindi and English and was
released on May 3, 1913 at the Coronation Cinema, Bombay. In 1917, Bengal saw
the birth of its first feature film-Satyabadi Raja Harishchandra made by
Madan's Elphinstone Bioscope Company. In Madras, the first feature film of
South India Keechaka Vadham was made by Nataraja Mudaliar in 1919.
After stepping into 1920, the Indian cinema
gradually assumed the shape of a regular industry. The industry also came
within the purview of the law. The new decade saw the arrival of many new
companies and film makers. Dhiren Ganguly (England Returned), Baburao Painter
(Savkari Pash), Suchet Singh (Sakuntala), Chandulal Shah (Guna Sundari),
Ardershir Israni, and V. Santharam were the prominent film makers of the
twenties.
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.
The thirties is recognised as the decade of
social protests in the history of Indian Cinema. Three big banners-Prabhat,
Bombay Talkies and New Theatres gave the lead in making serious but gripping
sand entertaining films for all classes of the wide audience. A number of films
making a strong plea against social injustice were also made in this period
like V.Santharam's Duniya Na Mane, Aadmi and Padosi, Franz Osten's Achut Kanya,
Damle & Fatehlal's Sant Thukaram, Mehboob's Watan, Ek hi Raasta and Aurat.
For the first time Ardeshir Irani attempted a colour picture in 1937 with Kisan
Kanya.
The decade also witnessed the release of the
first talkie films in Marathi (Ayodhiyecha Raja 1932), Gujarathi (Narasinh
Mehta-32), Kannada (Dhurvkumar-34); Oriya (Sita Bibaha-34); Assamese
(Joymati-35); Punjabi (Sheila-35) and Malayalam(Balan-38).
The decade during which the second world was
fought and Indian independence won, was a momentous one for cinematography all
over India. Some memorable films were produced during the forties such as
Shantharam's Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani, Mehboob's Roti, Chetan Anand's Neecha
Nagar, Uday Shanker's Kalpana, Abbas's Dharti Ke Lal, Sohrab Modi's Sikander,
Pukar and Prithvi Vallabh, J.B.H. Wadia's Court Dancer, S.S. Vasan's Chandralekha,
Vijay Bhatt's Bharat Milap and Ram Rajya, Rajkapoor's Barsaat and Aag.
The first International Film Festival of India
held in early 1952 at Bombay had great impact of Indian Cinema. The big turning
point camp in 1955 with the arrival of Satyajit Ray and his classic Pather
Panchali which opened up a new path leading the Indian film to the World Film
Scene. International recognition came to it with the Cannes award for best
human document followed by an unprecedented crop of foreign and national
awards. In Hindi Cinema too, the impact of neorealism was evident in some
distinguished films like Bimal Roy's Do Bigha Zamin, Devadas and Madhumati,
Rajkapoor's Boot Polish, Shri-420 and Jagte Raho, V. Shantharam's Do Aankhen
Barah Haath and Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baaje, Mehbood's Mother India.
Gurudutt's Pyaasa, and Kagaz Ke Phool and B.R.
Chopra's Kanoon; The first Indo-Soviet co-production Pardesi by K.A.Abbas was
also made during the fifties. The transition to colour and the consequent
preference for escapist entertainment and greater reliance on stars brought
about a complete change in the film industry. The sixties was a decade of
mediocre films made mostly to please the distributors and to some extent, meet
the demands of the box office. The sixties began with a bang with the release
of K. Asif's Mughal-E-Azam which set a record at the box-office. It was
followed by notable productions which include romantic musical and melodramas
of a better quality. Rajkapoor's Jis Desh Mein Ganga Behti Hai, Sangam, Dilip
Kumar's Gunga Jamna, Gurudutt's Sahib Bibi Aur Gulam, Dev Anand's Guide; Bimal
Roy's Bandini, S.Mukherji's Junglee, Sunil Dutt's Mujhe Jeene Do and the
experimental Yaadein, Basu Bhatacharya's Teesri Kasam, Pramod Chakravorthy's
Love in Tokyo, Ramanand Sagar's Arzoo, Sakhti Samantha's Aradhana, Hrishikesh
Mukherji's Aashirwad and Anand, B.R. Chopra's Waqt, Manoj Kumar's Upkar, and
Prasad Productions Milan were the significant Hindi films of the decade.
Among the regional languages, Malayalam cinema
derived much of its strength from literature during the sixties. Malayalam
cinema hit the head lines for the first time when Ramu Kariat's Chemmeen (1965)
won the President's Gold Medal. Towards the end of the decade, Mrinal Sen's
Bhuvan Shome, signalled the beginnings of the new wave in Indian Cinema.
The New Indian Cinema emerged as a reaction to
the popular cinema's Other Worldiness. It is a cinema of social significance
and artistic sincerity, presenting a modern, humanist perspective more durable
than the fantasy world of the popular cinema.
Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen
were the founding fathers of the new cinema in India. Acclaimed as India's
foremost director Satyajit Ray has made 30 feature films and five
documentaries, tacking a wide range of rural, urban historical themes. His
cinematography places him away form the inheritors of the neorealist school,
and yet his films are infused with an unusual humaneness. Pather Panchali, Apur
Sansar, Charulata, Jalsaghar, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, Seemabadha, Jana Aranya,
Ashani Sanket and Agantuk are some of his outstanding films. He was fortunate
enough to present his films in almost all the leading films festivals of the
world. The national and international awards won by Ray are numerous.
Ritwik Ghatak swooped on the Indian scene with
new dynamism. His films constitute a record of the traumas of change form the
desperation of the rootless and deprived refugees from East Bengal .(Meghe
Dhaka Tara, Ajantrik, Komal Ghandhar, Subarnarekha). Mrinal Sen is the
ebullient one-experimenting with neorealism as well as new wave and fantasy.
His notable films are Bhuvan Shome, Chorus, Mrigaya, Ek Din Pratidin, Akaler
Sandhane, Kharij & Khandahar. He has also won several national an international
awards.
In Bombay, a new group of film makers emerged
on the Hindi cinema. Notable amongst them are Basu Chatterji (Sara Akash),
Rajinder Singh Bedi (Dastak), Mani Kaul (Uski Roti, Duvidha), Kumar Shahani
(Maya Darpan), Avtar Kaul (27-Down), Basu Bhattacharya (Anubhav), M.S. Sathyu
(Garam Hawa), Shyam Benegal (Ankur), and Kanthilal Rathod (Kanku). In Calcutta,
following the trend set by Ray, Ghatak and Sen, Tapan Sinha and Tarun Majumdar
also made some note worthy films. (Kabuliwala, Hatey Bazarey, Harmonium, Safed
Haathi; Balika Bodhu, Nimantran, Ganadevta, Dadar Kirti).
The seventies has further-widened the gap
between multistar big budgeted off beat films. The popular Hindi hits of the
decade include Kamal Amrohis Pakeeza, Rajkapoor's Bobby , Devar's Haathi Mere
Saathi, Ramesh Sippy's Sholay, Zanjeer, Deewar, Khoon Pasina, Yaadon Ki Baarat,
Kabhi Kabhi, Dharamveer, Amar Akbar Anthony, Hum Kisise Kum Nahin, and Muqaddar
ka Sikandar. Of these majority of the films were action oriented with revenge
as the dominating theme.
Down in the South, the new wave cinema
originated in Karnataka and Kerala. Pattabhi Rama Reddy's Damskara (70) and
Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Swayamvaram (72) were the trend setters in Kannada and
Malayalam respectively. This continued with a series of socially conspicuous
films like M.T. Vasidevan Nair's Nirmalyam, B.V.Karanth's Chomana Dudi, Girish
Karnad's Kaadu, Girish Kasara Valli's Ghatasradha, G. Aravindan's Uttarayanam
and Thamp, K. Balachander's Arangetram, Avargal and Apoorva Ragangal, Adoor's
Kodyettam, K.G. George's Swapnadanam and P.A. Backer's Chuvanna Vithukal and
G.V.Iyer's Hamsageethe.
The Hindi avante garde or new wave seems to
have reached its bloom period towards the end of the seventies with the coming
of film makers like Govind Nihalani (Aakrosh), Saeed Mirza (Albert Pinto Ko
Gussa Kyon Aata Hai, Aravind Desai ki Ajeeb Daastan), Rabindra Dharmaraj
(Chakra), Sai Paranjpe (Sparsh), Muzafar Ali (Gaman) and Biplab Roy Chowdhari
(Shodh). The movement spread to the other regional cinemas such as Marathi,
Gujarathi, Assamese, Oriya and Telugu. Directors like Jabbar Patel (Samna,
Simhasan), Ramdas Phuttane (Sarvasakshi), Ketan Mehta (Bhavni Bhavai).
Babendranath Saikia(Sandhya Rag), Jahanu Barua (Aparoopa, Papori), Manmohan
Mohapatra (Klanta Aparanha, Majhi Pahacha), Nirad Mohapatra (Maya Miriga) and
Gautam Ghose (Ma Bhoomi) came to the scene with their films.
Also from the South came film makers such as
Jayakantan, John Abraham, Bharathan, Padmarajan, Balu Mahendra, Bharathi Raja,
T.S. Ranga, T.S. Nagabharana, K.R. Mohanan, G.S. Panicker, Chandrasekhar
Kambar, P.Lankesh, C. Radhakrishnan and Bhagyaraj who presented significant
films like Unnai Pol Oruvan, Agraharathil Kazhuthai, Prayanam, Peruvazhiambalam
and Oridathsoru Phayalvan, Kokila, 16 Vayathinile and Kizhakke Pokum Rail ,
Geejegand Goodu, Grahana, Aswathama, Ekakini, Kaadu Kudre, Pallavi, Agni, Suvar
Illatha Chithrangal and Mundani Mudichu.
The new cinema movement continued with full
spirit in. the next decade (eighties) also . Shyam Benegal presented some good
movies like Manthan, Bhumika, Nishant, Janoon , and Trikal. Nihlani's Aaghat
and Tamas were remarkable works. Other important films with new style of
treatment include Damul (Prakash Jha), 36-Chowringhee Lane (Aparna Sen), New
Delhi Times (Ramesh Sharma), Mirch Masala (Ketan Mehta), Rao Saheb (Vijaya
Mehta), Debshishu (Utpalendu Chakraborthy), Massey Saheb (Pradeep Kishna),
Trishagni (Nabayendu Ghosh), Ijaazat (Gulzar), Umrao Jaan (Muzafar Ali),
Dakhal, Paar (Gautam Ghose), Dooratwa, Neem Annapurana, Andhi Gali (Buddhadeb
Dasgupta), Aajka Robin Hood (Tapan Sinha), Tabarana Kathe, Bannada Vesha
(Girish Kasara Valli), Accident & Swamy (Shanker Naag), Daasi (B. Narasinga
Rao) and Phaniyamma (Prema Karanth).
The new wave masters of Kerala, Adoor and
Arvindan, consolidated their position in the eighties with their films Elippathayam,
Mukha Mukham, Anantharam, Esthappan, Pokkuveyil, Chidambaram, and Oridath,
Elippathayam has won the prestigious British film Institute award for 1982.
Shaji N.Karun's maiden film Piravi(1988) bagged several national and
international awards and was shown in nearly forty film festivals. Meera Nair,
the young woman director, won the Golden Camera award at Cannes for her first
film Salaam Bombay in 1989. In 1990, Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Mathilukal won the
FIPRESCI and UNICEF awards.
The late eighties and early nineties saw the
revival of the musical love stories in Hindi cinema. Mr. India, Tezaab, Qayamat
se Qayamat Tak, Main Pyar Kiya, Chandni, Tridev, Hum, Ghayal, Saudagar,
Rakhwala, Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander, Hum Hain Rahi Pyarke, Baazigar, Aaina, Yeh Dillagi,
Hum Apake Hai Kaun, Krantiveer, Raja and Rangeela were some of the popular
Hindi films of the last decade.
The first half of nineties witnessed the
release of some better films in Hindi as well as in other regional languages.
Drishti and Drohkal (Nihalani), Lekin (Gulzar), Disha (Sai Paranjpe), Prahar
(Nana Patekar), Parinda (Vinod Chopra), Diskha (Arun Kaul), Kasba (Kumar
Shahani), Rudaali (Kalpana Lajmi), Maya Memsaab (Ketan Mehta), Mujhse Dosti
Karoge (Gopi Desai), Suraj Ka Satwan Ghoda & Mammo (Benegal), Who Chokri
(Subhankar Ghosh)&Ek Doctor Ki Maut (Tapan Sinha), were some of the notable
Hindi films from Bengal, Orissa, Assam and Manipur came films like Tahader
Katha, Bagh Bahadur, Charachar (Buddhadeb Dasgupta), Uttoran (Sandip Ray),
Wheel Chair (Tapan Sinha), Unishe April (Rituparno Ghosh), Adi Mimansa,
Lalvanya Preethi (A.K. Bir), Nirbachana (Biplab Roy Chowdhari), Halodhia
Choraya Baodhan Khai, Firingoti (Jahau Barua), Haladhar (Sanjeev Hazarika), and
Ishanou (Aribam Shayam Sharma). In the South Malayalam Cinema presented some
notable films. They include Vasthuhara (Aravindan)_, Vidheyan (Adoor) Kireedom,
Bharatham (Siby Mmalayil), Amaram (Bharathan) Innale (Padmarajan), Oru Vadakkan
Veeragatha, Sargam, Parinayam (Hariharan), Devasuram (I..V.Sasi). Kilukkam,
Thenmavin Kombath (Priyadarsan), Perumthachan (Ajayan), Daivathinte Vikurthikal
(Lenin Rajendran), (Sivan), Manichithrathazu (Fazil), Ponthanmada (T.V.
Chandran) and Swaham (Shaji), From Tamil and Telugu cinema, there came few
films like Anjali, Roja and Bombay (Mani Ratnam) ,Marupakkam and Nammavar
(Sethsumadhavan),Karuthamma (Bharathi Raja), Surigadu (Dasari Narayana Rao),
Swathi Kiranam (K.Viswanath), Mogha Mul (G.Rajasekharan) etc. English film like
Miss Beatty's Children (Pamela Rooks), and English August (Dev Benegal) were
also produced during this period.
All in all, it has been a long story of nearly
nine decades, with the early shaky screen images turning into a multi pronged
and multi winged empire of its own, that has yielded about 27,000 feature films
and thousands of documented short films. Cinema has raised India's flag high in
the world as the consistently largest film producer. But when it comes to
quality the flag has to fly half mast.
All the
above information is courtesy of: All India
