Cinema of India

The Indian film industry is the largest in the world in terms of ticket sales and number of films produced annually (877 feature films and 1177 short films were released in the year 2003 alone). India accounts for 73% of movie admissions in the Asia-Pacific region, and earnings are currently estimated at US$8.9 billion. The industry is mainly supported by the vast cinema-going Indian public. The Central Board of Film Certification of India cites on its website that every three months an audience as large as India's billion-strong population visits cinema halls. Indian films are popular in various parts of the world, especially in countries with significant Indian communities.

The introduction of cinema in India

1896 - 1910

Hiralal Sen

Cinema was introduced to India on July 7, 1896. It began with the Lumiere Brothers' Cinematography, unveiling six silent short films at the Watson's Hotel in Mumbai, namely Entry of Cinematography, The Sea Bath, Arrival of a Train, A Demolition, Ladies & Soldiers on Wheels and Leaving the Factory[2]. The Times of India carried details of the "Living Photographic Pictures in Life-Size Reproductions by Lumiere Brothers". In the same year, the Madras Photographic Store advertised "animated photographs". Daily screenings of films commenced in Bombay in 1897 by Clifton and Co.'s Meadows Street Photography Studio.

In 1898, Hiralal Sen started to film scenes of theatrical productions at the Classic Theatre in Calcutta, inspired by Professor Stevenson (who had brought to India the first bioscope to show a film presentation alongside the stage production of The Flower Of Persia); his debut was a contribution to Stevenson's presentation. He continued making similar films to complement theatrical productions, which were shown as added attractions during intermission, in private screenings for high society households or taken to distant venues where the stage performers could not reach.

Lord and Lady Curzon on an elephant, Coronation Darbar in Delhi, 1903

Harischandra Sakharam Bhatavdekar alias Save Dada, who had attended the show, imported a cine-camera from London at a price of 21 guineas and filmed the first Indian documentary, a wrestling match at Hanging Gardens, Bombay in 1897. In 1901, he recorded the return from Cambridge of "Wrangler" Ragunath P. Paranjpe, who had secured a distinction in mathematics from Cambridge University, and M.M. Bhownuggree, considered the first Indian news film. [3][4]. He also filmed Lord Curzon (Viceroy of India)'s Delhi Durbar that marked the enthronement of Edward VII in 1903.

The commercial potential of cinema was also tested during the time. F.B. Thanewala's Grand Kinetoscope Newsreels is one successful case. J.F. Madan was another highly successful film producer, who released hit films like Bilwamangal; also, he launched Madan Theatres Ltd., India's largest film production-distribution-exhibition company and the biggest importer of American films after World War I. His films were marked by a high degree of technical sophistication, facilitated by his employment of experienced foreign directors like Eugenio De Liguoro and Camille Legrand. This expertise was complemented by grand sets and popular mythological storylines which ensured good returns.

Cinema houses were set up in major Indian cities in this period, like one in Madras (in 1900 by Major Warrick), the Novelty Cinema in Bombay (where newsreels from the Boer War were shown) and the Elphinstone Picture Palace in Calcutta (set up by J.F. Madan in 1907). Apart from these, a number of film shows were arranged in tents; examples are: shows arranged by two Italians, Colorello and Cornaglia, in tents at the Azad Maidan in Bombay, J.F. Madan's tent cinema at the Calcutta Maidan. Another popular mode of broadcasting films was the touring cinema. In 1904, Manek Sethna started the Touring Cinema Co. in Bombay and a year later, Swamikannu Vincent, a railway draughtsman, set up a touring cinema in South India. Pathe, the famous film production company set up an Indian office in 1907.

1910-1920s

A scene from Raja Harishchandra

The first feature film made in India was a narrative named Pundalik, by N.G. Chitre and R.G. Torney. The first full-length Indian feature film was Raja Harishchandra (3700 feet as compared to 1500 for Pundalik), made in 1913 and released commercially in May that year, by Dadasaheb Phalke. Phalke had attended a screening of The Life of Christ at P.B. Mehta's American-Indian Cinema and was inspired to make films himself. He was convinced of the possibility of establishing an indigenous film industry by focusing on Indian themes. In this regard, he said Like the life of Christ, we shall make pictures on Rama and Krishna. The film was about an honest king who for the sake of his principles sacrifices his kingdom and family before the gods, who are impressed with his honesty and restore him to his former glory. The film was a success, and Phalke went on to make more mythological films till the advent of talkies, and commercialization of Indian films lessened his popularity.[5].

In 1916, Universal Pictures set up Hollywood's first Indian agency (see Hollywood meets India, below). The first South Indian feature was Rangaswamy Nataraja Mudaliar's Keechaka Vadham, released in 1918. The following year, he made the film Draupadi Vastrapaharanam, featuring Anglo-Indian actress Marian Hill who played the role of Draupadi.The first Malayalam film, titled Vigathakumaran, was released in 1928.

1930s & 40s

• Alam Ara (The Light of the World; 1931), directed by Ardeshir Irani, was the first Indian sound film.
• Chandidas(1932), directed by Debaki Bose under the New Theatres banner, contained background Music for the first time in Indian Cinema. The Music Director was Raichand Boral, also known as R.C. Boral.
• Debaki Bose's Seeta(1934), made under the auspices of the East India Film Company, was the first Indian talkie shown in any International film festival. It was shown at the Venice Film Festival, where it won an Honorary Diploma. Bose was the first Indian director to receive any international award.
• Nitin Bose's 1935 film Bhagya Chakra, produced by New Theatres, was the first Indian film to use playback singing. The singers were K C Dey, Parul Ghosh and Suprabha Sarkar. The movie was remade in Hindi with the title Dhoop Chhaon, which was the first Hindi film to use playback singing.
• Neecha Nagar (Lowly City) (1946), directed by Chetan Anand, bagged the Palme d'Or (Best Film) award, (then known as 'Grand Prix'), at the Cannes Film Festival in 1946, and became the first Indian film to get major recognition at an international film festival..
• Chandralekha (1948), directed and produced by S. S. Vasan, distributed by Gemini Studios became a landmark in Tamil cinema — a Chennai film industry classic which was also rereleased in Hindi, it became an influential critical and commercial success across the country, and the first All-Indian commercial success.

Influences

There have generally been six major influences that have shaped the conventions of Indian popular cinema. The first was 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. The second influence was the impact of ancient Sanskrit drama, with its highly stylized 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), characterizing them as spectacular dance-dramas which has continued in Indian cinema. The third influence was 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 fourth influence was 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." These influences are evident in the masala film genre that began with Manmohan Desai in the 1970s.

The fifth influence was 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." The final influence was 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 recent Indian films. An early example of this approach was in Mani Ratnam's Bombay (1995).

Regional film industries

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A cinema hall in Delhi

India is a large country where many languages are spoken. According to the 1991 Census of India there are about 10,400 'raw mother tongues' in India. If closely related and mutually comprehensible dialects are grouped, the number can be reduced to 1576 ‘rationalised’ mother tongues, or with even more consolidation, 415 main languages.

These 415 languages are the ones surveyed in the Indian census. Indian film producers have made films in thirty of the largest languages. However, only the very largest language groups support major regional industries. These are: Hindi/Urdu, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Marathi, Kannada, Odiya. Official statistics categorise Indian films according to the languages in which they are distributed.

There is a great deal of mobility between the regional industries. Many workers in other regional industries, once their talent and popularity is established, move on to work in other film industries, nationally as well as internationally. For example, A. R. Rahman, an Academy Award winner, started his career in Tamil cinema in Chennai but has since worked in Bollywood, London, and New York. Similarly, films that succeed in one language are often remade or dubbed in others. Films like Padosan and Roja, for example, were re-made or dubbed from their original Bengali and Tamil versions respectively, into Hindi.

Assamese film industry

Main article: Cinema of Assam

The history of Assamese cinema dates back to 1935 when Jyoti Prasad Agarwala released the first Assamese movie Joymoti. Since then Assamese cinema has developed a slow-paced sensitive style, especially with the movies of Bhabendra Nath Saikia and Jahnu Barua. However despite the long history and artistic successes, with many Assamese movies making a mark in the National Awards over the years, to date commercial success, has more or less eluded the industry. Although the beginning of the 21st century has seen Bollywood-style Assamese movies hitting the screens, the industry has not performed well commercially, significantly overshadowed by the larger industries like Bollywood.

Bangla film Industry

Main articles: Bengali cinema and Cinema of West Bengal

See also: List of Bengali films

Satyajit Ray

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Chokher Bali

The history of cinema in Bengal dates back to the 1890s, when the first "bioscopes" were shown in theatres in Calcutta. Within a decade, the first seeds of the industry was sown by Hiralal Sen, considered a stalwart of Victorian era cinema when he set up the Royal Bioscope Company, producing scenes from the stage productions of a number of popular shows at the Start Theatre, Minerva Theatre, Classic Theatre. Following a long gap after Sen's works, Dhirendra Nath Ganguly (Known as D.G) established Indo British Film Co, the first Bengali owned production company, in 1918. However, the first Bengali Feature film, Billwamangal, was produced in 1919, under the banner of Madan Theatre. Bilat Ferat was the IBFC's first production in 1921. The Madan Theatres production of Jamai Shashthi was the first Bengali talkie. A long history has been traversed since then, with stalwarts such as Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak and others having earned international acclaim and securing their place in the movie history. Today, there are two Bengali film industries, one in Tollygunge area of Kolkata (Calcutta), India and another one in Dhaka, Bangladesh (the cinema of Bangladesh has been a major commercially successful industry of Bengali cinema).

The most famous film director of Bengali film industry is Satyajit Ray, who won an Oscar for lifetime achievement in cinema. This industry has always remained the hot favourites among the National Film Awards jury almost every year since its inception. Some of the better known personalities from this industry include Uttam Kumar, Soumitra Chatterjee, Proshenjit among actors, Suchitra Sen, Supriya Devi, Madhabi Mukherjee among actresses, Bimal Roy, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Goutam Ghose, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Aparna Sen and Rituparno Ghosh among directors, and Hemanta Mukherjee, Manna Dey and Sandhya Mukhopadhyay among playback singers.

Bhojpuri film industry

Main articles: Bhojpuri cinema and Cinema of Bihar

See also: List of Bhojpuri Films

Bhojpuri, often considered a dialect of Hindi, originates in western Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh in northern India. Speakers of it and its creoles are found in many parts of the world, including Brazil, Fiji, Guyana, Mauritius, South Africa, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, many colonizers faced labor shortages due to the abolition of slavery; thus, they imported many Indians, many from Bhojpuri-speaking regions, as indentured servants to labor on plantations.

Bhojpuri cinema, based in Purvanchal, has a history beginning in 1962 with the well-received film Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo ("Mother Ganges, I will offer you a yellow sari"), which was directed by Kundan Kumar. Throughout the following decades, films were produced only in fits and starts. Films such as Bidesiya ("Foreigner," 1963, directed by S. N. Tripathi) and Ganga ("Ganges," 1965, directed by Kundan Kumar) were profitable and popular, but in general Bhojpuri films were not commonly produced in the 1960s and 1970s.

In the 1980s, enough Bhojpuri films were produced to tentatively make up an industry. Films such as Mai ("Mom," 1989, directed by Rajkumar Sharma) and Hamar Bhauji ("My Brother's Wife," 1983, directed by Kalpataru) continued to have at least sporadic success at the box office. However, this trend faded out by the end of the decade, and by 1990, the nascent industry seemed to be completely finished.

Hindi film industry (Bollywood)

Main article: Bollywood

The Hindi film industry, based in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), is the largest branch of Indian cinema. Hindi film Industry is often called 'Bollywood' (a blending of Hollywood and Bombay). The word "Bollywood" is sometimes applied to Indian cinema as a whole, especially outside South Asia and the South Asian diaspora, but this usage is incorrect. Bollywood has been recently greatly criticized for violation of Indian cultural values and its discussion of controversial topics. It is considered the most liberal out of the Indian language film industries.

Regional movies are distinctively different from Bollywood (Hindi) movies, as the stories and themes of these movies portray the culture of the region from which they originate, while most Bollywood movies nowadays are greatly influenced by Western culture.

Although Bollywood may not distribute the most films, it can be considered to be the largest in terms of viewers. Bollywood movies are watched by a majority of Indian movie goers. It also has international recognition, especially in Western countries such as the UK, USA, Canada and Australia, where there are large South Asian communities.

Kannada film industry

Main article: Cinema of Karnataka

The Kannada film industry, based in Karnataka mainly Gandhinagar in Bangalore, is sometimes called 'Sandalwood', as Karnataka is known for its abundant sandalwood forests; however, this term does not seem to be in widespread use. The Gubbi Veeranna Company, or Veeranna's Sri Chennabasaveshwara Krupa Poshita Nataka Sangha[6] and other groups established themselves first as theatre troupes, and later went on to dominate Kannada cinema in the 1960s. The first talkie movie in kannada film industry was Sathisulocha, in which Abbya Naidu was the lead and so became "the first hero of the Kannada film industry." "They provided all its key directors like H.L.N. Simha, B.R. Panthulu, and G.V. Iyer, and the most important Putanna Kanagal. Its stars, led by Rajkumar and Leelavathi and most of its early commercial hits: Bedara Kannappa (1953), for instance. The first big success in Kannada cinema adapted a Gubbi Company stage play written by G.V. Iyer to introduce the mythological adventure movie into that language. V. Ravi Chandran is one of most popular Kannada actor-cum-director out- and inside Karnataka. His Prema Loka was a huge hit and inspired many other-language film makers in India. The Kannada film industry has produced many stars like Rajinikanth, Maniratnam, Anil Kapoor, Jayalilitha and others.". Kannada films has become very popular after recent hits Jogi (2005) and Mungaru Male (2007).

Kashmiri film industry

The Kashmiri film industry, which had been lying dormant since the release of Habba Khatoon in 1967, was revived after a 39-year hiatus with the release of Akh Daleel Loolech in 2006. However critics dispute this claim because the film was a small-budget digital film which did not play in any commercial film theatres, but only in a few private and film festival screening. Further, Akh Daleel Lolach uses a film style which is common on Kashmiri television, and, by those standards, Kashmiri video makers have been producing films since the early 1980s. Cinema halls had been shut down for a long time in Kashmir by militants protesting against the Government. There are few cinema halls and a handful of directors have been returning to shoot in the region. Though the region was favoured by many producers as a scenic locale in pre-militancy era Bollywood movies as a romantic backdrop, [7] the regional industry was not very strong due to lack of finances and infrastructure.[8]

Malayalam film industry

Main article: Cinema of Kerala

The Malayalam film industry is based in Kerala. Malayalam movies are known for their artistic nature and they frequently figure in the national film awards. It is also currently known for being the most conservative out of the different film industries in India, despite the fact that it went through a liberal phase in the 80's. Notable personalities include the filmmakers Padmavibhushan Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Bharathan, K. G. George, G. Aravindan, Padmarajan, Shaji N.Karun, Shyamaprasad, John Abraham, Kamal, Sibi Malayil, Sathyan Anthikkad etc., the scriptwriters M. T. Vasudevan Nair, Lohithadas and Sreenivasan, the cinematographers Mankada Ravi Varma, Venu, Azhagappan, Santhosh Sivan, Shaji N.Karun, Ravi K. Chandran, S.Kumar; the actors Padmabhushan Prem Nazir, Sathyan, Padmashri Mohanlal, Padmashri Mammootty, Suresh Gopi, Jayaram, Dileep, Prithviraj, Jagathi Sreekumar, Mukesh, Sai Kumar, Siddique, Padmashri Bharath Gopi, Thilakan, Nedumudi Venu, Padmashri Balachandra Menon, Padmashri Sukumari, Priyamani, Sheela, Urvasi; the playback singers, Padmabhushan K. J. Yesudas, Padmashri K. S. Chitra, P. Jayachandran, M.G. Sreekumar and Sujatha. Notable Music Directors are M.S.Baburaj, Devarajan, M.B.Sreenivasan, Dakshinamoorthy, Raveendran, K.Raghavan, Johnson, Shyam and M.K.Arjunan

Mega stars Mohanlal, Mammootty and Suresh Gopi ruled the Malayalam film industry for a long period. Malayalam cinema produced some of the top films of the year. Mammootty holds the record of bagging the highest number of national best actor awards by any actor in India. He shares the record with Dr. Kamal Haasan. Mohanlal won four national awards, having 2 Best Actor, 1 Special jury and a best producer (as film) awards.

Some of the oldest studios are Merryland Studio at Thiruvananthapuram and Udaya Studio at Allepey, they were the major film making centers. The Kerala State Film Development Corporation has its own Chitranjali Studios. which all have facilities, including color film processing laboratories. Recently, KINFRA Film and Video Park have started producing films near Thiruvananthapuram, having a number of facilities, such as sound recording theatres, editing suites, color film processing laboratories, preview theatres, guest houses, outdoor shooting locations, etc.

The first 3D film produced in India was in Malayalam, called My Dear Kuttichathan. It was produced by Navodaya Productions and later dubbed into Tamil, Telugu and Hindi versions. Padayottam, the first fully indigenous 70 mm film with all its work done in India was also produced by Navodaya. The first Cinemascope film produced in Malayalam was Thacholi Ambu from Navodaya. Chemmeen was the first film which earned a gold medal from the President of India. Mohanlal's "Guru", directed by Rajiv Anchal, is the only Malayalam film proposed as the Indian entry by the Indian Film Industry council for Oscar Award so far. Shaji N Karun's Swaham is the first Malayalam film competed in Cannes International Film festival in 1994. For an Indian Film, Shaji's earlier film Piravi won maximum number of awards (24 Awards) from various International film festivals including Cannes.

List of Malayalam films from 1928 to 1950

The first Malayalam film, titled Vigathakumaran, was released in 1928. It was a silent film, produced and directed by a businessman with no prior film experience, J. C. Daniel. The second film ,Marthanda Varma, based on a novel by C. V. Raman Pillai, was produced in 1933. However, its release was limited due to legal disputes surrounding use of Pillai's material.

Balan, released in 1938, was the first "talkie" in Malayalam. Its screenplay and songs were written by Muthukulam Raghavan Pillai and directed by S. Nottani. It was produced at Chennai (then Madras) in the neighbouring state of Tamil Nadu. Malayalam films continued to be made almost exclusively by Tamil producers till 1947, when the first major film studio, Udaya, was established in Kerala.

List of Malayalam films from 1951 to 1960

Malayalam Cinema has always taken its themes from very relevant social issues and has been interwoven with the material from literature, drama, and politics from the very beginning. One such film, Jeevithanauka, (1951) was a musical drama which spoke about the ego clashes in a joint family, the norm of the day. This movie was widely accepted and popular and can be mentioned as the first "Super Hit" seen by Malayalam Cinema. However, this movie's success was bittersweet. Although its success accelerated Malayalam movie making, films that were produced after Jeevithanouka closely mimicked its structure hoping to find some sort of "success formula", thus hampering true creativity for a very long time. Nevertheless, this time was hailed as "the period of giants" in Malayalam film industry, due to the work of film stars Prem Nazir and Sathyan. In 1954, the film Neelakkuyil captured national interest by winning the President's silver medal. Scripted by the well-known Malayalam novelist, Uroob, and directed by P. Bhaskaran and Ramu Kariat, it is often considered as the first authentic Malayali film. Another notable production was Newspaper Boy (1955) which contained elements of Italian neorealism. This film is noteable as the product of a group of amateur college filmmakers. It told the story of a printing press employee and his family being stricken with extreme poverty.

'Golden Age' of Malayalam cinema

• List of Malayalam films from 1986 to 1990

Mohanlal, Suresh Gopi and Mammootty carved a niche for themselves in the Malayalam film industry during the Golden Age and they have now become the most sought after actors in the industry

Most critics and audiences consider this period as the golden age of Malayalam cinema. The Malayalam cinema of this period was characterised by detailed screenplays dealing with everyday life with a lucid narration of plot intermingling with humour and melancholy. This was aided by brilliant cinematography and lighting as in motion pictures like Perumthachan (1990), directed by Ajayan with Santosh Sivan as the cinematographer. These films are also remembered for their warm background music by composers like Johnson, as in the motion picture Namukku parkkan munthiri thoppukal (1986) by Padmarajan.

Many of the movies released during this time narrowed the gap between art cinemas and commercial cinemas in the Malayalam film industry, as in Oru Vadakkan Veeragatha (1989). These were paralleled with movies like Kireedam (1989) directed by Sibi Malayil and written by Lohitadas, Mathilukal directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan (1989), 'Amaram'(1991) directed by Bharathan, Kaakothikaavile Appoopan Thadikal(1988) directed by Kamal and 'Sargam'(1992) directed by Hariharan.

The period had an abundance of movies rich in creative humour from directors like Priyadarshan, Sathyan Anthikkad and Kamal. The era also saw well crafted comedy by the Duo Siddique-Lal, (Ramji Rao speaking (1989) and In Harihar Nagar (1990). The internationally acclaimed Piravi (1989) by Shaji N. Karun was the first Malayalam film to win the Caméra d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. Other notable contributions of this period include His Highness Abdullah (1990) directed by Sibi Malayil, Abhayam (1991) directed by Sivan, and the motion picture Daisy (1988) an expressive depiction of separation and longing set in a boarding school, directed by Prathap K Pothan. In 2008, the first film to star almost all actors in the industry since serious film-making started was released, Twenty:20.

Kerala Chalachitra Academy conducts the International Film Festival of Kerala every year during the month of December at Thiruvananthapuram which attracts film makers from all over the world.

Marathi film industry

Main article: Marathi cinema

Marathi Film Industry, one of the oldest film industries in India, originated in Nasik, and developed in Kolhapur and Pune. In recent years, it has moved mostly to Mumbai (Bombay), Maharashtra.

Dadasaheb Phalke, recognized as the father of Indian cinema, was a pioneer of movies in Marathi. He produced the first Indian silent movie, and later some Marathi talkies. In his honor, a much coveted "Dadasaheb Phalke Award" is given annually for exceptional contribution to Indian cinema.

1940s and '50s formed the classical era of Marathi cinema, mainly because of some hallmark productions by the now extinct "Prabhat Film Company" in Kolhapur. As an offshoot of Prabhat, V. Shantaram founded "Rajkamal Studios" in Pune, and produced some excellent Marathi movies in the late 1950s and early '60s.

Because of the rise of Hindi movies in Bollywood, Marathi film industry underwent a decline in the 1980s and '90s. But recently it has been reviving with some quality movies like "Shwaas" (which earned an official Indian entry for an Oscar award in 2004), "Pak Pak Pakaak" (which won Swarovski Trophy in AFFF, Singapore, in 2005),"Sane Guruji", "Uttarayan", "Aga Bai, Arecchaa", "Shubhamangal Saavdhaan", "Dombivali Fast", "Devrai", "Anaahat", "Kadachit", "Valu", "Tingya" and "Saatchya Aaat Gharaat".

Bhalji Pendharkar, Baburao Painter, V.Shantaram, Dada Kondke, Raja Paranjpe, Raja Thakur, Sachin Pilgaonkar, Mahesh Kothare, Smita Talwalkar, Sumitra Bhave, Sunil Sukthankar, Sandeep Kashyap, Gajendra Ahire, Jabbar Patel, Amol Palekar, Chandrakant Kulkarni, Bipin Nadkarni, Sandeep Swant, Mangesh Hadawale and Kedar Shinde are some of the notable directors and producers in Marathi cinema in the past few decades.

Modern Marathi actors include Dilip Prabhavalkar, Bharat Jadhav, Sonali Kulkarni, Sadashiv Amrapurkar, Ashwini Bhave, Amruta Subhash, Atul Kulkarni and Sanjay Narvekar & Makarand Anaspure.

While some old Marathi movie songs remain popular, new composers like Ajay-Atul, Ram-Laxman have been producing some very popular songs. Some of the old songs have also been remixed.

Oriya film industry

Main article: Cinema of Orissa

Oriya films have no silent movie background unlike Bengali and Assamese cinema. It started directly with a talkie, Sita Bibaha made by Mohan Sunder Deb Goswami in 1936. It was a landmark of the Oriya Film Industry. Drawn from the great Indian epic Ramayana, the story tells about the marriage of Sita with Ram. The actual screenplay was made from a drama written by Kamala Mishra. Prepared with a purse of only Rs 30,000, the film has 14 song sequences. Despite it being the first Oriya film, and thus susceptible to several drawbacks in every phase of its making, the two-hour-long movie generated great enthusiasm among the public. Released by Laksmi Talkies, the 12-reeled film had in its cast Makhanlal Banerjee (Ram) who received only Rs 120 for his performance, Aditya Ballav Mohanty (Lakhsman) who got only Rs 35 as conveyance allowance and Prabati Devi (Sita) who was paid the highest amount of Rs 150.

The pace of Oriya film production in the initial years was very slow. After Sita Bibaha, only two films were produced until 1951. A joint consortium of landlords and businessmen who collected funds after 1948 produced those two movies. The 1951 production Roles to Eight was the first Oriya film to have an English name. It was released 15 years after Sita Bibaha. It was the fourth Oriya film produced by Ratikant Padhi. The eleventh Oriya film Sri Lokenath, directed by Prafulla Sengupta, was the first Oriya film to receive a National Award (1960).

The same year, Prasanta Nanda won the National Award as best actor for the film Nua Bou in his film debut. Prasanta Nanda came to dominate the Oriya Film Industry. He was present in Oriya films beginning in 1939, but he became super-active only after 1976. Nanda served Oriya Film Industry as an actor, director, screenplay writer, lyricist, and even as a playback singer. Such a versatile genius is quite rare in Indian cinema history. Nanda alone carried Oriya films into the national honor list by winning National Awards three times, in 1960, 1966, and 1969 for his acting in Nua Bou, Matir Manisha, and Adina Megha.

Director Mohammed Mohsin started a revolution in Oriya films. His movies heralded a golden era by bringing in a freshness to Oriya cinema. Securing the essence of the Oriya culture, his directorial debut was Phoola Chandana for which he won the Best Director award from the state. He had to his credit 16 box office successes in his directorial stint. He started as an actor in character roles and created household names like Raka for Orissa. Mohsin started his career with B.R.Chopra as an assintant director before making his presence felt in the Oriya film industry.

Uttam Mohanty, whose debut film Abhiman won accolades, is now the ruling hero of the Oriya Film Industry. His wife Aparajita Mohanty is also a leading star. Actress Nandita Das, who has acted in several Hindi movies such as Fire, has an Oriya origin. She appeared in Susanta Misra and directed Biswaprakash which won a National Award in 2000. A number of critics have termed Bijoy Mohanty and Mihir Das to be two of the best-ever Oriya actors. Siddhant Mohapatra, a new generation star, has an increasing number of fans who include him amongst the all-time greats.

In the 1960s and '70s, Oriya cinema was highly indebted to Bengali films. Several Bengali directors assisted their Oriya counterparts. Eminent director Mrinal Sen even directed an Oriya film, Matira Manisha, which won a National Award for best actor Prashanta Nanda.

Tamil film industry

Main article: Kollywood

The Cinema of Tamil Nadu (colloquially known as "Kollywood") is based in the Kodambakkam area of Chennai. Eclipsed in size only by the Bollywood industry, Tamil films have enjoyed consistent popularity among Tamil-speakers in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, and Mauritius. Sought after by Tamil immigrant communities in Europe and the Americas, Tamil films are also becoming popular in Japan.

Directors such as Mahendran, S. Shankar, Bala, Bharathiraja, Balu Mahendra, and Mani Ratnam have achieved box-office success whilst producing films that have balanced art and popular elements. The Tamil film industry accounts for approximately 1% of the gross domestic product of the state of Tamil Nadu. Costs of production have grown exponentially from just under Rs.4 million in 1980 to over Rs.110 million by 2005 for a typical star-studded big-budget film. Similarly, costs of processing per print have risen from just under Rs 2,500 in 1980 to nearly Rs 70,000 by 2005.

Actors Vikram and Kamal Haasan have been National Film Award winners, with Kamal Haasan sharing the most such awards with Malayalam actor Mammootty. Other prominent Tamil actors include Ajith Kumar, Joseph Vijay, and Surya Sivakumar.

Several prominent figures have gone beyond Tamil cinema alone, gaining even greater fame by crossing over to the Bollywood Hindi/Urdu film industry.

• Kamal Haasan, Rajinikanth, Sridevi and R. Madhavan are Tamil actors who have later found fame in Bollywood as well.
• Among Bollywood actresses who started in Kollywood are Aishwarya Rai appearing in Iruvar, Priyanka Chopra in Thamizhan, Lara Dutta in Arasatchi and Sushmita Sen in Ratchagan. Furthermore, several well-known Hindi actresses, such as Kajol and her sister Tanisha, Amisha Patel, Manisha Koirala, and Tabu performed in Tamil films while struggling to achieve their breakthroughs in Bollywood.
• Directors Ilayaraja, Bharathiraja, Selvaraghavan, Mani Ratnam, A. R. Rahman, S. Shankar, and Jeeva gained more nation-wide recognition by also working in Bollywood.

Many Tamil films are are released in multiple languages, being simultaneously dubbed and released in their respective states.

Telugu film industry

A still from Bhakta Prahlad (1931)

Main article: Cinema of Andhra Pradesh

The Telugu film industry is based in Andhra Pradesh's capital city, Hyderabad. Telugu films have great overseas potential in countries which contain Telugu immigrant communities such as the United States, United Kingdom,Australia, Canada, and other European countries.

In 1931, the first Telugu film with audible dialogue, Bhakta Prahlad, was produced by H.M. Reddy[9]. Popularly known as 'talkies', films with sound quickly grew in number and fanbase. In 1934, the industry saw its first major commercial success with Lavakusa. Directed by C. Pullaiah and starring Parupalli Subbarao and Sriranjani in lead roles, the film attracted unprecedented numbers of viewers to theaters and thrust the young film industry into mainstream culture[10].

Father of Telugu cinema

Though it is celebration time for talkies, can we forget the efforts of pioneers like Dhundiraj Govind Phalke better known as Dadasaheb Phalke who made India's first silent film Raja Harischandra (1913) and R. G. Torney or our own Raghupathi Venkaiah, his son R.S. Prakash and C. Pulliah who made cinema popular during the silent era taking film rolls and projectors exhibiting films in nook and corner of the South? Raghupathi Venkaiah hailed as father of Telugu cinema is the first exhibitor in the South. He bought crono-megaphone, the first projector equipped to reproduce `sound' by disk system and exhibited short reels way back in 1910. He travelled all over the South and in Burma and Ceylon. Venkaiah established Star of East studios known as glass studio to produce silent films.

The success of Alam Ara made Irani to diversify into regional language productions in Telugu and Tamil the same year. It was Ardeshir Irani's associate Hanumantha Muniappa Reddy who directed Bhakta Prahalada and was released six weeks ahead of the first Tamil Talkie, Kalidas that Reddy himself directed with a mixed cast of Telugu, Tamil and Hindi actors. Bhakta Prahlada had an all-Telugu starcast featuring Munipalle Subbiah as Hiranyakasipa and Surabhi Kamalabai as Leelavathy. Both the films were made in Bombay. By 1936, the mass appeal of film allowed directors to move away from religious and mythological themes[10]. That year, under the direction of Krithiventi Nageswara Rao, Prema Vijayam, a film focusing on social issues, was released. Its success prompted the production of dozens of other immensely successful 'social films', notably 1939's Vandemataram and Maala Pilla. Touching on societal problems like the status of Untouchables and the practice of giving dowry, Telugu films increasingly focused on contemporary living: twenty-nine of the ninety-six films released between 1937 and 1947 had social themes[11].

September 15, 1931 saw the release of the first Telugu talkie Bhakta Prahalada in Crown in Kakinada, Maruthi in Vijayawada, Gaiety in Madras and Minerva in Machlipatnam. Just a few months earlier, on March 14, 1931, the first Indian talkie film, Alam Ara was released at Majestic Cinema, Bombay and in other parts of the country including Maruthi Talkies, Vijayawada. People thronged the cinema halls where it was exhibited. With its box office success the country's first black marketeering in cinema tickets began with a four anna (a quarter of a rupee) ticket getting sold for Rs. 4 or 5!

Son of soil

Another doyen, C. Pullaiah after gaining experience in the cinematic art, purchased a second hand movie camera in 1924 in Bombay returned to native Kakinada with an intention to make films in Andhra soil. He shot a thousand feet silent film, Markandeya, with himself cast as Yama and made the film with so many indigenous methods and projected the film on a white washed wall in his house to the amazement of his friends through the very same camera with which he shot the film. He used to call cinema as Goda Meedi Bomma. It was C. Pullaiah who gave Telugu cinema's first super duper hit, Lavakusa (1934) starring Parupalli Subbarao and Sriranjani (Sr.). It was his second feature film (Savithri his first talkie film was made a year before with Ramathilakam and Gaggaiah was a hit too. Interestingly there were two Savithris and two Ramadasus in 1933). People flocked to the theatres from near by villages in bullock carts to see Lavakusa. History repeated when C. Pullaiah and his son C. S. Rao remade the film in 1963 with N. T. Rama Rao and Anjali Devi. At a time when the market was flooded with mythological films, Indian Art Cine tone attempted a social, Prema Vijayam (1936) directed by Krithiventi Nageswara Rao. However, the success of reformist filmmaker Gudavalli Ramabrahmam's Malapilla (1938) starring Dr. Govindarajula Subbarao and Kanchanamala and Rythubidda (1939) with Ballari Raghava and Suryakumari gave an impetus to Y.V. Rao, B.N. Reddy and others to produce films on social themes.

The outbreak of World War II and the subsequent resource scarcity caused the British Raj to impose a limit on the use of filmstrip in 1943 to 11,000 feet[12], a sharp reduction from the 20,000 feet that was common till then[13]. As a result, the number of films produced during the War was substantially lower than in previous years. Nonetheless, prior to the ban, an important shift occurred in the industry: independent studios formed, actors and actresses were signed to contracts limiting who they could work for, and films moved from social themes to folklore legends[14]. 1942's Balanagamma typified these changes: the film featured fantasy elements of cultural lore, was produced by Gemini Studios, and its producers added a restricting clause to the lead actress' contract. By 1947, nearly all films were produced by studios with contracted actors.

The Telugu film industry produces the largest number of films every year in India, with about 245 films produced in 2006 which includes the movies from other cinema industries. Popular movies tend to open during the three festive/holiday seasons of the region: Sankranthi, Ugadi, and Dussera. In 2004, total revenue for the Sankranthi season was around Rs. 1.5 billion (US$37 million, as of July 17, 2007). There are number of TV channels ( Teja TV etc.,) dedicated exclusively to feature programs related to Telugu movies.

The state also has what is claimed to be the largest film studio in the world, Ramoji Film City. The first studio for Telugu talkies was Vel Pictures, constructed in 1934 by P.V. Das, located at Madras. The first film made here was Sita Kalyanam. The first film made by a Telugu person, R.S. Prakash, was Bhishma Pratigna (The Pledge of Bhishma, 1922). Another important Telugu personality of this era was Y.V. Rao (1903-1973), an actor and director, whose silent film (directing) credits include Pandava Nirvana (1930), Pandava Agnathavaas (1930) and Hari Maya (1932). The first big movies in Telugu were made by the Surabhi Theatres troupes.. They produced the first Telugu talkie, Bhakta Prahlada, directed by Hanumappa Munioappa Reddy in 1931. In the first few years of Telugu talkies, films were all mythological stories, taken from the stage. In 1936, Krittiventi Nageswara Rao made the first Telugu film not based on mythology, Premavijayam. The film influenced other Telugu film-makers into making such films. Some popular themes of these films (often called 'social' films) were the feudal zamindari system (Raitu Bidda, 1939), untouchability (Maala pilla, 1938), and widow remarriage[9]. Since then, there have been both social (contemporary) and mythological or folk stories in Telugu cinema.

Successful Telugu films are also remade and dubbed in other languages like Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada and are released in respective states.

Art cinema in India

Main article: Parallel Cinema

In addition to commercial cinema, there is also Indian cinema that aspires to seriousness or art. This is known to film critics as "New Indian Cinema" or sometimes "the Indian New Wave", but most people in India simply call such films "art films". These films deal with a wide range of subjects but many are in general explorations of complex human circumstances and relationships within an Indian setting.

From the 1960s through the 1980s, art films were subsidised by Indian governments: aspiring directors could get federal or state government grants to produce non-commercial films on Indian themes. Many of these directors were graduates of the government-supported Film and Television Institute of India. Their films were showcased at government film festivals and on the government-run TV station, Doordarshan. These films also had limited runs in art house theatres in India and overseas. Since the 1980s, Indian art cinema has to a great extent lost its government patronage. Today, it must be made as independent films on a shoestring budget by aspiring auteurs, much as in today's Western film industry.

The art directors of this period owed more to foreign influences, such as Italian neorealism or the French New Wave, than they did to the genre conventions of commercial Indian cinema. The best known New Cinema directors were Bengali: Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, and Bimal Roy. Some well-known films of this movement include the Apu Trilogy by Ray , the Calcutta Trilogy of Sen, Meghe Dhaka Tara by Ghatak (all in Bengali) and Do Bigha Zameen by Roy (Hindi). Of these film-makers, Satyajit Ray was arguably the most well-known: his films obtained considerable international recognition during the mid-twentieth century. He was awarded an Oscar for life time achievement in 1992. His prestige, however, did not translate into large-scale commercial success. His films played primarily to art-house audiences (students and intelligentsia) in the larger Indian cities, or to film buffs on the international art-house circuit in India and abroad. Like him, Mrinal Sen who has primarily been a political film director and has received international acclaim, is not well known for commercial success, with the lone exception being Bhuvan Shome, which ushered the New Indian Cinema.

Noteworthy Indian Art Cinema women filmmakers from the diaspora include Shashwati Talukdar, Nandini Sikand, Sonali Gulati, Prema Karanth, Nisha Ganatra, Eisha Marjara, Pratibha Parmar, Liggy Pullappally, and Shanti Thakur.

Art cinema was also well-supported in the South Indian state of Kerala. Some outstanding Malayalam movie makers are Adoor Gopalakrishnan, G. Aravindan, T. V. Chandran, Shaji N. Karun, and M. T. Vasudevan Nair. Some of their films include National Film Award-winning [vidheyan] Mammootty bagged the national award for that film,Elippathayam, Piravi (which won the Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival), Vaanaprastham and Nizhalkkuthu (a FIPRESCI-Prize winner).

Starting in the 1970s, Kannada film makers from Karnataka state produced a string of serious, low-budget films. Girish Kasaravalli is one of the few directors from that period who continues to make non-commercial films. He is the only Indian director other than Satyajit Ray and Buddhadev Dasgupta to win the Golden Lotus Awards four times.

From the 1970s onwards Hindi cinema produced a wave of art films. The foremost among the directors who produced such films is Shyam Benegal. Others in this genre include Govind Nihalani (Ardh Satya), Mani Kaul (Uski Roti), Kumar Shahani (Maya Darpan), H. K. Verma (Kadamabari),M.S. Sathyu (Garam Hava).

Many cinematographers, technicians and actors began in art cinema and moved to commercial cinema. The actor Naseeruddin Shah is one notable example; he has never achieved matinee idol status, but has turned out a solid body of work as a supporting actor and a star in independent films such as Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding. H.K.Verma, a cinematographer turned to direction with his maiden venture Kadambari starring Shabana Azmi.

Marathi art cinema has been continuously churning out gems even when Marathi mainstream cinema had no suffered a setback. Dr.Jabbar Patel, Bhave-Sukthankar, Amol Palekar are some of the notable names while acclaimed movie titles are Umbartha, Dhyaasparva, Uttarayan, Vaastupurush etc.

Globalization of Indian cinema

File:1995cinema admissions.PNG

Cinema admissions in 1995

Contact between Indian and Western cinemas was established in the early days of film in India. Dadasaheb Phalke was moved to make Raja Harishchandra after watching the film Life of Christ at P.B. Mehta's American-Indian Cinema. Similarly, some other early film directors were inspired by Western movies.

In India at least 80 percent of films shown in the late 1920s were American, even though twenty-one studios manufactured local films, eight or nine of them in regular production. American serials such as Perils of Pauline and Exploits of Elaine, and the spectacular sets of films like Quo Vadis and Cabira were popular and inspiring during the World War I era. Universal Pictures set up an Indian agency in 1916, which went on to dominate the Indian distribution system. J. F. Madan's Elphinstone Bioscope Company at first focused on distribution of foreign films and organization of their regular screenings Additionally, J.P. Madan, the prolific producer, employed Western directors for many of his films.

The various Indian film industries have gradually been gaining popularity overseas since the 1950s. Bengali cinema and Malayalam cinema has gained considerable international acclaim, with filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray, Bimal Roy, Mrinal Sen, Aparna Sen and Adoor Gopalakrishnan,G. Aravindan, T. V. Chandran, Shaji N. Karun, M. T. Vasudevan Nair and others winning many awards at international film festivals. The more popular Hindi cinema, now known as Bollywood, has gradually expanded to overseas markets across Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, in addition to the Indian diaspora in Western Europe, the Americas, and Oceania. On the other hand, Tamil cinema is mainly watched by the Tamil diaspora, though it has been gaining popularity among non-Tamil markets in Japan, Southeast Asia and other regions.

A number of Bollywood films have been accused of plagiarising from Hollywood Movies. Due to the long time taken by courts to decide a case, few cases relating to copyright violations are brought up. One of the reasons Bollywood hesitates in purchasing rights is the assumption that these would run into millions of dollars, though according to some like screenwriter-director Anurag Kashyap, this is incorrect; he argues that while the films may cost millions of dollars in the west, the rights would be less expensive for Hindi remakes because the price would be based on the audience's buying power, the economy and the number of bidders.[10] In 2003, best-selling fiction writer Barbara Taylor Bradford brought a copyright infringement suit against Sahara Television for allegedly making a television series (Karishma: A miracle of destiny) out of her book, A Woman of Substance, without acquiring the legal rights to do so.

Today, Indian cinema is becoming increasingly Westernised. This trend is most strongly apparent in Bollywood. Newer Bollywood movies sometimes include Western actors (such as Rachel Shelley in Lagaan), try to meet Western production standards, conduct filming overseas, adopt some English in their scripts or incorporate some elements of Western-style plots. Bollywood also produces box-office hit like the films Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and Kal Ho Naa Ho, both of which deal with the experiences of overseas Indians.

However, the meeting between west and India is a two-way process: Western audiences mostly of Indian origin are becoming more interested in India, as evidenced by the success of Lagaan, Bride and Prejudice and Sivaji: The Boss. As Western audiences for Indian cinema grow, Western producers are funding maverick Indian filmmakers like Gurinder Chadha (Bride and Prejudice) and Mira Nair (Monsoon Wedding). Both Chadha and Nair are of Indian origin but do not live in India, and made their names in Western independent films; they have now been funded to create films that "interpret" the Indian cinematic tradition for Westerners. A similar filmmaker is Deepa Mehta of Canada, whose films include the Elements trilogy of Fire, Earth and Water.

Indian cinema is also influencing the English and American musical, and played a particularly instrumental role in the revival of the American musical film genre. Baz Luhrmann stated that his successful musical film Moulin Rouge! (2001) was directly inspired by Bollywood musicals. The film thus pays homage to India, incorporating an Indian-themed play based on the ancient Sanskrit drama The Little Clay Cart 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, fueling a renaissance of the genre. The Guru and The 40-Year-Old Virgin also feature Indian-style song-and-dance sequences; A. R. Rahman, an Indian film composer, was recruited 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 (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 Indian films, and is considered to be a "homage to Hindi commercial cinema".

Awards

Since 1973, the Indian government has sponsored the National Film Awards (which first began in 1954), awarded by the government run Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF). The DFF screens films from all the Indian movie industries and independent/art films. These awards are handed out at an annual ceremony presided over by the President of India. Due to the national scale of the the National Film Awards, it is considered the most prestigious Indian film award ceremony and is sometimes known as "India's Oscars".

The Filmfare Awards ceremony is one of the oldest and most prominent film events given for Hindi films in India [11] and is sometimes referred to as the "Bollywood Oscars." [12] The Filmfare awards were first introduced in 1954, the same year as the National Film Awards and gave awards to the best films of 1953. The ceremony was referred to as the Clare Awards after the magazine's editor. A dual voting system was developed in 1956. [13] 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." [14].

Additional award ceremonies held within India include the Star Screen Awards and Stardust Awards. Ceremonies held overseas include the Bollywood Movie Awards that takes place in Long Island, New York, United States, and award ceremonies that are organized in a different country each year like the Zee Cine Awards, IIFA Awards and Global Indian Film Awards. Most of these award ceremonies are lavishly staged spectacles, featuring singing, dancing and the presence of celebrities from Bollywood.

Film Training In India

• Film and TV Institutes of India, Pune (Filmfare article)
• Film And Television Institute Of India, Pune
• Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute, Kolkata
• AJK, Mass Communication Research Centre, Jamia Millia Islamia,N.D.
• R K Films and Media Academy, Film And Television Training Institute, India Pusa Road, New Delhi
• Asian Academy Of Film And Television ,NOIDA
• L.V.Prasad Film & TV Academy,Chennai
• Mindscreen Film Institute, Chennai
• Biju Pattanaik Film and Television Institute, Orissa

References

• Shedde, M. (2003) "Plagiarism issue jolts Bollywood" The Times of India, May 18. Available from: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=46715385. Accessed 23 November 2006.
• Nowell-Smith, G., ed. (1996). "The World-wide Spread of Cinema". The Oxford History of World Cinema. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-811257-2.
• Thoraval, Y. (2000). The Cinemas of India. Macmillan India. ISBN 0-333-93410-5.

See also

• Censorship in India
• Central Board of Film Certification

External links

• IMDB
• Indian Cinema Beyond Bollywood Reviews at DearCinema.com
• Timeline of Cinematography In India
• ISC