On 10 March 1935, another pioneer film maker Jyoti Prasad Agarwala made his first film Joymoti in Assamese. Jyoti Prasad went to Berlin to learn more about films. Indramalati is another film he himself produced and directed after Joymoti. The first film studio in South India, Durga Cinetone was built in 1936 by Nidamarthi Surayya in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh.
[48] The 1930s saw the rise of music in Indian cinema with musicals such as Indra Sabha and Devi Devyani marking the beginning of song-and-dance in Indian films.
[34] Studios emerged by 1935 in major cities such as Madras, Calcutta and Bombay as filmmaking became an established craft, exemplified by the success of Devdas.[49] directed by an Assamese film maker Pramathesh Baruah.
In 1937, Kisan Kanhiya directed by Moti B was released, the first colour film made in India.[50] The 1940 film, Vishwa Mohini, is the first Indian film to depict the Indian movie world. The film was directed by Y. V. Rao and scripted by Balijepalli Lakshmikanta Kavi.[51]
Swamikannu Vincent, who had built the first cinema of South India in Coimbatore, introduced the concept of "Tent Cinema" in which a tent was erected on a stretch of open land to screen films. The first of its kind was in Madras, called Edison's Grand Cinemamegaphone.
This was due to the fact that electric carbons were used for motion picture projectors.[52] Bombay Talkies opened in 1934 and Prabhat Studios in Pune began production of Marathi films meant.[49] R. S. D. Choudhury produced Wrath (1930), which was banned by the British Raj for its depiction of Indian actors as leaders during the Indian independence movement.
[34] Sant Tukaram, a 1936 film based on the life of Tukaram (1608–50), a Varkari Sant and spiritual poet became the first Indian film to be screened at an international film festival, at the 1937 edition of the Venice Film Festival. The film was judged one of the three best films of the year.[53] In 1938, Gudavalli Ramabrahmam, co-produced and directed the social problem film, Raithu Bidda, which was also banned by the British administration, for depicting the peasant uprising among the Zamindars during the British raj.[54][55]
The Indian Masala film
a term used for mixed-genre films that combined song, dance, romance etc.—arose following World War II.[49] During the 1940s cinema in South India accounted for nearly half of India's cinema halls and cinema came to be viewed as an instrument of cultural revival.[49] The partition of India following independence divided the nation's assets and a number of studios moved to Pakistan.[49] Partition became an enduring film subject thereafter.[49]
After Indian independence the film industry was investigated by the S. K. Patil Commission.[56] Patil recommended setting up a Film Finance Corporation (FFC) under the Ministry of Finance.[57] This advice was adopted in 1960 and FFC provide financial support to filmmakers.[57] The Indian government had established a Films Division by 1948, which eventually became one of the world's largest documentary film producers with an annual production of over 200 short documentaries, each released in 18 languages with 9,000 prints for permanent film theatres across the country.[58]
The Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA), an art movement with a communist inclination, began to take shape through the 1940s and the 1950s.[56] Realist IPTA plays, such as Nabanna (1944, Bijon Bhattacharya) prepared the ground for realism in Indian cinema, exemplified by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas's Dharti Ke Lal (Children of the Earth) in 1946.[56] The IPTA movement continued to emphasise realism and went on to produce Mother India and Pyaasa, among India's most recognisable cinematic productions.[59]
Golden Age (late 1940s–1960s)
The period from the late 1940s to the early 1960s is regarded by film historians as the Golden Age of Indian cinema.[60][61][62]
Satyajit Ray is recognised as one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century.[63][64][65][66][67][68]
This period saw the emergence of the Parallel Cinema movement, mainly led by Bengalis,[69] which then accounted for a quarter of India's film output.[70] The movement emphasised social realism. Early examples include Dharti Ke Lal (1946, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas),[71] Neecha Nagar (1946, Chetan Anand),[72] Nagarik (1952, Ritwik Ghatak)[73][74] and Do Bigha Zamin (1953, Bimal Roy), laying the foundations for Indian neorealism[75] and the Indian New Wave.[76]
The Apu Trilogy
(1955–1959, Satyajit Ray) won major prizes at all the major international film festivals and firmly established the Parallel Cinema movement. Pather Panchali (1955), the first part of the trilogy, marked Ray's entry in Indian cinema.[77] The trilogy's influence on world cinema can be felt in the "youthful coming-of-age dramas that flooded art houses since the mid-fifties", which "owe a tremendous debt to the Apu trilogy".[78]
Cinematographer Subrata Mitra, who debuted in the trilogy, had his own important influence on cinematography globally. One of his most important techniques was bounce lighting, to recreate the effect of daylight on sets. He pioneered the technique while filming Aparajito (1956), the second part of the trilogy.[79] Ray pioneered other effects such as the photo-negative flashbacks and X-ray digressions in Pratidwandi (1972).[80]
During the 1960s, Indira Gandhi's intervention during her reign as the Information and Broadcasting Minister of India supported production of off-beat cinematic by FFC.[57]
Commercial Hindi cinema began thriving, including acclaimed films Pyaasa (1957) and Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959, Guru Dutt) Awaara (1951) and Shree 420 (1955, Raj Kapoor). 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.
[69]
Epic film Mother India (1957, Mehboob Khan), a remake of his earlier Aurat (1940), was the first Indian film to be nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film.
[81] Mother India defined the conventions of Hindi cinema for decades.[82][83][84] It spawned a new genre of dacoit films.[85] Gunga Jumna (1961, Dilip Kumar) was a dacoit crime drama about two brothers on opposite sides of the law, a theme that became common in Indian films in the 1970s.
[86]
Madhumati (1958, Bimal Roy) popularised the theme of reincarnation in Western popular culture.
[87]
Dilip Kumar (Muhammad Yusuf Khan) debuted in the 1940s and rose to fame in the 1950s and was one of the biggest Indian movie stars. He was a pioneer of method acting, predating Hollywood method actors such as Marlon Brando. Much like Brando's influence on New Hollywood actors, Kumar inspired Indian actors, including Amitabh Bachchan, Naseeruddin Shah, Shah Rukh Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
[88]
Neecha Nagar won the Palme d'Or at Cannes,[72] putting Indian films in competition for the Palme d'Or for nearly every year in the 1950s and early 1960s, with many winning major prizes. Ray won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for Aparajito (1956) and the Golden Bear and two Silver Bears for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival.[89] The films of screenwriter Khwaja Ahmad Abbas were nominated for the Palme d'Or three times. (Neecha Nagar won, with nominations for Awaara and Pardesi (1957)).
Ray's contemporaries Ghatak and Dutt were overlooked in their own lifetimes, but generated international recognition in the 1980s and 1990s.[89][90] Ray is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema,
[91] with Dutt[92] and Ghatak.[93] In 1992, the Sight & Sound Critics' Poll ranked Ray at No. 7 in its list of "Top 10 Directors" of all time,[94] while Dutt ranked No. 73 in the 2002 Sight & Sound poll.[92]
Multiple films from this era are included among the greatest films of all time in various critics' and directors' polls. Multiple Ray films appeared in the Sight & Sound Critics' Poll, including The Apu Trilogy (ranked No. 4 in 1992 if votes are combined),[95] Jalsaghar (ranked No. 27 in 1992), Charulata (ranked No. 41 in 1992)[96] and Aranyer Din Ratri (ranked No. 81 in 1982).
[97]
The 2002 Sight & Sound critics' and directors' poll also included the Dutt films Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool (both tied at #160), Ghatak's films Meghe Dhaka Tara (ranked #231) and Komal Gandhar (ranked #346), and Raj Kapoor's Awaara, Vijay Bhatt's Baiju Bawra, Mehboob Khan's Mother India and K. Asif's Mughal-e-Azam all tied at #346.
[98]
In 1998, the critics' poll conducted by the Asian film magazine Cinemaya included The Apu Trilogy (ranked No. 1 if votes are combined), Ray's Charulata and Jalsaghar (both tied at #11), and Ghatak's Subarnarekha (also tied at #11).[93]
South Indian cinema saw the production works based on the epic Mahabharata, such as Mayabazar (listed by IBN Live's 2013 Poll as the greatest Indian film of all time).[99] Sivaji Ganesan became India's first actor to receive an international award when he won the "Best Actor" award at the Afro-Asian film festival in 1960 and was awarded the title of Chevalier in the Legion of Honour by the French Government in 1995.[100] Tamil cinema is influenced by Dravidian politics,[101] with prominent film personalities C N Annadurai, M G Ramachandran, M Karunanidhi and Jayalalithaa becoming Chief Ministers of Tamil Nadu.[102]
Kamal Haasan was introduced as child actor in 1960 Tamil language movie Kalathur Kannamma, Haasan's performance earned him the President's Gold Medal at the age of 6.
Bollywood (1970s–present)
Classic Bollywood (1970s–1980s)
Realistic Parallel Cinema continued throughout the 1970s,[103] practised in many Indian film cultures. The FFC's art film orientation came under criticism during a Committee on Public Undertakings investigation in 1976, which accused the body of not doing enough to encourage commercial cinema.[104]Hindi commercial cinema continued with films such as Aradhana (1969), Sachaa Jhutha (1970), Haathi Mere Saathi (1971), Anand (1971), Kati Patang (1971) Amar Prem (1972), Dushman (1972) and Daag (1973).
The screenwriting duo Salim-Javed, consisting of Salim Khan (l) and Javed Akhtar (r), revitalised Indian cinema in the 1970s,[105] and are considered Bollywood's greatest screenwriters.[106]
By the early 1970s, Hindi cinema was experiencing thematic stagnation,[107] dominated by musical romance films.[108] The arrival of screenwriter duo Salim-Javed, consisting of Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar, revitalised the industry.[107] They established the genre of gritty, violent, Bombay underworld crime films, with films such as Zanjeer (1973) and Deewaar (1975).
[109][110] They reinterpreted the rural themes of Mother India and Gunga Jumna in an urban context reflecting 1970s India,[107][111] channelling the growing discontent and disillusionment among the masses,[107] unprecedented growth of slums[112] and urban poverty, corruption and crime,[113] as well as anti-establishment themes.
[114]
This resulted in their creation of the "angry young man", personified by Amitabh Bachchan,[114] who reinterpreted Kumar's performance in Gunga Jumna,[107][111] and gave a voice to the urban poor.[112]
By the mid-1970s, crime-action films like Zanjeer and Sholay (1975) solidified Bachchan's position as a lead actor.[104] The devotional classic Jai Santoshi Ma (1975) was made on a shoe-string budget and became a box office success and a cult classic.[104] Another important film was Deewaar (1975, Yash Chopra).
[86] This crime film pitted "a policeman against his brother, a gang leader based on the real-life smuggler Haji Mastan", portrayed by Bachchan. Danny Boyle described it as "absolutely key to Indian cinema".[115]
"Bollywood" was coined in the 70s,[116][117] when the conventions of commercial Bollywood films were established.[118] Key to this was Nasir Hussain and Salim-Javed's creation of the masala film genre, which combines elements of action, comedy, romance, drama, melodrama and musical.
[118][119] Another Hussain/Salim-Javed concoction, Yaadon Ki Baarat (1973), was identified as the first masala film and the "first" quintessentially "Bollywood" film.[118][120] Salim-Javed wrote more successful masala films in the 1970s and 1980s.[118] Masala films made Bachchan the biggest Bollywood movie star of the period. Another landmark was Amar Akbar Anthony (1977, Manmohan Desai).[120][121] Desai further expanded the genre in the 1970s and 1980s.
Commercial Hindi cinema grew in the 1980s, with films such as Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981), Himmatwala (1983), Tohfa (1984), Naam (1986), Mr India (1987), and Tezaab (1988). By 1986, India's annual film output had increased from 741 films produced annually to 833 films annually, making India the world's largest film producer.[122]
New Bollywood (1990s–present)
The three Khans of Bollywood: Aamir Khan (left), Salman Khan (middle), and Shah Rukh Khan (right).
In the late 1980s, Hindi cinema experienced another period of stagnation, with a decline in box office turnout, due to increasing violence, decline in musical melodic quality, and rise in video piracy, leading to middle-class family audiences abandoning theatres. The turning point came with Yash Chopra's musical romance Chandni (1989), starring Sridevi. It was instrumental in ending the era of violent action films in Indian Cinema and rejuvenating the romantic musical genre.
[123] It also set a new template for Bollywood musical romance films that defined Hindi cinema in the coming years.[124] Commercial Hindi cinema grew in the late 80s and 1990s, with the release of Mr. India (1987), Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), Chaalbaaz (1989), Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), Lamhe (1991), Saajan (1991), Khuda Gawah (1992), Khalnayak (1993), Darr (1993),[104] Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994), Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995), Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), Pyar Kiya Toh Darna Kya (1998) and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998). Cult classic Bandit Queen (1994, Shekhar Kapur) received international recognition and controversy.[125][126]
In the late 1990s, Parallel Cinema began a resurgence in Hindi cinema, largely due to the critical and commercial success of crime films such as Satya (1998) and Vaastav (1999). These films launched a genre known as Mumbai noir,[127] urban films reflecting social problems there.[128]
Since the 1990s, the three biggest Bollywood movie stars have been the "Three Khans": Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan, and Salman Khan.[129][130] Combined, they starred in the top ten highest-grossing Bollywood films. The three Khans have had successful careers since the late 1980s,[129] and have dominated the Indian box office since the 1990s.
[131][132] Shah Rukh Khan was the most successful for most of the 1990s and 2000s, while Aamir Khan has been the most successful since the late 2000s;[133] according to Forbes, Aamir Khan is "arguably the world's biggest movie star" as of 2017, due to his immense popularity in India and China.[134] Other Hindi stars include Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgan, Anil Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit and Kajol. Haider (2014, Vishal Bhardwaj), the third instalment of the Indian Shakespearean Trilogy after Maqbool (2003) and Omkara (2006),[135] won the People's Choice Award at the 9th Rome Film Festival in the Mondo Genere category making it the first Indian film to achieve this honour.[136]
The 2010s also saw the rise of a new generation of popular actors like Ranbir Kapoor, Ranveer Singh, Varun Dhawan, Sidharth Malhotra, Sushant Singh Rajput, Arjun Kapoor, Aditya Roy Kapur and Tiger Shroff, as well as actresses like Vidya Balan, Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif, Kangana Ranaut, Deepika Padukone, Sonam Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Sonakshi Sinha, Jacqueline Fernandez, Shraddha Kapoor and Alia Bhatt, with Balan and Ranaut gaining wide recognition for successful female-centric films such as The Dirty Picture (2011), Kahaani (2012)., Queen and Tanu Weds Manu Returns (2015). Kareena Kapoor and Bipasha Basu are among the few working actresses from the 2000s who successfully completed 15 years in the industry.
Regional cinema (1970s–present)
Kannada film Samskara (1970, Pattabhirama Reddy and Singeetam Srinivasa Rao), pioneered the parallel cinema movement in south Indian cinema. The film won Bronze Leopard at the Locarno International Film Festival.[137]
Malayalam cinema experienced its own Golden Age in the 1980s and early 1990s. Acclaimed Malayalam filmmakers industry, included Adoor Gopalakrishnan, G. Aravindan, T. V. Chandran and Shaji N. Karun.[138] Gopalakrishnan, is often considered to be Ray's spiritual heir.[139] He directed some of his most acclaimed films during this period, including Elippathayam (1981) which won the Sutherland Trophy at the London Film Festival.
[140] Karun's debut film Piravi (1989) won the Caméra d'Or at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, while his second film Swaham (1994) was in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 1994 event. Vanaprastham was screened at the Un Certain Regard section of the Cannes Film Festival.[141] Commercial Malayalam cinema began gaining popularity with the action films of Jayan, a popular stunt actor who died while filming a helicopter stunt.
Telugu cinema has a history of producing internationally noted fantasy and mythological films such as the 1933 film Savitri having received an honorary diploma at the 2nd Venice International Film Festival,[47] as well as works such as Nartanasala, Mayabazar, and the Baahubali series having won the American Saturn Award for Best International Film.
[142] Daasi and Matti Manushulu (directed by B. Narsing Rao) won the Diploma of Merit award at the Moscow International Film Festival in 1989 and 1991 respectively. Maa Ooru directed by him won the Media Wave Award at the Hungary International festival of visual arts.
[143][144] Sankarabharanam (1980) dealt with the revival of Indian classical music, won the Prize of the Public at the 1981 Besançon Film Festival of France.[145] Swati Mutyam was selected by India as its entry for the Best Foreign Language Film for the Academy Awards in 1986.
146][147] The film was screened at the Moscow Film Festival, the Asian and African film festival in Tashkent, the 11th International Film Festival of India in the inaugural mainstream section, and the Asia-Pacific Film Festival where it won awards for "Best Film" and "Best Actor" categories.[148][149][150]
Tamil language films appeared at multiple film festivals. Kannathil Muthamittal (Ratnam), Veyyil (Vasanthabalan) and Paruthiveeran (Ameer Sultan), Kanchivaram (Priyadarshan) premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival. Tamil films were submitted by India for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language on eight occasions.[151] Nayakan (1987, Kamal Haasan) was included in Time magazine's "All-TIME" 100 best movies list.[152] In 1991, Marupakkam directed by K. S. Sethumadhavan, became the first Tamil film to win the National Film Award for Best Feature Film, the feat was repeated by Kanchivaram in 2007.[153]
Salim–Javed were highly influential in South Indian cinema. In addition to writing two Kannada films, many of their Bollywood films had remakes produced in other regions, including Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam cinema. While the Bollywood directors and producers held the rights to their films in Northern India, Salim-Javed retained the rights in South India, where they sold remake rights, usually for around ?1 lakh (equivalent to ?31 lakh or US$43,000 in 2019) each, for films such as Zanjeer, Yaadon Ki Baarat and Don.[154] Several of these remakes became breakthroughs for Rajinikanth, who portrayed Bachchan's role for several Tamil remakes.[108][155]
Sridevi in 2012. The most successful Indian actress during the 1980s–1990s, she is regarded as one of India's greatest and most influential movie stars and is cited as the
"First Female Superstar of Indian cinema".
Sridevi is widely regarded as the first female superstar of Bollywood cinema due to her pan-Indian appeal and a rare actor who had an equally successful career in the major Indian film industries: Hindi, Telugu and Tamil. She is also the only movie star in history of Bollywood to star in the top 10 highest grossers of the year throughout her active period (1983-1997).
By 1996, the Indian film industry had an estimated domestic cinema viewership of 600 million viewers, establishing India as one of the largest film markets, with the largest regional industries being Hindi and Telugu films.[156] In 2001, in terms of ticket sales, Indian cinema sold an estimated 3.6 billion tickets annually across the globe, compared to Hollywood's 2.6 billion tickets sold.[157][158]
Influence for cinema of India
Victoria Public Hall, is a historical building in Chennai, named after Victoria, Empress of India. It served as a theatre in the late 19th century and the early 20th century.
Prasads IMAX Theatre located at Hyderabad, was the world's largest 3D-IMAX screen, and also the most attended screen in the world.[159][160][161]
Ramoji Film City located in Hyderabad, holds Guinness World Record as the World's largest film studio.[162]
PVR Cinemas is one of the largest cinema chains in India
Moti Gokulsing and Wimal Dissanayake identify six major influences that have shaped Indian popular cinema:[163]
The ancient epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana influenced the narratives of Indian cinema. Examples of this influence include the techniques of a side story, back-story and story within a story. Indian popular films often have plots that branch into sub-plots; such narrative dispersals can clearly be seen in the 1993 films Khalnayak and Gardish.
Ancient Sanskrit drama, with its emphasis on spectacle, combined 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), featuring spectacular dance-dramas.[164] The Rasa method of performance, dating to ancient times, is one of the fundamental features that differentiate Indian from Western cinema.
In the Rasa method, empathetic "emotions are conveyed by the performer and thus felt by the audience", in contrast to the Western Stanislavski method where the actor must become "a living, breathing embodiment of a character" rather than "simply conveying emotion". The rasa method is apparent in the performances of Hindi actors such as Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan and in Hindi films such as Rang De Basanti (2006),[165] and Ray's works.[166]
Traditional folk theatre became popular around the 10th century with the decline of Sanskrit theatre. These regional traditions include the Yatra of West Bengal, the Ramlila of Uttar Pradesh, Yakshagana of Karnataka, 'Chindu Natakam' of Andhra Pradesh and the Terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu.
Parsi theatre "blended realism and fantasy, music and dance, narrative and spectacle, earthy dialogue and ingenuity of stage presentation, integrating them into a dramatic melodrama. The Parsi plays contained crude humour, melodious songs and music, sensationalism and dazzling stagecraft."[164] These influences are clearly evident in masala films such as Coolie (1983), and to an extent in more recent critically acclaimed films such as Rang De Basanti.[165]
Hollywood made popular musicals from the 1920s through the 1960s. Indian musical makers 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."[167]
Western musical television, particularly MTV, had an increasing influence in 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 Bombay (1995, Mani Ratnam).[168]
Sharmistha Gooptu and Bhaumik identify Indo-Persian/Islamicate culture as another major influence. In the early 20th century, Urdu was the lingua franca of popular performances across northern India, established in performance art traditions such as nautch dancing, Urdu poetry and Parsi theatre. Urdu and related Hindi dialects were the most widely understood across northern India, thus Hindustani became the standardised language of early Indian talkies.
One Thousand and One Nights (Arabian Nights) had a strong influence on Parsi theatre, which adapted "Persianate adventure-romances" into films, and on early Bombay cinema where "Arabian Nights cinema" became a popular genre.[169] Stadtman identifies foreign influences on commercial Bollywood masala films: New Hollywood, Hong Kong martial arts cinema and Italian exploitation films.[170]
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