The Indian film industry is the largest in the world in terms of the ticket sales and the number of films produced annually (877 feature films and 1177 short films were released in the year 2003 alone). In contrast, 473 films were produced in the US in 2003. Movie tickets in India are among the cheapest in the world. India accounts for 73% of movie admissions in the Asia-Pacific region, and earnings are currently estimated at US$2.9 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.An Indian film personality Sandeep Marwah has produced 1000 short films which is the highest in the world by an individual. Today, the technology of film-making in India is perhaps the best among all developing countries though the films themselves remain mostly repetitive in storyline and content. Superior movies, in thematic and creative terms, are made in many developing countries with less sophisticated technologies.
The Beginnings
Films arrived in India less than a year after the Lumiere Brothers first exhibited their cinematographie in Paris. On July 7, 1896, an agent who had brought equipment and films from France first showed his moving pictures in Watson Hotel in Bombay. That was an important day in the social and cultural history of the Indian people.
The first Indian-made feature film (3700 feet long) was released in 1913. It was made by Dadasaheb Phalke and was called Raja Harishchandra. Based on a story from the Mahabharata it was a stirring film concerned with honour, sacrifice and mighty deeds. From then on many "mythologicals" were made and took India by storm. Phalke's company alone produced about a hundred films.
What little remains of Indian silent cinema up to 1931 barely fills six video-cassettes in the National Film Archives of India, but it is remarkable for the way traditional "theatrical" framing (static characters, faced front on by the camera) is animated by a considerable investment in location shooting, both in natural surroundings and in the city. This is evident not only in Raja Harishchandra, but also in historical--stunt films such as Diler Jigar/Gallant Hearts (SS Agarwal; 1931) and Gulaminu Patan/The Fall of Slavery (SS Agarwal; 1931), and in the international co-productions directed by Himansu Rai and the German Franz Osten. Among these, Light of Asia (1925), about the Buddha, and Shiraz (1928), about the origins of the Taj Mahal, referred to as 'Romances from India' by their producers, render "India" as a startling, exotic assemblage: scenes of ancient and medieval court life, attended by the ritual of courtly gesture, and by spectacular processions of elephants and camels, are juxtaposed with a glittering naturalism.
Advent of Sound
By the time of the First World War, and the phenomenal expansion of Hollywood, 85% of feature films shown in India were American. But the introduction of sound made an immediate difference. In 1931, India's first talkie, Alam Ara, was released, dubbed into Hindi and Urdu. As the talkies emerged over the next decade, so too did a new series of issues. The most prominent of these, of course, was language, and language markets; alongside, there are considerations of regional identity, of the different places that separately and together make up India. Many films of the time were produced both in the regional language (Bengali, Marathi), and in Hindi, so that they could be oriented to the larger Hindi-speaking market. The Indian public quite naturally preferred to see films made in their own language and the more songs they had the better. In those days, the films made had upto 40 songs. This song tradition still persists in Indian commercial cinema.
1910-1920
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.
In 1916, Universal Pictures set up Hollywood's first Indian agency. 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.
Regional film industries 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, 114 main languages. These 114 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, Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, Marathi, Kannada,Odiya,Malayalam. 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, one of the best known film music composers in Indian cinema, started his career in Malayalam cinema in Trivandrum 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.
The Bengali (Bangla) film industry
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 Star 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 New Theatre production of Dena Paona 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 Kolkata (Calcutta), India and the lesser known one in Dhaka, Bangladesh (called Dhallywood). The film industry based in Kolkata is sometimes referred to as Tollywood, a portmanteau of the words Tollygunge, the area of South Kolkata where this industry is based, and Hollywood. The Bengali film industry has long centred in the Tollygunge district of Kolkata (Calcutta). Its most famous film director is Satyajit Ray, who won an Oscar for lifetime achievement in cinema. However, Bengali films have always remained the hot favourites among the National Awards jury almost every year since its inception. Some of the most popular Bengali film personalities include Kishore Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty, Uttam Kumar, Soumitro Chatterjee, and recently Proshenjit. Some of the other Bengalis who have made it big are Ashok Kumar, Bimal Roy, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Aparna Sen, Suchitra Sen, Hemanta Mukherjee (Hemanth Kumar), Manna Dey, Sandhya Mukhopadhyay, and Rituparno Ghosh
The Hindi film industry
The Hindi film industry, based in Mumbai (formerly Bombay), is the largest branch of Indian cinema. Hindi film Industry is often called 'Bollywood' (a melding 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 what critics see as a 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 does not distribute a lot of films, it can be considered to be largest in terms of viewers. It is believed that 95% of the Indian population watches Bollywood. It also has international recognition, especially in Western countries such as the UK, USA and Australia where there is a large South Asian community. Despite having the widest coverage, Bollywood movies fail to impress South Indians especially in Tamil Nadu & Kerala because of a very strong local film industry which arguably produces movies of much superior quality.
The Kannada film industry
The Kannada film industry, based in Karnataka, is sometimes called 'Sandalwood', as Karnataka is known for its sandalwood; however, this term does not seem to be in widespread use. The Gubbi Veeranna Company, or Veeranna's Sri Chennabasaveshwara Krupa Poshita Nataka Sangha and other groups established themselves first as theatre troupes, and later went on to dominate kannada cinema into the 1960s. "They provided all its key directors like H.L.N . Simha, B. R. Panthulu and G. V. Iyer, 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.". Kannada films has become very popular after the recent hits like Jogi (2005) & Mungaru Male (2007).Mungaru Male has been the first Indian movie to be screened in many European countries.
The 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. Cinema halls had been shut down for a long time in Kashmir, by militants protesting against the New Delhi based 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, the regional industry was not very strong, due to lack of finances and infrastructure.
The Malayalam film industry
The Malayalam film industry, 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: filmmakers, Padmavibhushan Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Bharathan, Aravindan, Padmarajan, John Abraham; scriptwriter, M. T. Vasudevan Nair, Sreenivasan; cinematographer, Azhagappan, Santhosh Sivan, Shaji; actors, Bharath Gopi, Tilakan, Padmabhushan Prem Nazeer, Satyan, Padmashri Mohanlal, Padmashri Mammootty]], Padmashri Balachandra Menon; playback singers, Padmabhushan Dr. K. J. Yesudas, Padmasree K. S. Chitra, P Jayachandran, M G Sreekumar and Sujatha.
The first 3D film which produced in India was in Malayalam. Its name was My Dear Kuttichatthan produced by Navodaya Productions. Padayottam, the first fully indigenous 70MM film with all its work done in India was in Malayalam which was also produced by Navodaya. The fist Cinemascope film in the world was produced in Malayalam. Chemmeen was the first film which earned a gold medal from the President from South India. Mohanlal's "Guru", directed by Rajiv Anchal, is the only Malayalam film nominated for Oscar Award so far.
-Malayalam film Industry has been nicknamed as Malluwood -Mohanlal's "Narasimham" earned the highest profit in the history of Malayalam films till 2005 -Mammootty has got 3 times National Award for best actor equalling Kamal Hasan. -The industry has contributed many top directors, actors, writers etc. For example A.R. Rahman's first film for which he give music was in Malayalam Vanaprastham produced by Mohanlal is the first Indo-French production movie. It has been dubbed into English (International & Europe), French & German -Mohanlal's Kalapani told the story of the life of inmates in the infamous Indian prison in Andaman during the era of the British Raj
The Marathi film industry
The Marathi Film industry is based in Mumbai,Maharashtra. Marathi film industry is one of the oldest in India. Dadasaheb Phalke was one of the pioneers of the films in Marathi. He is infact,termed as father of Indian cinema. He produced first Indian movie followed by Marathi talkies. Every year there is an award given in the name of "Dadasaheb Falke Award" for exceptional contribution to India cinema. Marathi film industry was overshadowed by presence of Bollywood, but is evolving due to some off-beat movies like Shwaas, Uttarayan and mainstream successes like Aga bai Areccha, Yanda Kartavya aahe and so on.. Old Marathi film songs are popular even today also. Old songs are remixed and presented now-a-days. Also actors like Dilip Prabhavalkar, Bharat Jadhav are making more difference in growing Marathi film industry. Several Marathi movies have won international and national awards. Bhalji Pendharkar, Baburao Painter, V.Shantaram, Dada Kondke, Mahesh Kothare, Smita Talwalkar, Bhave-Sukathankar, Kedar Shinde are some of the notable names in Marathi cinema.
The Tamil film industry
The Tamil film industry (Kollywood), based in the Kodambakkam area of Chennai is one of biggest film industries in India. Tamil films have enjoyed consistent popularity among Tamil speakers in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia and Mauritius. Tamil films also receive fame in countries which contain Tamil immigrant communities such as the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and other European countries. In the Tamil film industry, directors such as K. Balachander, Shankar, Bharathiraja, Balu Mahendra, Santhana Bharathi, Cheran, 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. There has been a growing presence of English in dialogue and songs as well. It is not uncommon to see movies that feature dialogue studded with English words and phrases, or even whole sentences. Some movies are also simultaneously released in two or three regional languages (either using subtitles or several soundtracks). Contemporary Tamil movies often feature Madras Bashai, a colloquial version of Tamil spoken in Madras. A select few, Iruvar and older films based on epics, for instance, employ literary Tamil extensively in dialogues when the situation calls for it.
The Telugu film industry
The Telugu film industry is based in Andhra Pradesh's capital city, Hyderabad. After Bollywood, more movies are produced every year in Telugu than any other language. 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. Since then, there have been both social (contemporary) and mythological or folk stories in Telugu cinema. Telugu films are released in Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, East Maharastra, Orissa and few parts of West Bengal. Telugu movies are released world wide in United States, Canada, parts of Europe, South Africa, Malaysia and Singapore.
Awards
The Filmfare Awards ceremony is one of the oldest and most prominent film events given for Hindi films in India and is sometimes referred to as the "Bollywood Oscars." [13] 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. 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."
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.
Additional ceremonies held within India are:
Ceremonies held overseas are:
Most of these award ceremonies are lavishly staged spectacles, featuring singing, dancing, and lots of stars and starlets.
FYI: There are many external links (text with blue color) in the post, please use them for more information and to check for terminologies.
Say Cheese!!!
Top 10 statements / Jokes in Hindi movies
1. Mai tumharay bachhe ki maa ban-nay waali hoon.
2. Police meeray peechay lagi hui hai.
3. Tum may-re liye mar chuke ho.
4. Bataoo, heeray kahan hai.
5. Yeh anyay hai bhagwan
6. Bacchhhaaaaaooooo.....
7. Main tumharay bina mar jaa-oongi.
8. Itnay paisay tum kahan se laaye?
9. Mai tumhara ehasaan zindagi bhar nahin bhuloonga
10. Kuttay, Kameenay mai tumhe jaan se maar doonga
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