Evolution of Indian Cinema

This paper was prepared for Introduction to Film History, Module 1 Homework Assignment, taught by Professor Stephanie Sandifer.

Film is a form of art that is formally used as a means of entertainment. Yet, through time making films are now a part of a massive industry. This paper will explore the importance of entertainment, specifically films that are made in India. The focus of this paper will be to introduce the arrival of film in India through different time periods and how several historical events have impacted the Bollywood industry. Moreover, once a general idea of how Bollywood development through time is explained, we will then establish why the Bollywood industry is unique and different from any other film industry in the world. This will also include the different factors which have influenced the Bollywood industry. Lastly, this paper will

The modern film industry was born around the beginning of the twentieth century. On April 23rd 1896 Thomas Edition showed the first publicly-projected motion picture at Koster and Bial's Music Hall in New York City. From there the film industry had an explosive growth rate. In fact,

Cinema’s influence on pop culture has steadily increased since its introduction in the 1890’s. As special effects were introduced and the length of film increased, their popularity increased as well. Today, there is quite a bit of focus placed on the box office returns of films and popular culture is directly affected by this. The impact any given film will have on society is usually directly influenced by the number of people who saw the movie. At first glances, films that would have this large impact would appear to be the ones with the biggest budgets, most prolific directors and most important movie stars. However, these big budget films are not the only films that have made an impact on popular culture. The influence made by cult films cannot be ignored when discussing the impact of film on society.

During the early 1960s, the Hollywood in America was rapidly losing money. Fewer people went to the cinema and fewer films have been made. And a number of spectacular flops have almost bankrupted Hollywood film industry. Till the late 1960s and early 1970s, the baby boomer generation along with the end of the Vietnam War has created an opportunity of changing and saving the situation of Hollywood. For a period that has changed audience’s demographics from a middle-aged high school educated audiences to a younger college-educated audiences. And affected by the French New Wave, directors injected films with a jolt of freshness, energy and sexuality. That period is known as the New Hollywood or the Hollywood Renaissance. Among the films have been made at

During the Age of Imperialism, Britain established many colonies. One of its dominions was the British Raj in India. Throughout this period Britain ruled India which caused many of the cultures to intermix. Now, in modern day, many films are made about the effects of Britain and India’s cultural interchange. Many British auteurs focus on the cultural effects of this time period on the new generation through contemporary films that revolve around a modern day family with cultural differences. Contemporary films are essentially films that have been created recently, circa the late 1900s to present day. The transnational circulation and genre hybridity of contemporary films is exemplified by the increasing global popularity of Indian Bollywood cinema. British post-colonial films often include portrayals of the Indian culture due to the merging of the cultures and their shared history. The post-colonial films juxtapose the Indian culture before and after the Indian diaspora, often in settings that are not traditionally of the Indian culture. British films often study the Indian diaspora’s effect on the Indians in terms of their culture and adaptation to the British culture. This analysis will focus on the portrayal of the post-colonial Indian culture through analysis of British contemporary films.

The western movies are film genre where the scene generally takes place in North America during the American conquest of the West in the last decades of the nineteenth century. This genre appears since the invention of the cinema in 1985 finding its inspiration from literature and painting arts of the American Wild West. This genre reached its first success in the mid-twentieth century during the golden age of Hollywood studios, before it had being reinvented by European filmmakers in the 1960s.

The costs, methods of distribution, and themes of Hollywood and Nollywood films reflect strongly their target audiences; how the target audience affects the production of a film and how the production of a movie is designed to capture a specific

Over the years, Cinema has become a powerful tool for education, leisure, culture, propaganda. In 2013, the world hit a record high of 7,610 films, with India accounting for more than one-fifth of the total production. (uis.nesco.org, 2018) The first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru, once stated,”..the influence in India of films is greater than newspapers and books combined,”

Over the years, Bollywood has emerged as its own distinct identity in the global Film industry. Bollywood is the global leader in production of movies with a staggering 27,000 featured films and thousands of short films. ( Pillania 1) However, Hollywood is still the leader in revenues generated. Due to the growth of the Indian market and globalization, Bollywood has made its way to the international markets. Globalization is often misrepresented as the growing influence of the western culture in the world and so we tend to state that Hollywood is influencing Bollywood to a great extent. An argument can be made to justify the validity of that statement. However, this paper aims at presenting the influence of Bollywood on Hollywood in

The History of film has been influenced by the discovery and testing of paradoxes intrinsic in the medium itself. machines are used record images of anything; it combines still photographs to give the appearance of continuous motion; it seems to present life itself, but it also offers unthinkable unrealities approached only in dreams.

Hindi Cinema, famously known as Bollywood across the world, is one of the largest film industries in the world. The Era started with Raja Harishchandra by Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian Cinema and Bollywood, who made the first film of Indian Cinema and Hindi Cinema. The first sound and colour films were made by Ardeshir Irani, called Alam Ara (1913) and Kisan Kanya (1937) respectively. The period between 1940’s to 1960’s was considered the “Golden Age” of Bollywood as successful hits like Pyaasa (1957) and Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959) by Guru Dutt, Awaara (1951) and Shree 420 (1955) by Raj Kapoor and Aan (1952) by Dilip Kumar.

film industry is the largest of any industries with India making the most number of movies per year than

Film Industry has been expansively affected by the changes in technology. The mechanical and digital innovations give cause to the influence of equipment, distribution and the way in which films are made and consumed. New trends shape directors and filmmakers to expand creatively towards telling stories in motions. The film industry has developed to one of the most important tools of communication, it's cause so powerful affecting the way individuals and societies think, act and behave. Among the new Era approaching film, and seeing celluloid film fade is that of the Digital Era and a camera that saw celluloid films passing hastened.

India is considered as the inception of the mythological genre of film. The first feature film of India, Raja HarishChandra (1913) by Dadasaheb Phalke was the commencement of the explorations of the mythological genre of films (Dimitrova, 2016). Bollywood movies have been considered as the richest source of exploring religious and cultural values, (Dunmill. M 2007). Bollywood has produced several movies and TV shows predicated on gods. Religion composed a very sensitive issue in the Indian society. Hindu religion is the most commonly practiced religion in India, according to the 2011 census (Shrivastava, 2015). Movies that are against the religious credences of the audience are considered blasphemy or attack on the religious sentiments of the community (Qadri & Mufti, 2017). Om Jai Jagadish (2002), Hum Saath-Saath Hain (1999) and Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994) are some of the movies that represented a typical Indian, Hindu family by utilizing traditional costumes and festival celebrations. Dimitrova (2016) discussed the movie Lagaan (2001) and the portrayal of the religion, Hinduism in the movie. The movie was predicated in the North Indian village, Champaner, which is a part of the princely state in 1893 (Dimitrova, 2016). In the movie, British rulers are stereotyped and represented as cruel, arrogant and superficial. British rulers imposed a tax on the Indian villagers. Bhuvan, portrayed by Aamir Khan, travestied the