The holiday season is in full swing, and that means blockbuster films are making their entrance on the big screen. After a weekend that saw four new wide releases arrive in cinemas, two more movies are making their theatrical launch on Wednesday, bringing with them a wide array of options to avid moviegoers and their families as they gather for the holidays. More...Saltburn trailerNovember 21, 2023
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema,[3] refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Hollywood". The industry is a part of the larger Indian cinema, which also includes South Indian cinema and other smaller film industries.[4][5][6]
In 2017, Indian cinema produced 1,986 feature films, of which the largest number, 364 have been in Hindi.[4] As per data from 2014[update], Hindi cinema represented 43 percent of Indian net box-office revenue; Tamil and Telugu cinema represented 36 percent, and the remaining regional cinema constituted 21 percent.[7] Hindi cinema is one of the largest centres for film production in the world.[8][9][10] Hindi films sold an estimated 341 million tickets in India in 2019.[11][12] Earlier Hindi films tended to use vernacular Hindustani, mutually intelligible by speakers of either Hindi or Urdu, while modern Hindi productions increasingly incorporate elements of Hinglish.[13]
The most popular commercial genre in Hindi cinema since the 1970s has been the masala film, which freely mixes different genres including action, comedy, romance, drama and melodrama along with musical numbers.[14][15] Masala films generally fall under the musical film genre, of which Indian cinema has been the largest producer since the 1960s when it exceeded the American film industry's total musical output after musical films declined in the West. Dadasaheb Phalke's silent film Raja Harishchandra (1913) is the first feature length film made in India.[16] The first Indian musical talkie was Alam Ara (1931), four years after the first Hollywood sound film The Jazz Singer (1927).
Alongside commercial masala films, a distinctive genre of art films known as parallel cinema has also existed, presenting realistic content and avoidance of musical numbers. In more recent years, the distinction between commercial masala and parallel cinema has been gradually blurring, with an increasing number of mainstream films adopting the conventions which were once strictly associated with parallel cinema.
The term "Tollywood", for the Tollygunge-based cinema of West Bengal, predated "Bollywood".[18] It was used in a 1932 American Cinematographer article by Wilford E. Deming, an American engineer who helped produce the first Indian sound picture.[18]
SS Rajamouli's Baahubali: The Beginning (2015), Telugu language film started new wave of Pan-India films. Due to COVID-19, the Hindi industry halted, many movies got delayed and released after pandemic ended, in the meanwhile due to years lockdowns audience got confined and got exposed to World cinema through number of OTT platforms such as Netflix, Prime video, Sony LIV etc who became popular, Indian audience not only watched Hollywood movies on them but also lots of movies of South Korean, Spanish etc film industries, and their web series. According to some film critics, the test and understanding of the audience evolved, they became more content driven, they began exploring various film genres. From 2015 onwards, the position of Bollywood as the top film industry of India waned. Some directors, exhibitors, actors and producers claimed that audiences became smarter, and they wanted movies with good stories, and they do not accept mediocre films. Instead of understanding it, Bollywood's film producers continued making films on cliched, bad stories, and did not evolve with their audience. Consequently, big-budget Bollywood films ended up as Box-office disasters in recent past. Since Bahubali (2015) released, many regional language movies emerged as hits throughout India and regional film industries such as Telugu, Tamil, Kannada Film Industry etc., started giving tough competition to the Bollywood movies at the box-office. Many regional actors became known outside their state, where previously they were unknown. Rajamouli's RRR (2021), Telugu film emerged as one of the highest grossing films of Indian cinema. Many Bollywood producers and directors acknowledge the might of regional film industries. Some trade experts and critics believe that audiences eventually will return to Bollywood.[28][29][30][31] In 2022, Hindi industry released 44 movies; out of those, 4 emerged as hits and 40 flopped.[32]
Dadasaheb Phalke's silent Raja Harishchandra (1913) is the first feature film made in India. By the 1930s, the industry was producing over 200 films per year.[38] The first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Irani's Alam Ara (1931), was commercially successful.[39] With a great demand for talkies and musicals, Hindustani cinema (as Hindi cinema was then known as)[40] and the other regional film industries quickly switched to sound films.
The 1930s and 1940s were tumultuous times; India was buffeted by the Great Depression, World War II, the Indian independence movement, and the violence of the Partition. Although most early Bombay films were unabashedly escapist, a number of filmmakers tackled tough social issues or used the struggle for Indian independence as a backdrop for their films.[41] Irani made the first Hindi colour film, Kisan Kanya, in 1937. The following year, he made a colour version of Mother India. However, colour did not become a popular feature until the late 1950s. At this time, lavish romantic musicals and melodramas were cinematic staples.
The decade of the 1940s saw an expansion of Bombay cinema's commercial market and its presence in the national consciousness. The year 1943 saw the arrival of Indian cinema's first 'blockbuster' offering, the movie Kismet, which grossed in excess of the important barrier of one crore (10 million) rupees, made on a budget of only two lakh (200,000) rupees.[42] The film tackled contemporary issues, especially those arising from the Indian Independence movement, and went on to become "the longest running hit of Indian cinema", a title it held till the 1970s.[43] Film personalities like Bimal Roy, Sahir Ludhianvi and Prithviraj Kapoor participated in the creation of a national movement against colonial rule in India, while simultaneously leveraging the popular political movement to increase their own visibility and popularity.[44][45] Themes from the Independence Movement deeply influenced Bombay film directors, screen-play writers, and lyricists, who saw their films in the context of social reform and the problems of the common people.[46]
The period from the late 1940s to the early 1960s, after India's independence, is regarded by film historians as the Golden Age of Hindi cinema.[52][53][54] Some of the most critically acclaimed Hindi films of all time were produced during this time. Examples include Pyaasa (1957) and Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959), directed by Guru Dutt and written by Abrar Alvi; Awaara (1951) and Shree 420 (1955), directed by Raj Kapoor and written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, and Aan (1952), directed by Mehboob Khan and starring Dilip Kumar. The films explored social themes, primarily dealing with working-class life in India (particularly urban life) in the first two examples. Awaara presented the city as both nightmare and dream, and Pyaasa critiqued the unreality of urban life.[55]
Mehboob Khan's Mother India (1957), a remake of his earlier Aurat (1940), was the first Indian film nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film; it lost by a single vote.[56] Mother India defined conventional Hindi cinema for decades.[57][58][59] It spawned a genre of dacoit films, in turn defined by Gunga Jumna (1961).[60] Written and produced by Dilip Kumar, Gunga Jumna was a dacoit crime drama about two brothers on opposite sides of the law (a theme which became common in Indian films during the 1970s).[61] Some of the best-known epic films of Hindi cinema were also produced at this time, such as K. Asif's Mughal-e-Azam (1960).[62] Other acclaimed mainstream Hindi filmmakers during this period included Kamal Amrohi and Vijay Bhatt.
The three most popular male Indian actors of the 1950s and 1960s were Dilip Kumar, Raj Kapoor, and Dev Anand, each with a unique acting style. Kapoor adopted Charlie Chaplin's tramp persona; Anand modeled himself on suave Hollywood stars like Gregory Peck and Cary Grant, and Kumar pioneered a form of method acting which predated Hollywood method actors such as Marlon Brando. Kumar, who was described as "the ultimate method actor" by Satyajit Ray, inspired future generations of Indian actors. Much like Brando's influence on Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, Kumar had a similar influence on Amitabh Bachchan, Naseeruddin Shah, Shah Rukh Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.[63][64] Veteran actresses such as Suraiya, Nargis, Sumitra Devi, Madhubala, Meena Kumari, Waheeda Rehman, Nutan, Sadhana, Mala Sinha and Vyjayanthimala have had their share of influence on Hindi cinema.[66]
While commercial Hindi cinema was thriving, the 1950s also saw the emergence of a parallel cinema movement.[55] Although the movement (emphasising social realism) was led by Bengali cinema, it also began gaining prominence in Hindi cinema. Early examples of parallel cinema include Dharti Ke Lal (1946), directed by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas and based on the Bengal famine of 1943,;[67] Neecha Nagar (1946) directed by Chetan Anand and written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas,[68] and Bimal Roy's Do Bigha Zamin (1953). Their critical acclaim and the latter's commercial success paved the way for Indian neorealism and the Indian New Wave (synonymous with parallel cinema).[69] Internationally acclaimed Hindi filmmakers involved in the movement included Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihalani, Shyam Benegal, and Vijaya Mehta.[55]
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