Bollywood

Bollywood is the informal name given to the popular Mumbai-based film industry in India.

History

Cinema first came to India in 1896, when the Lumiere Brothers? Cinematographe showed six short films in the Watson Hotel. Three years later Harishchandra Bhatvadekar shot and exhibited two short films. Following that, there were several attempts to film staged plays and imported films were shown in the first decade of the 20th century. The first indigenous silent feature film was produced by Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, also known as Dada Saheb ? the father of cinema. The cinema industry was well established by 1920, producing 27 films per annum.

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By the 1930s the industry was producing over 200 films per annum. The first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Irani's 1931 Alam Ara, was an all-India super-hit, even though the dialogue and songs were in Hindi. There was clearly a huge market for talkies and musicals; Bollywood and all the regional film industries quickly switched to sound filming.

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The 1930s and 1940s were tumultuous times: depression, World War II, Indian independence, Partition. Most Bollywood films were unabashedly escapist, but there were also a number of filmmakers who tackled tough social issues, or enlisted film in the struggle for Indian independence.

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In the late 1950s, Bollywood films moved from black-and-white to color. Lavish romantic musicals and melodramas were the staple fare at the cinema. In the 1970s and 1980s, romantic confections made way for gritty, violent, realistic films about gangsters and bandits. Amitabh Bachchan, the star known for his "angry young man" roles, rode the crest of this trend. In the early 1990s, the pendulum swung back towards romantic musicals with the success of such films as Hum Aapke Hain Koun (1994) and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995).

Related Topics:
Amitabh Bachchan - Hum Aapke Hain Koun - Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge

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As Ganti points out in his 2004 book on Bollywood, the Indian film industry has preferred films that appeal to all segments of the audience and resisted making films that target much narrower audiences. It was believed that aiming for a broad spectrum would maximize box office receipts. However, filmmakers may be moving towards accepting some box-office segmentation, between films that appeal to rural Indians, and films that appeal to urban and overseas audiences. The urban and overseas segment may be smaller, but it has more money to spend.

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