Cinema of India

India is a major regional center for cinema. The Indian film industry is the largest in the world (1200 movies released in the year 2002). The industry is supported mainly by a vast film-going Indian public, though Indian films have been gaining increasing popularity in the rest of the world — notably in countries with large numbers of expatriate Indians.

Indian art cinema

In addition to commercial cinema, there is also high-minded Indian art cinema, known to film critics as "New Indian Cinema" or sometimes "the Indian New Wave" (see the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema). Most people in India simply call such films "art films" as opposed to mainstream commercial cinema. From the 1960s through the 1980s, the art film was usually government-supported cinema. Aspiring directors could get federal or state government grants to produce non-commercial films on Indian themes. Many of these directors were graduates of the government film school (FTII or Film and Television Institute of India). Their films were showcased at government film festivals and on the government-run TV station, Doordarshan. These films also had limited runs in art house theatres in India and overseas.

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The art directors owed much more to foreign influences, such as Italian Neo-Realism or French New Wave, than they did to the genre conventions of commercial Indian cinema. The best known New Cinema directors were Bengali: Bimal Roy, Ritwik Ghatak, and Satyajit Ray. The best known films of this genre are the Apu Trilogy (Bengali) by Satyajit Ray and Do Bigha Zameen (Hindi) by Bimal Roy.

Related Topics:
Italian Neo-Realism - French New Wave - Bimal Roy - Ritwik Ghatak - Satyajit Ray

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Satyajit Ray was the most successful of the "art" directors. Many Indians knew his name and took pride in his numerous foreign awards. Prestige, however, did not translate to large-scale commercial success. His films played primarily to art-house audiences (students and intelligentsia) in the larger Indian cities, or to film buffs on the international art-house circuit.

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However, many cinematographers, technicians and actors started in art cinema and moved to commercial cinema. The actor Naseeruddin Shah is one notable example. He has never achieved matinee idol status, but he has turned out a solid body of work as a supporting actor and a star in independent films such as Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding.

Related Topics:
Naseeruddin Shah - Mira Nair - Monsoon Wedding

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Art cinema was also well-supported in the state of Kerala. Malayalam movie makers like Adoor Gopalakrishnan, G. Aravindan, T. V. Chandran, and M. T. Vasudevan Nair were fairly successful. Starting the 1970s, Kannada film-makers from Karnataka state produced a string of serious, low-budget films. But virtually only one director from that period continues to make off-beat films -- Girish Kasaravalli.

Related Topics:
Kerala - Malayalam - Adoor Gopalakrishnan - M. T. Vasudevan Nair - Girish Kasaravalli

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In most markets of South India however, stars and popular cinema rule the box office. Only a few directors such as Balachander, Bharathiraja, Balu Mahendra, Bapu, Puttanna, Siddalingaiah, Dr.K.Vishwanath, and Mani Ratnam have achieved box-office hits while balancing elements of art and popular cinema.

Related Topics:
South India - Balachander - Bharathiraja - Balu Mahendra - Bapu - Puttanna - Siddalingaiah - Dr.K.Vishwanath - Mani Ratnam

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Independent films may be the future of art cinema in India, which has to a great extent lost its government patronage. The Indian film market will likely consist of big-budget mass-market films with big stars, and independent films made on a shoestring by aspiring auteurs -- much like today's Western film market.

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