The cinema of India consists of films produced across India, including the cinematic culture of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, and West Bengal. Indian films came to be followed throughout South Asia and the Middle East. As cinema as a medium gained popularity in the country as many as 1,000 films in various languages of India were produced annually.[1] Expatriates in countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States continued to give rise to international audiences for Indian films of various languages.
In the 20th century, Indian cinema, along with the American and Chinese film industries, became a global enterprise.[2] At the end of 2010 it was reported that in terms of annual film output, India ranks first, followed by America (Hollywood) and China.[3] Enhanced technology paved the way for upgradation from established cinematic norms of delivering product, radically altering the manner in which content reached the target audience.[2] Indian cinema found markets in over 90 countries where films from India are screened.[4] The country also participated in international film festivals, especially Satyajit Ray (Bengali), Adoor Gopalakrishnan (Malayalam), K. Viswanath (Telugu),[5] Mani Ratnam (Tamil), Girish Kasaravalli (Kannada).[4] Indian filmmakers such as Shekhar Kapur, Mira Nair, Deepa Mehta etc. found success overseas.[6] The Indian government extended film delegations to foreign countries such as the United States of America and Japan while the country's Film Producers Guild sent similar missions through Europe.[7] Sivaji Ganesan, and S.V. Ranga Rao won their respective first international award for Best Actor held at Afro-Asian Film Festival in Cairo & Indonesian Film Festival in Jakarta for the films Veerapandiya Kattabomman & Narthanasala in 1959 & 1963, separately.[8][9][10]
MAKING OF ENDHIRAN (Part 1)
India is the world's largest producer of films.[11][12] In 2009, India produced a total of 2961 films on celluloid, that include a staggering figure of 1288 feature films.[13] The provision of 100% foreign direct investment has made the Indian film market attractive for foreign enterprises such as 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, and Warner Bros.[14] Prominent Indian enterprises such as Zee, UTV, Suresh Productions, Adlabs and Sun Network's Sun Pictures also participated in producing and distributing films.[14] Tax incentives to multiplexes have aided the multiplex boom in India.[14] By 2003 as many as 30 film production companies had been listed in the National Stock Exchange of India, making the commercial presence of the medium felt.
The Indian diaspora consists of millions of Indians overseas for which films are made available both through mediums such as DVDs and by screening of films in their country of residence wherever commercially feasible.[15] These earnings, accounting for some 12% of the revenue generated by a mainstream film, contribute substantially to the overall revenue of Indian cinema, the net worth of which was found to be US$1.3 billion in 2000.[16] Music in Indian cinema is another substantial revenue generator, with the music rights alone accounting for 4–5% of the net revenues generated by a film in India.
History
Following the screening of the Lumière moving pictures in London (1895) cinema became a sensation across Europe and by July 1896 the Lumière films had been in show in Bombay (now Mumbai).[17] The first short films in India were directed by Hiralal Sen, starting with The Flower of Persia (1898).[18] The first full-length motion picture in India was produced by Dadasaheb Phalke, a scholar on India's languages and culture, who brought together elements from Sanskrit epics to produce his Raja Harishchandra (1913), a silent film in Marathi. (Interestingly, the female roles in the film were played by male actors.)[19] The first Indian chain of cinema theaters was owned by the Calcutta entrepreneur Jamshedji Framji Madan, who oversaw production of 10 films annually and distributed them throughout the Indian subcontinent.[19]
During the early twentieth century cinema as a medium gained popularity across India's population and its many economic sections.[17] Tickets were made affordable to the common man at a low price and for the financially capable additional comforts meant additional admission ticket price.[17] Audiences thronged to cinema halls as this affordable medium of entertainment was available for as low as an anna (4 paisa) in Bombay.[17] The content of Indian commercial cinema was increasingly tailored to appeal to these masses.[17] Young Indian producers began to incorporate elements of India's social life and culture into cinema.[20] Others brought with them ideas from across the world.[20] This was also the time when global audiences and markets became aware of India's film industry.[20]
Ardeshir Irani released Alam Ara, the first Indian talking film, on 14 March 1931.[19] H.M. Reddy, produced & directed Bhakta Prahlada (Telugu), released on Sept 15, 1931 & Kalidas (Tamil ).[21] released on oct 31, 1931. Kalidas was produced by Ardeshir Irani & directed by H.M. Reddy. These two films are south India's first talkie films to have a theatrical release.[22] Following the inception of 'talkies' in India some film stars were highly sought after and earned comfortable incomes through acting.[19] As sound technology advanced the 1930s saw the rise of music in Indian cinema with musicals such as Indra Sabha and Devi Devyani marking the beginning of song-and-dance in India's films.[19] Studios emerged across major cities such as Chennai, Kolkata, and Mumbai as film making became an established craft by 1935, exemplified by the success of Devdas, which had managed to enthrall audiences nationwide.[23] Bombay Talkies came up in 1934 and Prabhat Studios in Pune had begun production of films meant for the Marathi language audience.[23] Filmmaker R. S. D. Choudhury produced Wrath (1930), banned by the British Raj in India as it depicted actors as Indian leaders, an expression censored during the days of the Indian independence movement.[19]
The Indian Masala film—a slang used for commercial films with song, dance, romance etc.—came up following the second world war.[23] South Indian cinema gained prominence throughout India with the release of S.S. Vasan's Chandralekha.[23] During the 1940s cinema in South India accounted for nearly half of India's cinema halls and cinema came to be viewed as an instrument of cultural revival.[23] The partition of India following its independence divided the nation's assets and a number of studios went to the newly formed Pakistan.[23] The strife of partition would become an enduring subject for film making during the decades that followed.[23]
Following independence the cinema of India was inquired by the S.K. Patil Commission.[24] S.K. Patil, head of the commission, viewed cinema in India as a 'combination of art, industry, and showmanship' while noting its commercial value.[24] Patil further recommended setting up of a Film Finance Corporation under the Ministry of Finance.[25] This advice was later taken up in 1960 and the institution came into being to provide financial support to talented filmmakers throughout India.[25] The Indian government had established a Films Division by 1949 which eventually became one of the largest documentary film producers in the world with an annual production of over 200 short documentaries, each released in 18 languages with 9000 prints for permanent film theaters across the country.[26]
The Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA), an art movement with a communist inclination, began to take shape through the 1940s and the 1950s.[24] A number of realistic IPTA plays, such as Bijon Bhattacharya's Nabanna in 1944 (based on the tragedy of the Bengal famine of 1943), prepared the ground for the solidification of realism in Indian cinema, exemplified by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas's Dharti Ke Lal (Children of the Earth) in 1946.[24] The IPTA movement continued to emphasize on reality and went on to produce Mother India and Pyaasa, among of India's most recognizable cinematic productions.
Golden Age of Indian cinema
Following India's independence, the period from the late 1940s to the 1960s are regarded by film historians as the 'Golden Age' of Indian cinema.[28][29][30] Some of the most critically acclaimed Indian films of all time were produced during this period. In commercial Hindi cinema, examples of films at the time include the Guru Dutt films Pyaasa (1957) and Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959) and the Raj Kapoor films Awaara (1951) and Shree 420 (1955). These films expressed social themes mainly dealing with working-class urban life in India; Awaara presented the city as both a nightmare and a dream, while Pyaasa critiqued the unreality of city life.[31] Some epic films were also produced at the time, including Mehboob Khan's Mother India (1957), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film,[32] and K. Asif's Mughal-e-Azam (1960).[33] V. Shantaram's Do Aankhen Barah Haath (1957) is believed to have inspired the Hollywood film The Dirty Dozen (1967).[34] Madhumati (1958), directed by Bimal Roy and written by Ritwik Ghatak, popularized the theme of reincarnation in Western popular culture.[35] Other mainstream Hindi filmmakers at the time included Kamal Amrohi and Vijay Bhatt.
While commercial Indian cinema was thriving, the period also saw the emergence of a new Parallel Cinema movement, mainly led by Bengali cinema.[31] Early examples of films in this movement include Chetan Anand's Neecha Nagar (1946),[36] Ritwik Ghatak's Nagarik (1952),[37][38] and Bimal Roy's Two Acres of Land (1953), laying the foundations for Indian neorealism[39] and the "Indian New Wave".[40] Pather Panchali (1955), the first part of The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959) by Satyajit Ray, marked his entry in Indian cinema.[41] The Apu Trilogy won major prizes at all the major international film festivals and led to the 'Parallel Cinema' movement being firmly established in Indian cinema. Its influence on world cinema can also be felt in the "youthful coming-of-age dramas that have flooded art houses since the mid-fifties" which "owe a tremendous debt to the Apu trilogy".[42] Satyajit Ray and Ritwik Ghatak went on to direct many more critically-acclaimed 'art films', and they were followed by other acclaimed Indian independent filmmakers such as Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Mani Kaul and Buddhadeb Dasgupta.[31] During the 1960s, Indira Gandhi's intervention during her reign as the Information and Broadcasting Minister of India further led to production of off-beat cinematic expression being supported by the official Film Finance Corporation.[25]
The cinematographer Subrata Mitra, who made his debut with Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy, also had an important influence on cinematography across the world. One of his most important techniques was bounce lighting, to recreate the effect of daylight on sets. He pioneered the technique while filming Aparajito (1956), the second part of The Apu Trilogy.[43] Some of the experimental techniques which Satyajit Ray pioneered include photo-negative flashbacks and X-ray digressions while filming Pratidwandi (1972).[44] Ray's 1967 script for a film to be called The Alien, which was eventually cancelled, is also widely believed to have been the inspiration for Steven Spielberg's E.T. (1982).[45][46][47]
Other regional industries also had their 'Golden Age' during this period. Commercial Telugu cinema & Tamil cinema experienced a growth in the number of commercially successful films produced. Some Telugu & Tamil film personalities at the time include Akkineni Nageswara Rao, N.T. Rama Rao, S.V.Ranga Rao, Sivaji Ganesan, M.G.Rama chandran, Bhanumati, Savitri,Saroja Devi, J. Jayalalithaa, S.A.Asokan and Nagesh.[48] Marathi cinema also ushered in a 'Golden Age' at this time, with some of its directors such as V. Shantaram later playing in instrumental role in mainstream Hindi cinema's 'Golden Age'.[49]
Ever since Chetan Anand's social realist film Neecha Nagar won the Grand Prize at the first Cannes Film Festival,[36] Indian films were frequently in competition for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for nearly every year in the 1950s and early 1960s, with a number of them winning major prizes at the festival. Satyajit Ray also won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival for Aparajito (1956), the second part of The Apu Trilogy, and the Golden Bear and two Silver Bears for Best Director at the Berlin International Film Festival.[50] Ray's contemporaries, Ritwik Ghatak and Guru Dutt, were overlooked in their own lifetimes but had belatedly generated international recognition much later in the 1980s and 1990s.[50][51] Ray is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema,[52] while Dutt[53] and Ghatak.[54] In 1992, the Sight & Sound Critics' Poll ranked Ray at #7 in its list of "Top 10 Directors" of all time,[55] while Dutt was ranked #73 in the 2002 Sight & Sound greatest directors poll.[53]
A number of Indian films from this era are often included among the greatest films of all time in various critics' and directors' polls. A number of Satyajit Ray films appeared in the Sight & Sound Critics' Poll, including The Apu Trilogy (ranked #4 in 1992 if votes are combined),[56] The Music Room (ranked #27 in 1992), Charulata (ranked #41 in 1992)[57] and Days and Nights in the Forest (ranked #81 in 1982).[58] The 2002 Sight & Sound critics' and directors' poll also included the Guru Dutt films Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool (both tied at #160), the Ritwik Ghatak films Meghe Dhaka Tara (ranked #231) and Komal Gandhar (ranked #346), and Raj Kapoor's Awaara, Vijay Bhatt's Baiju Bawra, Mehboob Khan's Mother India and K. Asif's Mughal-e-Azam all tied at #346.[59] In 1998, the critics' poll conducted by the Asian film magazine Cinemaya included The Apu Trilogy (ranked #1 if votes are combined), Ray's Charulata and The Music Room (both tied at #11), and Ghatak's Subarnarekha (also tied at #11).[54] In 1999, The Village Voice top 250 "Best Film of the Century" critics' poll also included The Apu Trilogy (ranked #5 if votes are combined).[60] In 2005, The Apu Trilogy and Pyaasa were also featured in Time magazine's "All-TIME" 100 best movies list.[61]
Modern Indian cinema
Some filmmakers such as Shyam Benegal continued to produce realistic Parallel Cinema throughout the 1970s,[62] alongside Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Buddhadeb Dasgupta and Gautam Ghose in Bengali cinema; Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shaji N. Karun, John Abraham and G. Aravindan in Malayalam cinema; Nirad Mohapatra in Oriya cinema; and Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihalani and Vijaya Mehta in Hindi cinema.[31] However, the 'art film' bent of the Film Finance Corporation came under criticism during a Committee on Public Undertakings investigation in 1976, which accused the body of not doing enough to encourage commercial cinema.[63] The 1970s did, nevertheless, see the rise of commercial cinema in form of enduring films such as Sholay (1975), which solidified Amitabh Bachchan's position as a lead actor.[63] The devotional classic Jai Santoshi Ma was also released in 1975.[63] Another important film from 1975 was Deewar, directed by Yash Chopra and written by Salim-Javed. A crime film pitting "a policeman against his brother, a gang leader based on real-life smuggler Haji Mastan", portrayed by Amitabh Bachchan, it was described as being “absolutely key to Indian cinema” by Danny Boyle.[64]
Commercial cinema further grew throughout the 1980s and the 1990s with the release of films such as Ek dhuje ke liye (1981) Mr India (1987), Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), Tezaab (1988), Chandni (1989), Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), Baazigar (1993), Darr (1993),[63] Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995) and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), many of which starred Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan.
The 1990s also saw a surge in the national popularity of Tamil cinema as films directed by Mani Ratnam captured India's imagination.[63] Such films included Roja (1992) and Bombay (1995). Ratnam's earlier film Nayagan (1987), starring Kamal Haasan, was included in Time magazine's "All-TIME" 100 best movies, alongside four earlier Indian films: Satyajit Ray's The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959) and Guru Dutt's Pyaasa (1957).[61][65] Another Tamil director S. Shankar also made waves through his film Kadhalan. The South Indian film industry not only released cinema with national appeal but also featured multicultural music which found appreciation among the national Indian audience.[66] Some Tamil filmi composers such as A. R. Rahman and Ilaiyaraaja have since acquired a large national, and later international, following. Rahman's debut soundtrack for Roja was included in Time Magazine's "10 Best Soundtracks" of all time,[67] and he would later go on to win two Academy Awards for his international Slumdog Millionaire (2008) soundtrack. Dasavathaaram (2008), in which Kamal Haasan portrayed 10 historical roles, went on to achieve significant success. Tabarana Kathe, a Kannada film, was screened at various film festivals including Tashkent, Nantes, Tokyo, and the Film Festival of Russia.[68]
Long after the Golden Age of Indian cinema, South India's Malayalam cinema of Kerala experienced its own 'Golden Age' in the 1980s and early 1990s. Some of the most acclaimed Indian filmmakers at the time were from the Malayalam industry, including Adoor Gopalakrishnan, G. Aravindan, T. V. Chandran and Shaji N. Karun.[69] Adoor Gopalakrishnan, who is often considered to be Satyajit Ray's spiritual heir,[70] directed some of his most acclaimed films during this period, including Elippathayam (1981) which won the Sutherland Trophy at the London Film Festival, as well as Mathilukal (1989) which won major prizes at the Venice Film Festival.[71] Shaji N. Karun's debut film Piravi (1989) won the Camera d'Or at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, while his second film Swaham (1994) was in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.[72]
In the late 1990s, 'Parallel Cinema' began experiencing a resurgence in Hindi cinema, largely due to the critical and commercial success of Satya (1998), a low-budget film based on the Mumbai underworld, directed by Ram Gopal Varma and written by Anurag Kashyap. The film's success led to the emergence of a distinct genre known as Mumbai noir,[73] urban films reflecting social problems in the city of Mumbai.[74] Later films belonging to the Mumbai noir genre include Madhur Bhandarkar's Chandni Bar (2001) and Traffic Signal (2007), Ram Gopal Varma's Company (2002) and its prequel D (2005), Anurag Kashyap's Black Friday (2004), and Irfan Kamal's Thanks Maa (2009). Other art film directors active today include Mrinal Sen, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Gautam Ghose, Sandip Ray, Aparna Sen and Rituparno Ghosh in Bengali cinema; Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Shaji N. Karun and T. V. Chandran in Malayalam cinema; Nirad Mohapatra in Oriya cinema; Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihalani, Shyam Benegal,[31] Mira Nair, Nagesh Kukunoor, Sudhir Mishra and Nandita Das in Hindi cinema; Mani Ratnam and Santosh Sivan in Tamil cinema; and Deepa Mehta, Anant Balani, Homi Adajania, Vijay Singh and Sooni Taraporevala in Indian English cinema.
Influences
Prasads IMAX Theatre houses at Hyderabad, one of the largest IMAX-3D in the world (along with the world's largest in Sydney, Australia).[75]
PVR Cinemas in Bangalore is one of the largest cinema chains in India
There have generally been six major influences that have shaped the conventions of Indian popular cinema. The first was the ancient Indian epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana which have exerted a profound influence on the thought and imagination of Indian popular cinema, particularly in its narratives. Examples of this influence include the techniques of a side story, back-story and story within a story. Indian popular films often have plots which branch off into sub-plots; such narrative dispersals can clearly be seen in the 1993 films Khalnayak and Gardish. The second influence was the impact of ancient Sanskrit drama, with its highly stylized nature and emphasis on spectacle, where music, dance and gesture combined "to create a vibrant artistic unit with dance and mime being central to the dramatic experience." Sanskrit dramas were known as natya, derived from the root word nrit (dance), characterizing them as spectacular dance-dramas which has continued in Indian cinema.[76] The Rasa method of performance, dating back to ancient Sanskrit drama, is one of the fundamental features that differentiate Indian cinema from that of the Western world. In the Rasa method, empathetic "emotions are conveyed by the performer and thus felt by the audience," in contrast to the Western Stanislavski method where the actor must become "a living, breathing embodiment of a character" rather than "simply conveying emotion." The rasa method of performance is clearly apparent in the performances of popular Hindi film actors like Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan, nationally-acclaimed Hindi films like Rang De Basanti (2006),[77] and internationally-acclaimed Bengali films directed by Satyajit Ray.[78]
The third influence was the traditional folk theatre of India, which became popular from around the 10th century with the decline of Sanskrit theatre. These regional traditions include the Yatra of Bengal, the Ramlila of Uttar Pradesh, and the Terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu. The fourth influence was Parsi theatre, which "blended realism and fantasy, music and dance, narrative and spectacle, earthy dialogue and ingenuity of stage presentation, integrating them into a dramatic discourse of melodrama. The Parsi plays contained crude humour, melodious songs and music, sensationalism and dazzling stagecraft."[76] All of these influences are clearly evident in the masala film genre that was popularized by Manmohan Desai's films in the 1970s and early 1980s, particularly in Coolie (1983), and to an extent in more recent critically-acclaimed films such as Rang De Basanti.[77]
The fifth influence was Hollywood, where musicals were popular from the 1920s to the 1950s, though Indian filmmakers departed from their Hollywood counterparts in several ways. "For example, the Hollywood musicals had as their plot the world of entertainment itself. Indian filmmakers, while enhancing the elements of fantasy so pervasive in Indian popular films, used song and music as a natural mode of articulation in a given situation in their films. There is a strong Indian tradition of narrating mythology, history, fairy stories and so on through song and dance." In addition, "whereas Hollywood filmmakers strove to conceal the constructed nature of their work so that the realistic narrative was wholly dominant, Indian filmmakers made no attempt to conceal the fact that what was shown on the screen was a creation, an illusion, a fiction. However, they demonstrated how this creation intersected with people's day to day lives in complex and interesting ways."[79] The final influence was Western musical television, particularly MTV, which has had an increasing influence since the 1990s, as can be seen in the pace, camera angles, dance sequences and music of recent Indian films. An early example of this approach was in Mani Ratnam's Bombay (1995).[80]
Like mainstream Indian popular cinema, Indian Parallel Cinema was also influenced also by a combination of Indian theatre (particularly Sanskrit drama) and Indian literature (particularly Bengali literature), but differs when it comes to foreign influences, where it is more influenced by European cinema (particularly Italian neorealism and French poetic realism) rather than Hollywood. Satyajit Ray cited Italian filmmaker Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves (1948) and French filmmaker Jean Renoir's The River (1951), which he assisted, as influences on his debut film Pather Panchali (1955). Besides the influence of European cinema and Bengali literature, Ray is also indebted to the Indian theatrical tradition, particularly the Rasa method of classical Sanskrit drama. The complicated doctrine of Rasa "centers predominantly on feeling experienced not only by the characters but also conveyed in a certain artistic way to the spectator. The duality of this kind of a rasa imbrication" shows in The Apu Trilogy.[78] Bimal Roy's Two Acres of Land (1953) was also influenced by De Sica's Bicycle Thieves and in turn paved the way for the Indian New Wave, which began around the same time as the French New Wave and the Japanese New Wave.
