Journey Of Indian Film Industry

My previous articles talk about what is bollywood and how it is different from hollywood. In this article I would like to tell about the history of Indian cinema, what it was in starting and what it is now, how much it is changed in so many years.

The hindi cinema took birth in the 1900s. The silent movie of Dadasaheb Phalke was Raja Harishchandra (1913) was the first feature movie made in India. Till the 1930s India started to release 200 films per year but still the cinema was not given the name of Bollywood. It was named on the basis of Bombay combining with Hollywood after the partition in 1947. But before the partition the demand for music and sound gradually increase. So, Ardeshir Irani's first sound film Alam Ara was released and commercially successful also. After the division of India and Pakistan, some of the Pakistani's migrated to India and persued their career in hindi cinema including actors and singers like Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Mohammed Rafi, Noorjahan, PrithviRaj Kapoor.

The Golden Era of Film Industry (1940s-1960s)

After India's Independence, the time between the 1940s - 1960s is known as the Golden Period for the hindi cinema. Many films like Awaara directed by famous director of that time, Raj Kapoor which depicts the city as nightmare as well as dreams and Pyaasa movie directed by Guru Dutt.

The most famous actors of that time were Dilip Kumar, Raj kapoor, Dev Anand, Pradeep kumar, And the best actresses include Sumitra devi, Madhubala, Mala Sinha. These actors and actresses were famous for their unique style of acting and fabulous dialouge delivering.

Then a famous hindi movie Mother India directed by Mehboob Khan starring Nargis, Rajendra Kumar and Sunil Dutt- one of the popular actors of that era, was released. This movie portrays a women raising her sons despite of being poverty-striken. Several other movies were released and were hit in the box office and gained public love. From this onwards, hindi cinema gained popularity in all over the world.

Era of Classic Bollywood (1970s-1980s)

In this era, the arrival of screenwriters duo- Salim-Javed (salim khan and javed akhtar) became immensely popular. Also the famous actor Amitabh Bachchan started his career as an film actor in Zanjeer, Deewaar, Sholay and was dubbed as the 'angry young man' of India in bollywood.

Also during this period the commercial films and masala films were defined. The duo Salim-Javed started to write more of masala films which made Amitabh Bachchan the biggest star of Bollywood of this period as these masala films shows the genre of comedy, action. romance, drama and melodrama.

But during the production of these masala kind of films, some filmmakers like Shyam Benegal, Mani Kaul, Vijaya Mehta continued to make realistic movies in the parallel world of Cinema.

New and Recent Bollywood (1990s-present)

From the 1990s many new actors and actresses became part of the bollywood family. Aamir Khan and Juhi Chawla's first hindi movie - Qayamat se, Qayamat tak directed by Mansoor Khan which portrays a perfect blend of family entertainment, youthfulness, emotional intelligence. This movie was followed by several blockbuster films like Maine Pyaar Kiya(1989), Chandani(1989), Hum Aapke Hai Koun(1994), Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayengy(1995), Dil Toh Pagal Hai(1997) , Kuch Kuch Hota Hai(1998) , introducing brilliant actors like Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Hritik Roshan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgan, and actresses like Madhuri Dixit, Kajol, Juhi Chawla, Karishma Kapoor, Sridevi. Some comedy and action movies also earned great name and fame which include actors like Govinda, Sunny Deol, Sunil Shetty.

Most stars continued their career till 2000s with the introduction of many other youth actors like Ranbir Kapoor, Ayushmaan Khurana, Varun Dhawan, Ranveer Singh, Alia Bhatt, Tapsee Pannu, Deepika Padukone, Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor, Sonam Kapoor, Sonakshi Sinha, Siddharth Malhotra, Anushka Sharma, Vidya Balan, Kangana Ranaut and many others. The movies released after 2000s are as follows- Bachna Ae Haseeno, Ajab Prem Ki Gazab Kahani, Pink, Badla, Padmavaat, Bajirao Mastani, Dilwale, Kesari, Raazi, Bewakoofiyan and many more.