The cinema of India consists of films produced across India, which includes the cinematic cultures of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odisha, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.[5] Indian films came to be followed throughout Southern Asia, the Greater Middle East, Southeast Asia, and the former Soviet Union. Cinema as a medium gained popularity in the country and as many as 1,000 films in various languages of India were produced annually.[6] Expatriates in countries such as the United Kingdom and the United States garnered international audiences for Indian films of various languages. Dadasaheb Phalke is the Father of Indian cinema.[7][8][9][10] The Dadasaheb Phalke Award, for lifetime contribution to cinema, was instituted in his honour, by the Government of India in 1969, and is the most prestigious and coveted award in Indian cinema.[11] In the 20th century, Indian cinema, along with the Hollywood and Chinese film industries, became a global enterprise.[12] At the end of 2010 it was reported that in terms of annual film output, India ranks first, followed by Nollywood,[13] Hollywood and China.[14] Indian film industry reached overall revenues of $1.86 billion (Rs 93 billion) in 2011. This is projected to rise to $3 billion (Rs 150 billion) in 2016.[15] Enhanced technology paved the way for upgrading from established cinematic norms of delivering product, altering the manner in which content reached the target audience. Visual effects based, super hero and science fiction films like Enthiran, Ra.One, Eega, and Krrish 3 emerged as blockbusters.[12] Indian cinema found markets in over 90 countries where films from India are screened.[16] Directors such as Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, G. Aravindan, Aparna Sen, Shaji N. Karun and Girish Kasaravalli have made significant contributions to Parallel Cinema and won global acclaim. Other filmmakers such as Shekhar Kapur, Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta have found success overseas.[17] The Indian government extended film delegations to foreign countries such as the United States of America and Japan while the countrys Film Producers Guild sent similar missions through Europe.[18] India is the worlds largest producer of films.[19][20] In 2009, India produced a total of 2961 films on celluloid, that include 1288 feature films.[21] The provision of 100% foreign direct investment has made the Indian film market attractive for foreign enterprises such as 20th Century Fox, Sony Pictures, Walt Disney Pictures[22][23] and Warner Bros..[24] Indian enterprises such as Prasads Group, Sun Pictures, PVP Cinemas, Zee, UTV, Suresh Productions, and Adlabs also participated in producing and distributing films.[24] Tax incentives to multiplexes have aided the multiplex boom in India.[24] 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.[24] The South Indian film industry defines the four film cultures of South India as a single entity. They are the Kannada, the Malayalam, the Tamil and the Telugu industries. Although developed independently for a long period of time, gross exchange of film performers and technicians as well as globalisation helped to shape this new identity. 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.[25] 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.[26] 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.[26 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).[27] In the next year a film presentation by one Professor Stevenson featured a stage show at Calcuttas Star Theatre. With Stevensons encouragement and camera Hiralal Sen, an Indian photographer, made a film of scenes from that show, namely The Flower of Persia (1898).[28] The Wrestlers (1899) by H. S. Bhatavdekar showing a wrestling match at the Hanging Gardens in Mumbai was the first film ever to be shot by an Indian. It was also the first Indian documentary film. The first Indian film released in India was Shree pundalik a silent film in Marathi by Dadasaheb Torne on 18 May 1912 at Coronation Cinematograph, Mumbai.[29][30] Some have argued that Pundalik does not deserve the honour of being called the first Indian film because it was a photographic recording of a popular Marathi play, and because the cameraman—a man named Johnson—was a British national and the film was processed in London.[31][32] A scene from Raja Harishchandra (1913) – The full-length motion picture. producer-director-screenwriter Dadasaheb Phalke, the Father of Indian cinema.[7][8][9][10] The first full-length motion picture in India was produced by Dadasaheb Phalke, Dadasaheb is the pioneer of Indian film industry a scholar on Indias languages and culture, who brought together elements from Sanskrit epics to produce his Raja Harishchandra (1913), a silent film in Marathi. The female roles in the film were played by male actors.[33] The film marked a historic benchmark in the film industry in India. Only one print of the film was made and shown at the Coronation Cinematograph on 3 May 1913. It was a commercial success and paved the way for more such films. The first Indian chain of cinema theatres, Madan Theatre was owned by the parsi entrepreneur Jamshedji Framji Madan, who oversaw production of 10 films annually and distributed them throughout the Indian subcontinent starting from 1902.[33] He founded Elphinstone Bioscope Company in Calcutta. Elphinstone merged into Madan Theatres Limited in 1919 which brought many of Bengals most popular literary works to the stage. He also produced Satyawadi Raja Harishchandra in 1917, a remake of Phalkes Raja Harishchandra (1913). Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu was an Indian artist and a pioneer in the production of silent Indian movies and talkies.[34] Starting from 1909, he was involved in many aspects of Indian cinemas history, like travelling to different regions in Asia, to promote film work. He was the first to build and own cinema halls in Madras. In South India, R. Nataraja Mudaliar pioneered the production of silent films by producing Keechaka Vadham, South Indias first silent film.[35] he also established South Indias first film studio in Madras.[36] Soon others like R. S. Prakash, Y. V. Rao and A. Narayanan followed them. During the early twentieth century cinema as a medium gained popularity across Indias population and its many economic sections.[27] Tickets were made affordable to the common man at a low price and for the financially capable additional comforts meant additional admission ticket price.[27] Audiences thronged to cinema halls as this affordable medium of entertainment was available for as low as an anna (4 paisa) in Bombay.[27] The content of Indian commercial cinema was increasingly tailored to appeal to these masses.[27] Young Indian producers began to incorporate elements of Indias social life and culture into cinema.[37] Others brought with them ideas from across the world.[37] This was also the time when global audiences and markets became aware of Indias film industry.[37] In 1927, the British Government, to promote the market in India for British films over American ones, formed the Indian Cinematograph Enquiry Committee. The ICC consisted of three British and three Indians, led by T. Rangachari, a Madras lawyer.[38] This committee failed to support the desired recommendations of supporting British Film, instead recommending support for the fledgling Indian film industry. Their suggestions were shelved. Ardeshir Irani released Alam Ara which was the first Indian talking film, on 14 March 1931.[33] H.M. Reddy, produced and directed Bhakta Prahlada (Telugu), released on 15 September 1931 and Kalidas (Tamil)[39] released on 31 October 1931. Kalidas was produced by Ardeshir Irani and directed by H.M. Reddy. These two films are south Indias first talkie films to have a theatrical release.[40] Jumai Shasthi was the first Bengali talkie. Following the inception of talkies in India some film stars were highly sought after and earned comfortable incomes through acting.[33] Actor of the time, Chittor V. Nagaiah, was one of the first multilingual film actor, singer, music composer, producer and directors in India. He was known as the Paul Muni of India in the media.[41][42] In 1933, East India Film Company has produced its first Indian film Sati Savithri Shot in Calcutta on a budget of INR 75 thousand, based on a noted stage play by Mylavaram Bala Bharathi Samajam, the film was directed by C. Pullaiah casting stage actors Vemuri Gaggaiah and Dasari Ramathilakam as Yama and Savithri, respectively.[43] The blockbuster film has received an honorary diploma at Venice Film Festival.[44] The first film studio in South India, Durga Cinetone was built in 1936 by Nidamarthi Surayya in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh.[45] 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 Indias films.[33] 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.[46] 1940 film, Vishwa Mohini, is the first Indian film, depicting the Indian movie world. The film was directed by Y. V. Rao and scripted by Balijepalli Lakshmikanta Kavi.[47] Bombay Talkies came up in 1934 and Prabhat Studios in Pune had begun production of films meant for the Marathi language audience.[46] 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.[33] Sant Tukaram, a 1936 film based on the life of Tukaram (1608–50), a Varkari Sant and spiritual poet, was screened at the 1937 edition of Venice Film Festival and thus became the first Indian film to be screened at an international film festival. The film was subsequently adjudged as one of the three best films of the year in the World.[48] In 1938, Gudavalli Ramabrahmam, has co-produced and directed the social problem film, Raithu Bidda, which was banned by the British administration in the region, for depicting the uprise of the peasantry among the Zamindars during the British raj.[49][50] Devika Rani and Ashok Kumar in Achhut Kanya (1936). The Indian Masala film—a slang used for commercial films with song, dance, romance etc.—came up following the second world war.[46] South Indian cinema gained prominence throughout India with the release of S.S. Vasans Chandralekha.[46] During the 1940s cinema in South India accounted for nearly half of Indias cinema halls and cinema came to be viewed as an instrument of cultural revival.[46] The partition of India following its independence divided the nations assets and a number of studios went to the newly formed Pakistan.[46] The strife of partition would become an enduring subject for film making during the decades that followed.[46] After Indian independence the cinema of India was inquired by the S. K. Patil Commission.[51] S.K. Patil, head of the commission, viewed cinema in India as a combination of art, industry, and showmanship while noting its commercial value.[51] Patil further recommended setting up of a Film Finance Corporation under the Ministry of Finance.[52] This advice was later taken up in 1960 and the institution came into being to provide financial support to talented filmmakers throughout India.[52] The Indian government had established a Films Division by 1948 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 theatres across the country.[53] The Indian Peoples Theatre Association (IPTA), an art movement with a communist inclination, began to take shape through the 1940s and the 1950s.[51] A number of realistic IPTA plays, such as Bijon Bhattacharyas 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 Abbass Dharti Ke Lal (Children of the Earth) in 1946.[51] The IPTA movement continued to emphasize on reality and went on to produce Mother India and Pyaasa, among Indias most recognizable cinematic productions.[54] Golden Age of Indian cinema Apu and Durga running to catch a glimpse of a train, a famous scene of the famous Bengali film Pather Panchali[55] A dance scene from the Tamil movie Chandralekha (1948) Following Indias independence, the period from the late 1944s to the 1960s are regarded by film historians as the Golden Age of Indian cinema.[56][57][58] Some of the most critically acclaimed Indian films of all time were produced during this period. This period saw the emergence of a new Parallel Cinema movement, mainly led by Bengali cinema.[59] Early examples of films in this movement include Chetan Anands Neecha Nagar (1946),[60] Ritwik Ghataks Nagarik (1952),[61][62] and Bimal Roys Do Bigha Zameen (1953), laying the foundations for Indian neorealism[63] and the Indian New Wave.[64] Pather Panchali (1955), the first part of The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959) by Satyajit Ray, marked his entry in Indian cinema.[65] 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.[66] The cinematographer Subrata Mitra, who made his debut with Satyajit Rays 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.[67] Some of the experimental techniques which Satyajit Ray pioneered include photo-negative flashbacks and X-ray digressions while filming Pratidwandi (1972).[68] Rays 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 Spielbergs E.T. (1982).[69][70][71] 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, Mani Kaul, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, G. Aravindan and Buddhadeb Dasgupta.[59] During the 1960s, Indira Gandhis 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.[52] Commercial Hindi cinema also began thriving, with examples of acclaimed 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.[59] Some epic films were also produced at the time, including Mehboob Khans Mother India (1957), which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film,[72] and K. Asifs Mughal-e-Azam (1960).[73] V. Shantarams Do Aankhen Barah Haath (1957) is believed to have inspired the Hollywood film The Dirty Dozen (1967).[74] Madhumati (1958), directed by Bimal Roy and written by Ritwik Ghatak, popularised the theme of reincarnation in Western popular culture.[75] Other mainstream Hindi filmmakers at the time included Kamal Amrohi and Vijay Bhatt. Ever since Chetan Anands social realist film Neecha Nagar won the Grand Prize at the first Cannes Film Festival,[60] Indian films were frequently in competition for the Palme dOr 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.[76] Rays 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.[76][77] Ray is regarded as one of the greatest auteurs of 20th century cinema,[78] with Dutt[79] and Ghatak.[80] In 1992, the Sight & Sound Critics Poll ranked Ray at No. 7 in its list of Top 10 Directors of all time,[81] while Dutt was ranked No. 73 in the 2002 Sight & Sound greatest directors poll.[79] A number of Indian films from different regions, from this era are often included among the greatest films of all time in various critics and directors polls. At this juncture, Telugu cinema and Tamil cinema experienced their respective golden age and during this time the production of Indian folklore, fantasy and mythological films like Mayabazar, listed by IBN Lives 2013 Poll as the greatest Indian film of all time,[82] and Narthanasala grew up. A number of Satyajit Ray films appeared in the Sight & Sound Critics Poll, including The Apu Trilogy (ranked No. 4 in 1992 if votes are combined),[83] The Music Room (ranked No. 27 in 1992), Charulata (ranked No. 41 in 1992)[84] and Days and Nights in the Forest (ranked No. 81 in 1982).[85] 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 Kapoors Awaara, Vijay Bhatts Baiju Bawra, Mehboob Khans Mother India and K. Asifs Mughal-e-Azam all tied at #346.[86] In 1998, the critics poll conducted by the Asian film magazine Cinemaya included The Apu Trilogy (ranked No. 1 if votes are combined), Rays Charulata and The Music Room (both tied at #11), and Ghataks Subarnarekha (also tied at #11).[80] In 1999, The Village Voice top 250 Best Film of the Century critics poll also included The Apu Trilogy (ranked No. 5 if votes are combined).[87] In 2005, The Apu Trilogy and Pyaasa were also featured in Time magazines All-TIME 100 best movies list.[88] Modern Indian cinema Some filmmakers such as Shyam Benegal continued to produce realistic Parallel Cinema throughout the 1970s,[89] 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 also Bharathan and Padmarajan in Malayalam cinema ; Nirad Mohapatra in Oriya cinema; K. N. T. Sastry and B. Narsing Rao in Telugu cinema; Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihalani and Vijaya Mehta in Hindi cinema.[59] 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.[90] The 1970s did, nevertheless, see the rise of commercial cinema in form of enduring films such as Anand(1971), Amar Prem(1971) and Kati Patang (1972), establishing Rajesh Khanna as the first Superstar of Indian Cinema. Later, in mid 70s, action films like Zanjeer (1974) and Sholay (1975), solidified Amitabh Bachchans position as a lead actor.[90] The devotional classic Jai Santoshi Ma was also released in 1975.[90] 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.[91] 1979 Telugu film, Sankarabharanam, which dealt with the revival of Indian classical music, has won the Prize of the Public at the Besancon Film Festival of France in the year 1981.[92] 1987 Kannada film, Tabarana Kathe, which dealt with the inadequate governance, was screened at various film festivals including Tashkent, Nantes, Tokyo, and the Film Festival of Russia.[93] Long after the Golden Age of Indian cinema, South Indias Malayalam cinema of Kerala regarded as one of the best Indian film genres 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.[94] Adoor Gopalakrishnan, who is often considered to be Satyajit Rays spiritual heir,[95] 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.[96] Shaji N. Karuns debut film Piravi (1989) won the Camera dOr at the 1989 Cannes Film Festival, while his second film Swaham (1994) was in competition for the Palme dOr at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival.[97] Commercial Malayalam cinema also began gaining popularity with the action films of Jayan, a popular stunt actor whose success was short-lived when he died while filming a dangerous helicopter stunt, followed by Mohanlal, whose film Yodha was acclaimed for its action sequences and technical aspects. Commercial Hindi cinema further grew throughout the 1980s and the 1990s with the release of films such as Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981) Mr India (1987), Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988), Tezaab (1988), Chandni (1989), Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), Baazigar (1993), Darr (1993),[90] Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (1995) and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), many of which starred Sridevi, Shahrukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan. 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 films success led to the emergence of a distinct genre known as Mumbai noir,[98] urban films reflecting social problems in the city of Mumbai.[99] Later films belonging to the Mumbai noir genre include Madhur Bhandarkars Chandni Bar (2001) and Traffic Signal (2007), Ram Gopal Varmas Company (2002) and its prequel D (2005), Anurag Kashyaps Black Friday (2004), Rahul Dholakias Parzania, Irfan Kamals Thanks Maa (2009), and Deva Kattas Prasthanam (2010). Other art film directors active today include Mrinal Sen, Mir Shaani, 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,[59] Mira Nair, Nagesh Kukunoor, Sudhir Mishra and Nandita Das in Hindi cinema; Pattabhirami Reddy, K. N. T. Sastry, B. Narsing Rao, and Akkineni Kutumba Rao in Telugu cinema; Santosh Sivan in Tamil cinema; Deepa Mehta, Anant Balani, Homi Adajania, Vijay Singh and Sooni Taraporevala garnered recognition in Indian English cinema. Global discourse Indians during the colonial rule bought film equipment from Europe.[37] The British funded wartime propaganda films during the second world war, some of which showed the Indian army pitted against the axis powers, specifically the Empire of Japan, which had managed to infiltrate into India.[100] One such story was Burma Rani, which depicted civilian resistance offered to Japanese occupation by the British and Indians present in Myanmar.[100] Pre-independence businessmen such as J. F. Madan and Abdulally Esoofally traded in global cinema.[33] Indian cinemas early contacts with other regions became visible with its films making early inroads into the Soviet Union, Middle East, Southeast Asia,[101] and China. Mainstream Hindi film stars like Raj Kapoor gained international fame across Asia[102][103] and Eastern Europe.[104][105] Indian films also appeared in international fora and film festivals.[101] This allowed Parallel Bengali filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray to achieve worldwide fame, with his films gaining success among European, American and Asian audiences.[106] Rays work subsequently had a worldwide impact, with filmmakers such as Martin Scorsese,[107] James Ivory,[108] Abbas Kiarostami, Elia Kazan, François Truffaut,[109] Steven Spielberg,[69][70][71] Carlos Saura,[110] Jean-Luc Godard,[111] Isao Takahata,[112] Gregory Nava, Ira Sachs and Wes Anderson[113] being influenced by his cinematic style, and many others such as Akira Kurosawa praising his work.[114] The youthful coming-of-age dramas that have flooded art houses since the mid-fifties owe a tremendous debt to the Apu trilogy.[66] Subrata Mitras cinematographic technique of bounce lighting also originates from The Apu Trilogy.[67] Rays film Kanchenjungha (1962) also introduced a narrative structure that resembles later hyperlink cinema.[115] Since the 1980s, some previously overlooked Indian filmmakers such as Ritwik Ghatak[116] and Guru Dutt[117] have posthumously gained international acclaim. Many Asian and South Asian countries increasingly came to find Indian cinema as more suited to their sensibilities than Western cinema.[101] Jigna Desai holds that by the 21st century, Indian cinema had managed to become deterritorialized, spreading over to the many parts of the world where Indian diaspora was present in significant numbers, and becoming an alternative to other international cinema.[118] Indian cinema has more recently begun influencing Western musical films, and played a particularly instrumental role in the revival of the genre in the Western world. Baz Luhrmann stated that his successful musical film Moulin Rouge! (2001) was directly inspired by Bollywood musicals.[119] The critical and financial success of Moulin Rouge! renewed interest in the then-moribund Western musical genre, subsequently fuelling a renaissance of the genre.[120] Danny Boyles Oscar-winning film Slumdog Millionaire (2008) was also directly inspired by Indian films,[91][121] and is considered to be a homage to Hindi commercial cinema.[122] Other Indian filmmakers are also making attempts at reaching a more global audience, with upcoming films by directors such as Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Jahnu Barua, Sudhir Mishra and Pan Nalin.[123] Indian Cinema was also recognised at the American Academy Awards. Three Indian films, Mother India (1957), Salaam Bombay! (1988), and Lagaan (2001), were nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Indian winners of the Academy Awards include Bhanu Athaiya (costume designer), Satyajit Ray (filmmaker), A. R. Rahman (music composer), Resul Pookutty (sound editor) and Gulzar (lyricist).[124] Influences Victoria Public Hall, is a historical building in Chennai, named after Victoria, Empress of India. It served as a theatre in the late 19th century and the early 20th century. Prasads IMAX Theatre located at Hyderabad, is the worlds largest 3D-IMAX screen, and also the most attended screen in the world.[125][126][127] Ramoji Film City located in Hyderabad, holds Guinness World Record as the Worlds largest film studio.[128] 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 stylised 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), characterising them as spectacular dance-dramas which has continued in Indian cinema.[129] 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),[130] and internationally acclaimed Bengali films directed by Satyajit Ray.[131] 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 West Bengal, the Ramlila of Uttar Pradesh, Yakshagana of Karnataka, Chindu Natakam of Andhra 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.[129] All of these influences are clearly evident in the masala film genre that was popularised by Manmohan Desais 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.[130] 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 peoples day to day lives in complex and interesting ways.[132] 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 Ratnams Bombay (1995).[133] 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 Sicas Bicycle Thieves (1948) and French filmmaker Jean Renoirs 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.[131] Bimal Roys Two Acres of Land (1953) was also influenced by De Sicas 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.[64] Ray known as one of the most important influences to Parallel Cinema, was depicted as an auteur (Wollen). The focus of the majority of his stories portrayed the lower middle class and the unemployed (Wollen). It wasn’t until the late 1960s that Parallel Cinema support grew (Wollen).[134] Multilinguals Some Indian films are known as multilinguals, having been filmed in similar but non-identical versions in different languages. This was done in the 1930s. According to Rajadhyaksha and Willemen in the Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema (1994), in its most precise form, a multilingual is a bilingual or a trilingual [that] was the kind of film made in the 1930s in the studio era, when different but identical takes were made of every shot in different languages, often with different leading stars but identical technical crew and music.[135]:15 Rajadhyaksha and Willemen note that in seeking to construct their Encclopedia, it they often found it extremely difficult to distinguish multilinguals in this original sense from dubbed versions, remakes, reissues or, in some cases, the same film listed with different titles, presented as separate versions in different languages.... it will take years of scholarly work to establish definitive data in this respect.[135]:15
Posted on: Mon, 29 Sep 2014 08:52:25 +0000
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