More About Bollywood

SAUMYA GIRI
1 | Indian Cinema
CERTIFICATE
Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

2 | Indian Cinema
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to

my teacher ________________________ as well as
our Head of Department_________________________
who gave me this golden opportunity to do this
wonderful assignment on the topic Indian Cinema.
It helped me in doing a lot of Research and I came to

know about many new things about Indian Cinema, and
its culture and influence over the years. I am really
thankful to them for this topic and their constant
guidance and support. Thank you for sharing your
pearls of wisdom with me.
I would also like to thank my parents and friends and

Kaustubh who helped me a lot in finalizing this project
within the limited time frame.
Saumya Giri

3 | Indian Cinema
INDEX

4 | Indian Cinema

5 | Indian Cinema
1. Introduction

6 | Indian Cinema
One of the most flourishing cinema industries found today is in India.

But the pioneers of the industry were actually foreigners. In 1896, the
Lumiere brothers demonstrated the art of cinema when they screened
Cinematography consisting of six short films to an enthusiastic
audience in Bombay. The success of these films led to the screening
of films by James B. Stewart and Ted Hughes. In 1897, Save Dada
made two short films, but the fathers of Indian cinema were Dada
Saheb Phalke who in 1913 made the first feature length silent film
and Ardeshir Irani who in 1931 made India's first talking film. With
the demise of the silent era and the advent of the talkies, the main
source for inspiration for films came from mythological texts. Films
were produced in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and Bengali. Mythology
flourished more in South India where its social conservative morals
equated film acting to prostitution. But by the 1930’s, word had
spread around the world about the vibrant film industry in India and
foreigners with stars in their eyes landed upon Bombay shores. One of
these was Mary Evans, a young Australian girl who could do stunts.
She could, with no effort, lift a man and throw him across the room.

7 | Indian Cinema
She wore Zorro-like masks and used a whip when necessary. She
changed her name to Nadia and was affectionately known by the
audience as Fearless Nadia and that name stuck with her through the
ages. Even though she did not speak any of the native tongues, her
career spanned from the 1930’s to 1959. She had a huge cult
following. The press and critics did not appreciate her; however, the
audiences could not get enough of her stunt theatrics. Following on
Nadia’s heels in 1940, Florence Esekiel, a teenager from Baghdad,
arrived in Bombay and was soon given the screen name of Nadira.
She played the love interest in a Dilip Kumar film who at the time
was a leading heartthrob. She moved on to playing bitchy parts and
was forever type cast as a ‘vamp’ – the temptress, the bad girl. She
gradually slipped into mother roles. One of her last appearances was
in Ismail Merchant Film Cotton Mary. There were also notable male
actors who made a mark on the screen. One of them was Bob Christo,
who was another Australian. He came to India because he had seen a
picture of the actress Parveen Babi and ended up actually being in a
film with her. He specialized in villain and henchman roles. Another
notable actor is Tom Alter who has played the foreigner who does not
speak the language, although he is fluent in Hindi and Urdu, even
reciting poems in Urdu on the stage. He was raised in Mussourie,
India. And then we must not forget Helen. A Franco-Burmese refuge
who broke all norms, she embodied sexuality and filled the roles that
other actresses with conservative views shunned. She was widely
sought after for her dance or ‘item numbers’ as they are called today.
However, she stayed within the code of decency wearing body
stockings all the times. She did venture out of this zone by doing a
few serious roles. In the 1920’s Franz Austen, a German from Munich
who could not utter one word of Hindi, came to Bombay and directed
57 blockbuster films. His films were on the scale of those made by
Cecil B. DeMille. He drew his inspiration from episodes of the
Mahabharata and Ramayana, his early silent films were richer than

8 | Indian Cinema
most that were made at the time. In 1947, When India gained its
independence, mythological and historical stories were being replaced
by social reformist films focusing on the lives of the lower classes, the
dowry system and prostitution. This brought a new wave of
filmmakers to the forefront such as Bimal Roy and Satyajit Ray
among others. In the 1960’s, inspired by social and cinematic changes
in the US and Europe, India’s new wave was founded, offering a
greater sense of realism to the public and getting recognition abroad,
but the industry at large churned out ‘masala’ films with a mesh of
genres including action, comedy, melodrama punctuated with songs
and dances and relying on the songs and the stars to sell their films.
Today there is a growing movement to make Indian cinema more real
- a group of young filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap, Anand Gandhi,
and Gyan Correa, whose film The Good Road is this year’s contender
for the Oscars. There are now more large investments from corporate
houses and a more structured industry funding independent cinema
and making it a viable and profitable business. There has never been a
more favorable time for Indian cinema than today. With a vibrant
creative community, new technology and investment interest, we are
on the verge of seeing Indian cinema transcend its national borders to
project India’s socio-political and economic influence around the
world.

9 | Indian Cinema
2. Overview
India has one of the oldest and largest film industries in the world. It
was in early 1913 that an Indian film received a public screening. The
film was Raja Harischandra. Its director, Dadasaheb Phalke is now
remembered through a life-time achievement award bestowed by the
film industry in his name. At that point of time it was really hard to
arrange somebody to portray the role of females. Among the middle
classes, that association of acting with the loss of virtue, female
modesty, and respectability has only recently been put into question.
While a number of other film-makers, working in several Indian

languages, pioneered the growth and development of Indian cinema,
the studio system began to emerge in the early 1930s. Its most

10 | Indian Cinema
successful early film was Devdas (1935), whose director, P.C. Barua
also appeared in the lead role. The Prabhat Film Company, established
by V. G. Damle, Shantaram, S. Fatehlal, and two other men in 1929,
also achieved its first success around this time. Damle and Fatehlal's
Sant Tukaram (1936), made in Marathi was the first Indian film to
gain international recognition.
The social films of V. Shantaram, more than anything else, paved the
way for an entire set of directors who took it upon themselves to
interrogate not only the institutions of marriage, dowry, and
widowhood, but the grave inequities created by caste and class
distinctions. Some of the social problems received their most
unequivocal expression in Achhut Kanya ("Untouchable Girl", 1936),
a film directed by Himanshu Rai of Bombay Talkies. The film
portrays the travails of a Harijan girl, played by Devika Rani, and a
Brahmin boy, played by Ashok Kumar.
The next noteworthy phase of Hindi cinema is associated with

personalities such as Raj Kapoor, Bimal Roy, and Guru Dutt. The son
of Prithviraj Kapoor, Raj Kapoor created some of the most admired
and memorable films in Hindi cinema.
Awaara (The Vagabond, 1951), Shri 420 (1955), and Jagte Raho
(1957) were both commercial and critical successes. Bimal Roy's Do
Bigha Zamin, which shows the influence of Italian neo-realism,
explored the hard life of the rural peasantry under the harshest
conditions. In the meantime, the Hindi cinema had seen the rise of its
first acknowledged genius, Guru Dutt, whose films critiqued the
conventions of society and deplored the conditions which induce
artists to relinquish their inspiration. From Barua's Devdas (1935) to
Guru Dutt's Sahib, Bibi aur Gulam,the motif of "predestined love"
looms large: to many opponents, a mawkish sentimentality

11 | Indian Cinema
characterizes even the best of the Hindi cinema before the arrival of
the new or alternative Indian cinema in the 1970s.
It is without doubt that under the influence of the Bengali film-makers

like Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, and Mrinal Sen, the Indian cinema,
not only in Hindi, also began to take a somewhat different turn in the
1970s against the tide of commercial cinema, characterized by song-
and-dance routines, insignificant plots, and family dramas. Ghatak
went on to serve as Director of the Film and Television School at
Pune, from where the first generation of a new breed of Indian film-
makers and actors - Naseeruddin Shah, Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil,
and Om Puri among the latter was to emerge.
These film-makers, such as Shyam Benegal, Ketan Mehta, Govind

Nihalani, and Saeed Mirza, exhibited a different aesthetic and
political sensibility and were inclined to explore the caste and class
contradictions of Indian society, the nature of oppression suffered by
women, the dislocations created by industrialism and the migration
from rural to urban areas, the problem of landlessness, the impotency
of ordinary democratic and constitutional procedures of redress, and
so on.
The well-liked Hindi cinema is characterized by important changes

too numerous to receive more than the slightest mention. The song-
and-dance routine is now more systematized, more regular in its
patterns; the 'other', whether in the shape of the terrorist or the
unalterable villain, has a gloomier presence; the nation-state is more
fixated in its demands on our loyalties and curtsy; the Indian Diaspora
is a larger presence in the Indian imagination and so on. These are
only some considerations: anyone wishing to discover the world of
Indian cinema should also replicate on its presence in Indian spaces,
its relation to vernacular art forms and mass art.

12 | Indian Cinema
The Indian film industry, famously known as Bollywood, is the

largest in the world, and has major film studios
in Mumbai (Bombay), Calcutta, Chennai, Bangalore
and Hyderabad. Between them, they turn out more than 1000 films a
year to hugely appreciative audiences around the world. For nearly 50
years, the Indian cinema has been the central form of entertainment in
India, and with its increased visibility and success abroad, it won't be
long until the Indian film industry will be well thought-out to be its
western counterpart- Hollywood. Mainstream commercial releases,
however, continue to dominate the market, and not only in India, but
wherever Indian cinema has a large following, whether in much of the
British Caribbean, Fiji, East and South Africa, the U.K., United
States, Canada, or the Middle East.

13 | Indian Cinema
2.1 Indian Art Cinema
India is well known for its commercial cinema, better known as

Bollywood. In addition to commercial cinema, there is also Indian art
cinema, known to film critics as "New Indian Cinema" or sometimes
"the Indian New Wave" (see the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema).
Many people in India plainly call such films as "art films" as opposed
to mainstream commercial cinema. From the 1960s through the
1980s, the art film or the parallel cinema was usually government-
aided cinema.

14 | Indian Cinema
2.2 Indian Commercial Cinema
Commercial cinema is the most popular form of cinema in India. Ever

since its inception the commercial Indian movies have seen huge
following. Commercial or popular cinema is made not only in Hindi
but also in many other regional languages of East and South India.
Let's look at some of the general conventions of commercial films in
India. Commercial films, in whatever languages they are made, tend
to be quite long (approx three hours), with an interval. Another
important feature of commercial cinema in India is music.

15 | Indian Cinema
2.3 Regional Cinema India
India is home to one of the largest film industries in the world. Every
year thousands of movies are produced in India. Indian film industry
comprises of Hindi films, regional movies and art cinema. The Indian
film 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, especially in countries with large numbers of
emigrant Indians.

16 | Indian Cinema
3. Indian Art Cinema
India is well known for its commercial cinema, better known as

Bollywood. In addition to commercial cinema, there is also Indian art
cinema, known to film critics as "New Indian Cinema" or sometimes
"the Indian New Wave" (see the Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema).
Many people in India plainly call such films as "art films" as opposed
to mainstream commercial cinema. From the 1960s through the
1980s, the art film or the parallel cinema was usually government-
aided cinema. Such directors could get federal or state government
grants to produce non-commercial films on Indian themes. Their films
were showcased at state film festivals and on the government-run TV.
These films also had limited runs in art house theatres in India and
overseas.
The directors of the art cinema 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 Bimal Roy, Ritwik Ghatak,

17 | Indian Cinema
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. Satyajit Ray was the most flourishing of the "art cinema"
directors. His films played primarily to art-house audiences in the
larger Indian cities, or to film buffs on the international circuit.
In South India, art cinema or the parallel cinema was well-supported

in the state of Kerala. Malayalam movie makers like Adoor
Gopalakrishnan, G. Aravindan, and M. T. Vasudevan Nair were quite
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. In other markets of south India, like Kannada,
Tamil, Malayalam, and Telugu, stars and popular cinema rule the box
office. Still, a few directors, such as Balachander, Bharathiraja, Balu
Mahendra, Bapu, Puttanna, Siddalingaiah, Dr.K.Vishwanath, and
Mani Ratnam have achieved fair amount of success at the box-office
while balancing elements of art and popular cinema together.

18 | Indian Cinema
4. Indian Commercial Cinema
Indian commercial cinema, from the 1960s onwards - when

Technicolor became affordable and a regular feature of Indian films -
cinema had become the primary source of entertainment for the urban
masses. The numbers were daily increasing in leaps and bounds.
With changing times television had become an integral part of every

household and the cinema halls mushroomed almost everywhere. To a
certain extent, it was also a vehicle for educating and modernizing the
customs and practices of these masses which had outright serious
social themes. There were huge investments in the film industry and
the scenario altered more in the 21st century when the corporate
houses started investing in the Indian film industry.
A new trend began in the 1970s when the producers and audience
became the decision makers as far as the form and content of escapist
films were concerned. But there
were directors, producers and actors who wanted to make 'quality'

19 | Indian Cinema
films as well. At one point of time Indian cinema got divided into
two genres - the hard-core commercial movies and parallel cinema.
This phenomenon, however, is however losing its ground. The
difference between the two has been bridged as the audience today is
only looking for good films.
The 1970s witnessed the making of

some of the biggest films and the rise
of the finest stars in Bollywood.
During these crucial years, the
definitive evolution of Hindi
commercial cinema was taking place
towards the star system, escapist films,
successful formulae and these features
were adopted with some variations by
all regional commercial cinemas as
well.
It is in commercial cinema that one gets to see the 'Indianness' of

Indian cinema most vividly. In terms of the exploration of complex
and multifaceted human experiences, depth of psychological
motivation and social vision, popular films may be found wanting.
However, in terms of popular response and how popular imagination
is shaped, they are highly significant. With their unique combination
of fantasy, action films, song, dance and spectacle, Indian
commercial films constitute a distinctively Indian form of mass
entertainment.
Indian commercial films are basically morality plays, where good

triumphs over evil, and the social order, disrupted by the actions of
immoral and villainous people, is restored by the power of goodness.
Entertainment and moral edification are combined in a way that has

20 | Indian Cinema
direct appeal to the vast masses of moviegoers and

the idea of evil is central in Indian commercial
filmy discourse.
Indian commercial films are, as already noted,

basically melodramas, and the idea of evil plays a
central role in melodramas. As many commentators
on melodrama have pointed out, the polarization
between good and bad, the clash between moral
and immoral, the antagonism between what is whole-some and what's
evil is an inescapably dominant ingredient of melodrama.
Melodramas, by definition, deal with characters who are easily
recognizable - often stereotypical and who incarnate the forces of
good and evil. Evil is a vital ingredient because melodramas seek to
establish the authority of a moral universe. By vanquishing the villain,
and the evil he or she embodies, melodramas seek to reassert the
moral authority of a world that for a while threatened to fall prey to
the dark forces of evil. While examining popular Indian films, this
becomes very clear.
This concept of evil, so central to Indian commercial cinema, has

been evolving over the years in response to diverse social, cultural
and political forces. This is readily illustrated in three of the most
well-known commercial films: Kismet (1943), Awaara (1951) and
Sholay (1975). Awaara, was directed by Raj Kapoor and a smash hit
not only in India but in foreign countries such as the former Soviet
Union, whereas Sholay, is one of the most popular films ever made in
India.
There are a number of genres associated with Indian commercial

cinema. Most significant are: mythological films with the fantastic
narrations of ancient stories and devotional films that foreground the

21 | Indian Cinema
diverse forms of union with divinity. There are

also the romantic films dealing with erotic
passion as they confront social conventions;
historical films with fanciful stage settings and
costumes, social films that explore important
social problems and issues; and family
melodramas that seek to explore tensions and
upheavals within the matrix of the family. There is nothing
specifically Indian about these genres. What is distinctive are the
ways in which they have been handled by Indian Film Directors,
investing them with a characteristically Indian cultural imprint.
Indian Commercial films play a central role in the construction of

popular Indian consciousness; they are the most dominant and
pervasive force responsible for creating in the public mind the notions
of heroism, duty, courage, modernity, consumption and glamour. The
relationship between Indian commercial cinema and modernity is
extremely close. Presently bilingual films are also in vogue. The
audience has been looking for a change for a long time and films
like Dil Chahata Hai, Life in A Metro, Dor, Mr. And Mrs. Iyer, 15
Park Avenue, Rockford, Iqbal and others are a welcome change.

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4.1 Genres of Indian Commercial Cinema
There are a number of significant genres associated with Indian

commercial cinema. Romantic love, friendship, motherhood,
renunciation, relationships, social issues are some of the most
compelling among them. As with the genres so with the themes - a
distinctively culture-specific approach is adopted, giving these Indian
commercial films a characteristically Indian outlook. So when
examining what is unique about Indian commercial cinema we need
to pay particular attention to questions of theme and genre like
Mythological Films, Devotional Films, Action Movies, Patriotic
Films, Social Drama, Comic Genre and Romantic Genre.

23 | Indian Cinema
5. Regional Cinema India
The three important centres where Indian cinema had its early growth
were Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, which were the principal trading
port cities of the Imperial British in India. As we have seen, Hindi
films made in Bombay found good market across the country and
became the most dominant form of film production. But Telegu
cinema in Chennai, Bengali cinema in Kolkata and Marathi cinema in
Mumbai also flourished producing its own brand of popular
entertainment.
Just as Hindi cinema is categorized into mainstream and parallel
cinema, similarly the regional cinema also developed its own
mainstream and parallel cinema. The mainstream regional cinema
developed its own formulas for success depending on the demands of
its audiences and at the same time produced individual film makers
who wished to depart from main stream formula films towards the

24 | Indian Cinema
making of what is called `auteur’ films. Regional cinema has been

officially patronized by the government by the establishment of state
level Film development corporations and the institutionalization of
national awards, in which regional cinema is given due recognition.
Early Mumbai films can be called Marathi films because they were
not only directed by great Marathi directors like Dada Saheb Phalke
and V. Shantaram, Acharya P K Atre and Master Vinayak. They were
also produced with the help of film companies owned by Marathis
and with technicians who were from Maharashtra. But Marathi
cinema in Mumbai was soon subsumed by Hindi cinema because of
Hindi cinema’s reach and popularity. Only in recent times, with
directors like Dada Kondke, and Jabbar Patel has Marathi cinema
again come into its own.
In the East, it was Bengali cinema that was most dominant. It was in
1897 that films were shown for the first time in Calcutta. in 1919, the
first silent Bengali movie Bilwamangal was produced. Pramathesh
Barua may be considered to be the first star of Bengali films. He was
not only a brilliant actor but also directed films. In 1935 he directed
and acted in a film adaptation of Saratchandra Chatterjee's popular
novel Devdas. Among the early Bengali actors, the name of Kanan
Devi is important because she, like Devika Rani and Zubeida in
Mumbai, inspired women to shed inhibitions and become a part of the
film industry.
The 60s and the 70s were dominated by films with the lead pair of
Uttamkumar and Suchitra Sen that took Bengali cinema by storm. The
duo acted in a number of successful films and some of them remain
classics in the genre of the romantic musical cinema.
With the release of Pather Panchali in 1955, Bengali cinema saw the
advent of parallel cinema, and along with Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik

25 | Indian Cinema
Ghatak became internationally known directors with their socially

relevant cinema that inspired a whole generation of film makers
across the country and the world.
In the eastern part of the country, Assamese and Oriya films also
carved out regional markets. In Assam as far back as 1935, Jyoti
Prasad Agarwal directed the first Assamese film Joymati. Later, in
1987 director Jahnu Barua gave the Assamese film national and
international recognition with his film Haladhiya Charaye Baodhan
Khaay. This film won awards at the Locarno film festival. The late
Bhupen Hazarika, a renowned singer, composer from Assam is
credited with having provided excellent and unique musical scores to
not only many Assamese films but also Bengali and Hindi films.
Mohan Sunder Deb Goswami made the first Oriya talkie Sita
Bibaha in 1936. In 1960 the Oriya film Sri Lokenath directed by
Prafulla Sengupta received a national award. Prasanta Nanda is
recognized as a great Oriya actor, director and screenplay writer and
has received a number of national awards. In recent
times, Biswaprakash (aka ‘The Young Rebel’) directed by Susanta
Misra won a national award in 2000.
Down south, Tamil, Telegu and Malayalam and Kannada films are
extremely popular with the masses in their respective regions. Tamil
cinema has a long history and began in the 1897 when M. Edwards
screened a film at Victoria Memorial Hall in Chennai. Tamil cinema
beagn with mythologicals like Keechaka Vadham (1916)
and Draupadi Vastrapaharanam (1918) by Nataraja Mudaliar. In
1931, Kalidas was the first Tamil talkie. Just before independence,
Gemini studios produced some great films including the
famous Chandralekha. One of the unique features of Tamil cinema is
the involvement of politicians in film making. Chief ministers C.N.
Annadurai and M. Karunanidhi have been script writers. M.G.
Ramachandran and Ms. Jayalalitha very popular actors who became

26 | Indian Cinema
the chief minister of Tamilnadu. Today among the notable Tamil

directors is Mani Ratnam who has also made many successful films in
Bollywood.
When we think of Telegu cinema or the cinema from Andhra Pradesh,
we are reminded of NTR (N.T. Rama Rao) and of the great Ramoji
Film Studio is Hyderabad. It was in 1922 that the first Telegu
film Bhisma Pratigya by R.S. Prakash was made. This was a silent
film. In 1931 the first talkie, Bhakta Prahlad was made by
Hanumappa Munioappa Reddy. N.T. Rama, a star of Telugu films,
started doing films in the 1950s and was a very popular star. He later
became the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh.
Interestingly, three non-Telugu directors have in recent times made
films in Telegu. They are Mrinal Sen (Oka Ori Katha, 1977), Shyam
Benegal (Anugraham, 1977 and Gautam Ghosh (Ma Bhoomi, 1979).
In 1983, Narasingh Rao directed Dassi, a film that went on to win
many national awards, including the best actress award for actor
Archana.
Malayalam cinema from the state of Kerala has made a great
contribution to the Indian film industry. In 1928 J. C. Daniel
directedVigathakumaram which was a silent film. In 1938 the first
talkie Balan was released. This was directed by Notani. Malayalam
cinema is characterized by the way it focuses on the realities of life
and by its deep relation with Malayalam literature. Though the
mainstream commercial Malayalam cinema comprises typical
‘masala’ film, there have been great Malayam directors who have
used the film language to create remarkable movies. A. Vincent
adapted Vykom Muhammad Basheer’s novel and made the
film Bhargavi Nilayam. In 1965, Chemmeen directed by Ramu Karyat
created waves and won the national award as the best film. In
contemporary Malayalam cinema films made by Adoor
Gopalakrishnan and G Aravidan have taken Indian cinema to new

27 | Indian Cinema
heights in artistic merit and socially relevant content. There are a

number of film societies in Kerala and the film society movement has
helped in generating and promoting good cinema.
Today, films are made in a number of other regional languages also.

There are films in Bhojpuri, Punjabi, Kannada, Manipuri, Dogri and
Gujrati. Indian film makers are making films in English too.

28 | Indian Cinema

29 | Indian Cinema
Gangs of Wasseypur – Part 1 (stylised as Gangs of ववसस पपर) is a

2012 Indian Bollywood Hindi-language crime thriller film Produced
and directed by Anurag Kashyap, and written by Kashyap and
Zeishan Quadri. It is the first installment of the Gangs of Wasseypur
series, centered on the coal mafia of Dhanbad, Jharkhand, and the
underlying power struggles, politics and vengeance between three
crime families. Part 1 features ensemble cast with Manoj Bajpayee,
Nawazuddin Siddiqui, Richa Chadda, Huma Qureshi, Tigmanshu
Dhulia and Pankaj Tripathi in the major roles. Its story spans from the
early 1940s to the mid-1990s. Both parts were originally shot as a
single film measuring a total of 319 minutes and screened at the 2012
Cannes Directors' Fortnight but since no Indian theatre would
volunteer to screen a five plus hour film, it was divided into two parts
(160 minutes and 159 minutes respectively) for the Indian market.
The film received an A certification from the Indian Censor Board.

The film's soundtrack is heavily influenced by traditional Indian folk
songs.
The combined film won the Best Audiography, Re-recordist's of the

Final Mixed Track (Alok De, Sinoy Joseph and Shreejesh Nair) and
Special Mention for acting (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) at the 60th
National Film Awards. The film collected four Filmfare Awards,
including Best Film (Critics) and Best Actress (Critics), at the 58th
Filmfare Awards
Although not a huge hit by any financial standard, the meagre

combined budget of ₹18.5cr allowed the 2 films to be commercially
successful, with net domestic earnings of ₹50.81cr (of the 2 parts
combined). It is considered by many as a modern cult film.

30 | Indian Cinema
Release
Part 1 was released on 22 June 2012 in more than 1000 theatre

screens across India. It was released on 25 July in France and on 28
June in the Middle East but was banned in Kuwait and Qatar. Gangs
of Wasseypur was screened at the Sundance Film Festival in January
2013. Gangs of Wasseypur has won four nominations, including best
film and best director, at the 55th Asia-Pacific Film Festival.

31 | Indian Cinema
Why Watch Gangs of Wasseypur?
Gangs Of Wasseypur is India's answer to Quentin Tarantino. The film

does not have a single dull moment. Realism has always been Anurag
Kashyap's forte, but in a manner which Anurag has referenced
violence using the ironic characters with breathless pace makes Gangs
Of Wasseypur an exhilarating edgy movie experience. The movie is
an epic tale of revenge, set against the backdrop of the rural coal-
mining communities in Jharkhand and Dhanbad.
It's one of the most original and best directed films to come out of
(mainstream) Bollywood in perhaps the last decade. With a gritty and
realistic feel, it is swimming against the current tide in the film
industry of over-the-top action movies which have the usual standard
formulas and some protagonist and antagonist who lack any kind of
subtlety, just as those films lack plot development.
But the phrasing of the question is about the artistry in the movie -
and that becomes a hard question to answer without just sharing your
opinion. So let's try this.
An 'artistic' movie would most likely be one that shows a great level
of creativity in terms of the plot, in the treatment of the plot, in the
development of the characters and how they are painted onto the
canvas of the film. An artistic film also has to (in my opinion) push
the boundaries of the current film-making paradigm.

32 | Indian Cinema
Plot
A gang of heavily armed men scour and finally narrow down on a

house in Wasseypur. They surround the house and unleash a wave of
bullets and grenades on it with the intention of killing the family
inside it. After heavy firing on the house, they retreat from the crime
scene in a vehicle, convinced they have killed everyone within. The
leader of the gang then calls J.P. Singh on his cell phone and reports
that the family has been successfully executed but he is double
crossed by JP Singh as a fire fight erupts between them and a police
check post blocking their escape route. The scene cuts abruptly for a
prologue by the narrator, Nasir. The whole scene is then revealed in
the sequel.

33 | Indian Cinema
Introduction of Wasseypur and Dhanbad

Nasir's narration describes the history and nature of Wasseypur.
During the British Raj, Wasseypur and Dhanbad were located in the
Bengal region. After India gained its independence in 1947, they were
carved out of Bengal and redistricted into the state of Bihar in 1956.
In 2000, Wasseypur and Dhanbad were redistricted for a second time
into the newly formed state of Jharkhand where they remain. The
village has been historically dominated by the Qureshi Muslims, a
sub-caste of animal butchers who are feared by the non-Qureshi
Muslims living there and Dhanbad by extension.
During British colonial rule, the British had seized the farm lands of
Dhanbad for coal which began the business of coal mining in
Dhanbad. The region was a hotbed of the local faceless dacoit Sultana
Qureshi who robbed British trains in the night and thus held some
patriotic value for the locals.
1940s
Shahid Khan (Jaideep Ahlawat), a Pathan, takes advantage of the
mysteriousness of the faceless dacoit Sultana, a Qureshi, by
impersonating his identity to rob British ferry trains. The Qureshi
clans eventually find out and order the banishment of Shahid Khan
and his family from Wasseypur. They settle down in Dhanbad where
Shahid begins work as a labourer in a coal mine. He is unable to be at
his wife's side during childbirth, and she dies. The enraged Shahid
kills the coal mine's muscleman who had denied him leave on that
day. In 1947, independent India begins to assert its authority over
itself. The British coal mines are sold to Indian industrialists and
Ramadhir Singh (Tigmanshu Dhulia) receives a few coal mines in the
Dhanbad region. He hires Shahid Khan as the new muscleman of one

34 | Indian Cinema
of the coal mines. Shahid terrorises the local population to seize their
lands and extract compliance.
On a rainy day, Ramadhir Singh overhears Shahid's ambitions of

taking over the coal mines from him. Singh tricks Shahid into
traveling to Varanasi for business but instead has him murdered by an
assassin named Yadav Ji (Harish Khanna). Nasir (Piyush Mishra),
Shahid's cousin, finds Ramadhir's umbrella with his initials near the
door and concludes that Ramadhir eavesdropped on their
conversation. He flees from the house with Shahid's son Sardar in the
nick of time as Ehsaan Qureshi (Vipin Sharma), another associate of
Ramadhir Singh and a member of the Wasseypur Qureshi clan, shows
up to kill them but is too late. An unsuccessful Ehsaan lies to Singh
that Shahid's family has been murdered, burnt, and buried. Under the
care of Nasir, Sardar grows up along with Nasir's nephew Asgar
(Jameel Khan). Sardar learns the truth about his father's death, upon
which he shaves his head and vows not to grow his hair until he has
avenged his father's murder.
Early and Mid 1970s

The coal mines are nationalised. A mature Sardar Khan (Manoj
Bajpai) and his kin start hijacking Ramadhir's coal trucks mid-transit.
Ramadhir Singh suspects S.P. Sinha, a Coal India official, to be
behind the hijackings and has him murdered. After Sinha's murder,
Ramadhir's reputation for ruthlessness grows, and he becomes feared
in Dhanbad.
Sardar marries Nagma Khatoon (Richa Chadda). The pregnant

Khatoon confronts Sardar Khan and a prostitute inside a brothel and

35 | Indian Cinema
chases him away. Later, Nagma gives birth to Danish Khan but gets
pregnant immediately afterwards. Unable to have sex with a pregnant
Nagma, Sardar confesses his sexual frustrations with his kin. At
dinner, Nagma gives her consent to Sardar to sleep with other women
but with the condition that he won't bring them home or dishonour the
family name.
Sardar, Asgar and Nasir start working for J.P. Singh (Satya Anand),
Ramadhir Singh's son. They misuse their employment by secretly
selling the company petrol in the black market. Later, they rob a
petrol pump and a train bogey belonging to the Singh family. They
usurp Singh's land, which forces the two families to confront each
other for talks. The meeting ends in a scuffle, but Ramadhir Singh
realizes that Sardar Khan is in fact the son of Shahid Khan who he
had murdered in the late 1940s. Sardar and Asghar are jailed for
assaulting J.P. Singh during the meeting.
Early 1980s
Sardar and Asgar escape from jail. While hiding in Wasseypur, Sardar
marries a Bengali Hindu woman named Durga (Reema Sen). Asgar
informs Nagma that Sardar has taken a second wife, leaving Nagma
helpless. Meanwhile, Wasseypur has merged with Dhanbad and the
Qureshi clan continues to terrorise the non-Qureshi Muslims. The
locals then approach Sardar Khan for help as he was well known for
standing up to Ramadhir Singh. During Muharram, both Shias and
Sunnis are out mourning, including the Qureshi clan. Sardar uses the
opportunity to launch a major bomb attack on many Qureshi shops
and houses. When word spreads about Sardar's raids, his reputation
grows and he commands more fear than the Qureshi clan.

36 | Indian Cinema
Eventually, Sardar returns home to Nagma and she gets pregnant

again. Sardar tries to initiate sex with a pregnant Nagma but she
refuses, which prompts an angry Sardar to leave. He goes to stay with
his second wife, Durga, and she gives birth to his son, Definite Khan.
Ramadhir Singh, noticing that Sardar has abandoned his first family,
tries to reach out to Nagma through Danish by giving him money. An
enraged Nagma beats Danish for taking the money while she breaks
down in front of Nasir. A thirsty Faizal wakes up in the middle of the
night to find Nagma and Nasir about to have sex. Angry, he storms
out of the house and becomes a stoner, permanently seen with his
chillum. Nasir reveals that the desires were never consummated, but
Faizal and Nasir never see eye to eye again.
Mid and Late 1980s

Sensing Sardar's increasing clout, Ramadhir calls his old associate
Ehsaan Qureshi who brokers a meeting between Sultan Qureshi and
Ramadhir Singh where the two decide to become allies against their
common enemy, Sardar. Sultan asks Ramadhir for modern automatic
weapons which the latter promises to give.
1990s
Sardar becomes the most feared man in Wasseypur and shifts his
business to stealing iron ore. Danish Khan(Vineet Kumar Singh) joins
the family business. A failed attack from Sultan Qureshi leaves
Danish with a minor injury and causes reconciliation between Sardar
and Nagma. Sardar finds Ramadhir and warns him of terrible
consequences if anything ever happens to his family.

37 | Indian Cinema
A mature Faizal (Nawazuddin Siddiqui) is seriously affected by

Bollywood movies as he starts behaving, talking and dressing like
Bollywood characters. Sardar sends Faizal to Varanasi to buy guns,
but Faizal is caught by the police and jailed. Upon release, he kills the
gun seller Yadav, who unbeknownst to Faizal was the nameless
assassin who had killed Shahid Khan (Faizal's grandfather) and who
had implicated Faizal to police earlier. Meanwhile, Sardar seizes a
lake belonging to a local temple and charges commission on fish
sellers who make a catch in that lake. An uneasy peace is maintained
between the Qureshi and Khan families when Danish Khan marries
Shama Parveen, the sister of Sultan Qureshi. At the same time, Faizal
begins romancing Mohsina Hamid (Huma Qureshi), another kin of
Sultan.
Faizal reveals to a friend that his father Sardar would be travelling

without security the next day. Late that night, while Faizal is still
asleep, his friend calls up the Qureshis and tells them that Sardar's
bodyguards wouldn't be with him the next day. The next morning,
Sardar leaves home alone and reaches Durga's house where he gives
her her expense allowance. Once Sardar leaves, Durga also calls up
the Qureshis and tells them that he has just left her house. The
Qureshi men follow Sardar's car, and when the latter stops at a petrol
pump to refuel they start shooting as Sardar ducks in the car for cover.
The Qureshi men put several close rounds through the car window
ensuring a precise & unmistakable hit, after which they escape. A
shocked Sardar opens the car door and stands up to reveal multiple
bullet wounds, with one bullet embedded in his head. He steps out
with his gun drawn trying to locate the shooters but he eventually
collapses to his death on a ferry cycle.

38 | Indian Cinema
Cast
Family tree of the Khan family. Aditya Kumar plays the role of
Perpendicular (not written in the image). Faizal's son Firoz Khan has
not been mentioned in the family tree.
Starring
Manoj Bajpayee
Jaideep Ahlawat
Nawazuddin Siddiqui
Huma Qureshi
Tigmanshu Dhulia

39 | Indian Cinema
Vineet Kumar Singh

Piyush Mishra
Pankaj Tripathi
Richa Chadda
Pranay Narayan
Reemma Sen
Complete Cast
Manoj Bajpayee as Sardar Khan

Naman Jain as Young Sardar Khan
Tigmanshu Dhulia as Ramadhir Singh
Pankaj Tripathi as Sultan Qureshi
Piyush Mishra as Nasir Ahmed
Richa Chadda as Nagma Khatoon
Satya Anand as J.P Singh
Nawazuddin Siddiqui as Faizal Khan
Huma Qureshi as Mohsina Hamid
Jameel Khan as Asgar Khan
Jaideep Ahlawat as Shahid Khan
Reema Sen as Durga
Vipin Sharma as Ehsaan Qureshi
Vineet Kumar Singh as Danish Khan

40 | Indian Cinema
Anurita Jha as Shama Parveen

Shankar as Shankar
Rajat Bhagat as Ramadhir Singh (young)
Pranay Narayan as a Railway Police Officer
Tilak Raj Mishra as Sanjeev
Syed Khan as Iqbal Khan
Naman Tiwari as Ajay Singh (young)
Aniket Raj as Vijay Singh (young)
Jaikumar Solanki as Jatin
Sanjay Varma as Inspector Udayveer Singh
Sandeep Arora as ACP Jadhav
Pramod Pathak as Sultana Daku
Harish Khanna as Yadav
Vicky Nanavare as Parallel Khan, Sardar Khan's fifth son

41 | Indian Cinema
Development
Anurag Kashyap said he had wanted to make a film on Bihar with the
name Bihar for some time but for various reasons it didn't take off. In
2008 he met Zeishan Quadri (the writer of Gangs of Wasseypur) who
told him about Wasseypur's story. He found it unreal to believe that
mafia activity and gang war existed at such high level. Zeishan
narrated enough stories but what really attracted him was not gang
war but the entire story of emergence of mafia. According to him to
tell the story through a few families is what interested him but that
also meant a longer reel. "We all know mafia exists but what they do,
how they operate, why they do we don't know and that is something
which forms the basis of the film".

42 | Indian Cinema
Casting
According to Bajpayee, the role of Sardar Khan is the most negative

role he has done till date. His motivation for doing this role came
from the fact that there was "something new" with the character of
Sardar Khan.
Piyush Mishra and Tigmanshu Dhulia were given the discretion to

decide who, among them, would perform the roles of Nasir and
Ramadhir. Mishra chose the role of Nasir and Dhulia portrayed
Ramadhir Singh.
Chadda revealed in an interview that this role helped her bag 11 film
roles.
This is Huma Qureshi's first film, and she characterised this as her
"dream debut". Qureshi landed this role after director Anurag
Kashyap spotted her in a Samsung commercial he was directing.

43 | Indian Cinema
Filming
During filming in Varanasi in December 2010, film's chief assistant

director Sohil Shah was killed on shoot while performing one of the
stunt shot scene which was an accident. The Movie has been
dedicated to Sohil Shah as is seen in the opening titles. The film
finished production in late March 2011, with Anurag Kashyap moving
on to direct his next film immediately due to that accident. Major
portions of the film were shot at villages near Bihar. Shooting of film
also took place in Chunar. Anurag Kashyap, who co-produced the
film with Sunil Bohra, has said that it is his most expensive film and
he reportedly had to spend ₹ 15 crore on paying the actors. Both parts
of Gangs of Wasseypur together cost just ₹18.4cr to make. Anurag
Kashyap, the director of film tweeted – "450 million as reported in the
media is false."

44 | Indian Cinema
Style
The filming style adopted by Anurag Kashyap in Gangs of Wasseypur

bears a striking similarity to the styles of Nurul Hasan Pulak and Sam
Peckinpah. The scenes are short in length, several in number and
often a series of montages take the story forward. Anurag Kashyap
never has to resort to extraneous elements like stylised entries, editing
patterns or camera motions to add to the effect because the story has
an intrinsic impact of its own. However the film doesn't fall short of
any technical finesse. There's unabashed blood, gore and abuse
wherever the scene demands. Lines like "Tum sahi ho, woh marad
hai," ("You are right, he is male") said in resigned agreement to a
wronged wife stand out for their cruel truths of rural life. Kashyap's
use of occasional bursts of music and comedy to punctuate the slowly
augmenting tension at different junctures is highly reminiscent of
Spaghetti Westerns. Kashyap's use of dark humour to judiciously
propagate violence bears an uncanny similarity to Quentin Tarantino’s
style of movie-making. Absorbing styles as diverse as those of old-
school Italo-American mafia classics a la Coppola, Scorsese and
Leone, as well as David Michod's taut crime thriller "Animal
Kingdom," Kashyap never lets his influences override the distinct
Indian color. The pacing is machine-gun relentless, sweeping
incoherence and repetitiveness under the carpet as it barrels forward
with hypnotic speed.

45 | Indian Cinema
Theme
The movie chronicles the journey of the saga associated with coal
mines. It portrays the gang lords of Wasseypur like Shafi Khan,
Faheem Khan and Shabir Alam. The film has also been inspired from
the story of Jharkhand politician BP Sinha, Suryadev Singh, Binod
Singh, Sakeldeo Singh, and Ramadhir Singh, who was convicted of
murder. Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN calls the movie, a gang warfare
and notes that " On the surface, Gangs of Wasseypur is a revenge
saga, a tableau of vengeance between generations of gangsters.
Scratch that surface and you’ll discover more than just a grim portrait
". " While some of the critics noted that the film, is a powerful
political film, which underlines the party politics system (at that time)
allowing the growth of illegal coal trading and mafias in the region
(Bihar) and their use as a political tool, thus making the allotment of
coal blocks, one of the most powerful expressions of controlling
power in the region. Despite its grim theme, the film also has an
inherent sense of humour that comes quite naturally to it from its
series of events. The scene where Reema Sen is charmed by Manoj
Bajpai over her daily chores or the one where Nawazuddin goes on a
formal date with Huma Qureshi are outrageously hilarious. The
household politics is one of the many subplots rendering layers to the
story. You realise Sardar's family is emerging into a Corleone set-up
of sorts. His sons - the brooding Danish and the doped-out Faizal
(Nawazuddin Siddiqui) from Nagma, and the enigmatic Definite
Khan (Zeishan Quadri) from Durga - will become key players in this
revenge story. Violent as his screenplay is, Kashyap reveals wit while
narrating his tale. Ample black comedy is used to imagine the gang
war milieu. The humour lets us relate to the intrinsic irreverent nature

46 | Indian Cinema
of men who live by the gun. Character development can best justify
the length of Part 1.
" The film is essentially about two families from Wasseypur and one
from Dhanbad. In the process, it explores the larger chunk of the coal
and mafia activity. The film deals with the emergence of Mafia. I
didn't want to limit to coal activity so family story had to be shown
and what the mafia is doing there now. What we have done with this
film is even if it's a fictional film we have taken actual shots of sand
mining. In the film nothing is recreated. Everything here is real shots.
The entire river has been turned into sand mine as there is not an
ounce of water. "
—Kashyap on the theme of the film.

47 | Indian Cinema
Awards and Honours
Apsara Film Producers Guild Awards 2013

Best Music Director
Sneha Khanwalkar
Nominee
Best Female Playback Singer
Apsara Award
Rekha Jha
Khushboo Raaj
For the song "Womaniya"
Asia Pacific Screen Awards 2012
Winner Anurag Kashyap

Jury Grand Prize For his direction.
Achievement in Directing
Anurag Kashyap
Nominee
Asia Pacific Screen Award
Best Performance by an Actor
Manoj Bajpayee
Asia-Pacific Film Festival 2012

Winner
Wasiq Khan
Best Art Director
Nominee
Anurag Kashyap
Best Director
Nominee
Best Film
Nominee
Huma Qureshi
Best Supporting Actress

48 | Indian Cinema
Asian Film Awards 2013

Best Film
Best Director
Anurag Kashyap
Nominee
Asian Film Award Best Cinematographer
Rajeev Ravi
Best Production Designer

Wasiq Khan
Awards of the International Indian Film Academy 2013

Best Director
Anurag Kashyap
Best Actor in a Leading Role

Manoj Bajpayee
Best Actress in a Leading Role

Huma Qureshi
Nominee
Popular Award Best Actor in a Supporting Role
Nawazuddin Siddiqui
For Talaash
Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Reema Sen
Best Performance in a Negative Role

Tigmanshu Dhulia
Bollywood Hungama Surfers' Choice Movie Awards 2013

Nominee Best Director
Surfers' Choice Award Anurag Kashyap

49 | Indian Cinema
Cannes Film Festival 2012

Nominee
Anurag Kashyap
C.I.C.A.E. Award
Filmfare Awards 2013

Best Film - Critics
Anurag Kashyap
Best Actress - Critics

Richa Chadha
Winner Best Dialogue

Filmfare Award Anurag Kashyap
Zeishan Quadri
Sachin K. Ladia
Akhilesh Jaiswal
Best Action
Sham Kaushal
Nominee Best Actor

Filmfare Award Manoj Bajpayee
Best Director
Anurag Kashyap
Best Film
Anurag Kashyap
Guneet Monga
Sunil Bohra
AKFPL
Viacom18 Motion Pictures
Tipping Point Films
Jar Pictures
Phantom Films

Huma Qureshi

Richa Chadha

50 | Indian Cinema
Best Music Director

Sneha Khanwalkar
National Film Awards, India 2013

Best Re-recording Mixing
Winner
Sinoy Joseph (re-recording mixer)
President's Silver Medal
AKFPL (production company)
Best Audiography
Sreejesh
For Re-recordist of the Final Mixed Track
Winner
Silver Lotus Award
Special Jury Award
Nawazuddin Siddiqui
For Kahaani , Dekh Indian Circus and Talaash
People's Choice Awards, India 2012

Nominee
Favorite Drama Movie
Movie Award
Sydney Film Festival 2012

Nominee
Anurag Kashyap
Sydney Film Prize
Times of India Film Awards 2013

Winner Best Film
Critics' Awards Anurag Kashyap
Zee Cine Awards 2013

51 | Indian Cinema
Best Actor in a Supporting Role

Piyush Mishra
Best Actress in a Supporting Role

Richa Chadha
Nominee Best Performance in a Villainous Role

Popular Award Tigmanshu Dhulia
Best Performance in a Villainous Role

Pankaj Tripathi
Best Debut - Female

Huma Qureshi
Best Dialogue
Anurag Kashyap
Nominee
Zeishan Quadri
Technical Award
Akhilesh Jaiswal
Sachin K. Ladia

52 | Indian Cinema
Manoj Bajpayee as Sardar Khan
Manoj Bajpayee (born 23 April 1969), also credited as Manoj Bajpai,

is an Indian film actor who predominantly works in Hindi cinema and
has also done Telugu and Tamil language films. He is the recipient of
two National Film Awards and four Filmfare Awards.
Born in Belwa, a small village in Narkatiaganj, Bihar, Bajpayee

aspired to become an actor since childhood. He relocated to Delhi at
the age of seventeen, and applied for the National School of Drama,
only to be rejected four times. He continued to do theatre while
studying in college. Bajpayee made his feature film debut with a one-
minute role in Drohkaal (1994), and a minor role of a dacoit in
Shekhar Kapur's Bandit Queen (1994). After a few unnoticed roles, he
played the gangster Bhiku Mhatre in Ram Gopal Varma's 1998 crime
drama Satya, which proved to be a breakthrough. Bajpayee received
the National Film Award for Best Supporting Actor and Filmfare
Critics Award for Best Actor for the film. He then acted in films such
as Kaun (1999) and Shool (1999). For the latter, he won his second
Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor. Bajpayee further played the
role of a prince with two wives in Zubeidaa (2001), a serial killer in
Aks (2001) and a hitchhiker-turned-psychopath killer in Road (2002).
Bajpayee won the Special Jury National Award for Pinjar (2003). This
was followed by a series of brief, unnoticed roles in films that failed
to propel his career forward. He then played a greedy politician in the
political thriller Raajneeti (2010), which was well received. In 2012,
Bajpayee essayed the role of Sardar Khan in Gangs of Wasseypur. His
next roles were of a naxalite in Chakravyuh (2012), and a CBI officer

53 | Indian Cinema
in Special 26 (2013). In 2016, he portrayed professor Ramchandra

Siras, in Hansal Mehta's biographical drama Aligarh, for which he
won his third Filmfare Critics Award for Best Actor and the Best
Actor Award at the 2016 Asia Pacific Screen Awards.

54 | Indian Cinema
Tigmanshu Dhulia as Ramadhir Singh
Tigmanshu Dhulia (born 3 July 1967) is an Indian film dialogue

writer, director, actor, screenwriter, producer and casting director
known for his works in Hindi cinema and Television. He wrote the
dialogues for the 1998 film Dil Se.., which was the first Bollywood
film to chart in the UK top ten, and was screened at the Berlin
International Film Festival. His directing career has also garnered
international recognition with the biographical film, Paan Singh
Tomar premiered at the 2010 BFI London Film Festival. and the
thriller drama Saheb, Biwi Aur Gangster.
Paan Singh Tomar eventually went on to win the National Film Award
for Best Feature Film in 2012. Similarly, his sequel film Saheb, Biwi
Aur Gangster Returns had gained critical acclaim. He is also well
known for his role as Ramadhir Singh in Anurag Kashyap's modern
cult film Gangs of Wasseypur. Dhulia holds a master's degree in
Theatre from the National School of Drama. And is presently a
member of the Advisory Board of the Kautik International Student
Film Festival

55 | Indian Cinema
Director – Anurag Kashyap
Anurag Kashyap (born 10 September 1972), is an Indian film director,

writer, editor, producer and actor known for his works in Hindi
cinema, He is the recipient of several accolades, including a National
Film Award, and four Filmfare Awards. For his contributions to film,
the Government of France awarded him the Ordre des Arts et des
Lettres (Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters) in 2013.
After writing a television serial, Kashyap got his major break as a co-
writer in Ram Gopal Varma's crime drama Satya (1998), and made his
directorial debut with Paanch, which never had a theatrical release
due to censorship issues. He then went on to direct Black Friday
(2007), a film based on the book by Hussain Zaidi about the 1993
Bombay bombings. Its release was held up for two years by the
Central Board of Film Certification because of the pending verdict of
the case at that time, but was released in 2007 to widespread critical
appreciation. Kashyap's followup, No Smoking (2007) met with
negative reviews and performed poorly at the box-office. His next
venture Dev.D (2009), a modern adaptation of Devdas was a critical
and commercial success; followed by the political drama Gulaal
(2009), and the thriller That Girl in Yellow Boots (2011). His
prominence increased with the two-part crime drama, Gangs of
Wasseypur (2012). Kashyap subsequently co-produced the critically
acclaimed drama The Lunchbox, and the biographical drama Shahid
(both 2013), the former earned him a BAFTA Award for Best Film
Not in the English Language nomination. His next films were the
anthology Bombay Talkies (2013), and the drama Ugly (2014). In
2016, Kashyap directed Raman Raghav 2.0, a film based on the serial

56 | Indian Cinema
killer Raman Raghav. His next film was the sports drama Mukkabaaz,
which was released in 2018.
Apart from filmmaking, Kashyap serves as the Member of board of

the Mumbai-based NGO, Aangan, which helps protect vulnerable
children around India. He is the founder of two film production
companies: Anurag Kashyap Films and Phantom Films, with
partnership from directors Vikramaditya Motwane and Vikas Bahl and
producer Madhu Mantena.

57 | Indian Cinema
Writer – Zeishan Quadri
Zeishan Quadri is an Indian writer, actor, director and producer who

has written the story and co-written the screenplay for the Bollywood
crime genre film Gangs of Wasseypur, directed by Anurag Kashyap.
Quadri has also acted in Gangs of Wasseypur - Part 2. He has directed
and produced the film Meeruthiya Gangsters.

58 | Indian Cinema
Soundtrack
Soundtrack album by Sneha Khanwalkar

Released 23 May 2012
Genre Feature film soundtrack
Length 56:12
Label T-Series
Music of Gangs of Wasseypur was launched on 23 May. The film

which is in two parts, has a whopping 25 songs. Music for the album
is composed by Sneha Khanwalkar and Piyush Mishra. Lyrics for the
album are written by Varun Grover and Piyush Mishra.

59 | Indian Cinema
Track list: part-I

No. Title Singer(s) Length
1. "Jiya Tu" Manoj Tiwari 5:19

2. "Ik Bagal" Piyush Mishra 5:28
3. "Bhoos" Manish Tipu, Bhupesh Singh 5:09
4. "Keh ke lunga" Amit Trivedi, Sneha Khanwalkar 4:47
5. "O Womaniya Live" Khusboo Raaj, Rekha Jha 4:49
6. "Hunter" Vedesh Sokoo, Rajneesh, Munna, Shyamoo 4:17
7. "Humni ke Chhodi ke" Deepak Kumar 4:17
8. "Loonga Loonga" Ranjeet Kumar Baal Party, Akshay Verma
2:52
9. "Manmauji" Usri Banerjee 2:53
10. "Womaniya" Khusboo Raaj, Rekha Jha 5:22
11. "Aey Jawano" Ranjeet Baal Party (Gaya) 1:54
12. "Soona kar ke gharwa" Sujeet (Gaya) 2:01
13. "Tain Tain To To" Sneha Khanwalkar 3:59
14. "Bhaiyaa" The Mushahar of Sundarpur 3:06
Total length: 56:12

60 | Indian Cinema
Reception
Raja Sen of Rediff gave a 5 star rating to the soundtrack calling it a

"A strikingly flavourful and headily authentic collection of quirky
music". Purva Desai of Times of India said "The music is brilliant and
this album deserves all the praises." Shivi Reflections in her
favourable review wrote that "Gangs of Wasseypur is a soundtrack
which should be acknowledged for its experimentation and
uniqueness."
Sneha Khanwalkar had been nominated for various awards for the
music of the 2 parts, including the prestigious Best Music Director
award at the 58th Filmfare Awards.

61 | Indian Cinema
Marketing
Cast of the film, along with director Kashyap at the audio release of
the film in Patna.
The marketing of Gangs of Wasseypur was noted for its uniqueness.
Gamucha, a thin traditional East Indian towel was taken to Cannes,
the Gangs of Wasseypur team danced on the streets wearing red
gamchhas, after the Cannes Film Festival and has been making public
appearances in them ever since. While most music launches in India
happen with a big party in a 5-star banquet hall in a Delhi or Mumbai,
and formal announcements before the press, the music of this film,
was launched in Patna.
In another effective way of building the world of Wasseypur for the

audience, a fictitious newspaper was made available online which was
named Wasseypur Patrika.
In keeping with the language and setup of the film, wall paintings
instead of posters, reading Goli Nahi Marenge, Keh Ke Lenge –
Gangs of Wasseypur were painted on walls across 20 cities.
Gangs of Wasseypur mementos — The Gangs of Wasseypur team has

made a memento consisting of bullets of different era. While all sorts
of weapons have been used in the film, this is the best thing one could
give as memento.

62 | Indian Cinema
Critical Reception
India
Bikas Bhagat of Zee News gave the movie 4 stars out of 5,

concluding that "So if you want to experience an all new wave of
cinema in Bollywood, Gangs of Wasseypur is your movie. It has some
real quirky moments which I’ll leave for you to explore in the film.
Watch it for its sheer cinematic pleasure!"
Subhash K. Jha of IANS gave the movie 4 out of 5 stars, saying that
"Brutal, brilliant, dark, sinister, terrifying in its violence and yet
savagely funny in the way human life is disregarded Gangs of
Wasseypur is one helluva romp into the raw and rugged heartland.
Not to be missed." Taran Adarsh of Bollywood Hungama gave the
movie 3.5 stars out of 5, saying that "On the whole, Gangs of
Wasseypur symbolizes the fearless new Indian cinema that shatters
the clichés and conventional formulas, something which Anurag
Kashyap has come to be acknowledged for. It has all the trappings of
an entertainer, but with a difference. The film prides itself with
substance that connects with enthusiasts of new-age cinema. But, I
wish to restate, one needs to have a really strong belly to soak up to a
film like Gangs of Wasseypur. Also, this striking movie-watching
experience comes with a colossal length and duration. The reactions,
therefore, would be in extremes. Gangs of Wasseypur is for that
segment of spectators who seek pleasure in watching forceful, hard-
hitting and gritty movies."

63 | Indian Cinema
Rajeev Masand of CNN-IBN gave the movie 3.5 stars out of 5,

concluding that "Bolstered by its riveting performances and its
thrilling plot dynamics, this is a gripping film that seizes your full
attention. I’m going with three-and-a-half out of five for Anurag
Kashyap's Gangs of Wasseypur. Despite its occasionally indulgent
narrative, this bullet-ridden saga is worthy of a repeat viewing, if only
to catch all its nuances. Don’t miss it." Mansha Rastogi of Now
Running gave the movie 3.5 stars out of 5, commenting that "Gangs
of Wasseypur works like an explosive leaving you wanting for more.
Gangs of Wasseypur – Part 2 will definitely be a film eagerly awaited!
Devour part one in the meantime!"
Madhureeta Mukherjee of Times of India gave the movie 3.5 stars out
of 5, saying that "Director Anurag Kashyap, in his trademark style of
story- telling – realistic, with strong characters, over-the-top
sequences, and unadulterated local flavour (crude maa-behen gaalis
galore), gruesome bloody violence and raw humour – interestingly
spins this twisted tale. This first of a two-part film, is ambitious
indeed; showing promise of brilliance in parts, but not bullet-proof to
flaws. With a runtime this long, meandering side tracks and random
sub-plots, countless characters, documentary-style narrative backed
with black and white montages from actual history, it loses blood in
the second half because of the Director's over-(self)indulgence. So,
hold on to your guns, gamchas and 'womaniyas'."
Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave the movie 3.5 stars out of 5,

concluding that "It may not be for the faint-hearted and the prissy.
Gangs of Wasseypur is a heavyweight knockout punch. You’re down
for the count!" Blessy Chettiar of DNA gave the movie 3.5 stars out
of 5, commenting that "Even though there's so much going for Part 1,
there's something always amiss, something that leaves you

64 | Indian Cinema
underwhelmed after all those expectations. May be it's a hope of a

dashing Part 2. Let's wait and watch."
Kunal Guha of Yahoo! gave the movie 3 stars out of 5, concluding

that "Considering the amount of blood spilled in this film, it could’ve
just been called ‘Gangs of Sauce-e-pur’. Hot and sweet and different.
‘Bata deejiyega sabko!’" Roshni Devi of Koimoi gave the movie 3
stars out of 5, saying that "Gangs of Wasseypur is a very good movie
that gets bogged down by the endless characters and length of the
movie. If you love those hinterland mafia movies, this is definitely for
you."
On the contrary, Raja Sen of Rediff gave the movie 2.5 stars out of 5,
concluding that "It is the excess that suffocates all the magic,
originality dying out for lack of room to breathe. Kashyap gets
flavour, setting and character right, but the lack of economy cripples
the film. There is a lot of gunfire, but like the fine actors populating
its sets, Wasseypur fires too many blanks."
Mayank Shekhar of theW14.com says, "Most movies have a definite

beginning (starting point), middle (turning point) and end (high
point), or what playwrights call the three-act structure in a script.
There doesn’t seem to be one here, at least on the face of it. The genre
it comes closest to then is an epic, spelt with a capital E, along the
lines of say Francis Ford Coppola's Godfather trilogy, or this film's
immediate inspiration Martin Scorsese's Gangs of New York (2002).
And, of course, it is like all mythologies are supposed to be. You
enjoy them for the parts rather than caring merely for the hero's final
goal. If it wasn’t a film, this would’ve been a stylised graphic novel.

65 | Indian Cinema
But you would’ve missed a memorable background score and striking

sound design. "

66 | Indian Cinema
International
The film met positive international reviews. Deborah Young of The

Hollywood Reporter called the film "an extraordinary ride through
Bollywood's spectacular, over-the-top filmmaking". Referring to the
violence and pace of the film she says "Gangs of Wasseypur puts
Tarantino in a corner with its cool command of cinematically-inspired
and referenced violence, ironic characters and breathless pace".
Maggie Lee of Variety notes Kashyap never lets his diverse

influences of old-school Italo-American mafia classics a la Coppola,
Scorsese and Leone, as well as David Michod's taut crime thriller
"Animal Kingdom, override the distinct Indian color. Calling the film
"the love child of Bollywood and Hollywood," she felt the film was
"by turns pulverizing and poetic in its depiction of violence." Lee
Marshall of Screen International writes "the script alternates
engagingly between scenes of sometimes stomach-churning violence
and moments of domestic comedy, made more tasty by hard-boiled
lines of dialogue like “in Wasseypur even the pigeons fly with one
wing, because they need the other to cover their arse”. He describes
song lyrics "as if mouthed by a Greek chorus of street punks"
commenting sarcastically on what's happening onscreen.

67 | Indian Cinema
Box office
Gangs of Wasseypur collected ₹12.25cr in first four days. Gangs of

Wasseypur collected ₹10cr net approx over its first weekend. The
collections were good all over. Both instalments of the film were
made at a production cost of ₹18.5cr and with ₹17.5cr as the total
first week collection of the first part, film has successfully recovered
the total production cost minus promotion cost. Gangs of Wasseypur
held up week two but with low collections. The second week was
around ₹ 7 crore nett. Gangs of Wasseypur – Part 1 has earned ₹
27.52cr in India, as of 27 July 2012 and the film was finally declared
as a hit.
The success party for the film was held at Escobar in Bandra, Mumbai
on Thursday, 5 July, late evening.

68 | Indian Cinema
Differences from Actual Events
The film mainly draws its story from the real life gang wars that took
place in the region of Dhanbad, Jharkhand. There are several
differences in the film which contradict actual documented events
most notability the character of Faizal Khan (based on Faheem Khan)
who dies in the climax. Faheem Khan is currently in jail in
Hazaribagh and has been sentenced to life imprisonment. In the film,
Sardar Khan marries the Bengali girl but in real life, the woman was
kept as a mistress. Most of the gang wars were between the gangs of
Wasseypur, not with the Singhs, who had been instrumental in
instigating these wars, but never participated in them. There was no
character akin to Shahid Khan.
Another scene in the movie, where a Muslim girl is kidnapped by

Singh’s men, has been portrayed conversely. In real life, the victim
was a local Hindu girl and the kidnappers were a few goons from
Wasseypur. The members of the Singh family ultimately had to
threaten the entire Wasseypur community to return the girl in 24
hours. The girl was eventually returned as the Singhs were regarded in
the village with might and fear.
The character of Ramadhir Singh is based on Surajdeo Singh. In the

film's climax, Singh is brutally killed by Faizal but in real life, Singh
died of natural causes in June 1991.
Fazloo's character is based on Sabir Alam. In the film, Fazloo is killed

and dismembered by Faizal Khan. In real life, Sabir Alam and
Faheem Khan were childhood friends turned enemies. Sabir was

69 | Indian Cinema
awarded life sentence in 2007 for the murder of Faheem Khan’s

mother and aunt, is out on bail in Wasseypur.
The mafia's downfall in Dhanbad didn't come from gang wars but
rather it came from the differences between Kunti Singh, the widow
of Surajdeo Singh, and his three brothers – Baccha Singh, Rajan
Singh and Ram Dhani Singh – which gave others an opportunity to
make space for themselves.

70 | Indian Cinema
Conclusion
The term “Bollywood,” though often inaccurately conflated with

Indian cinema as a whole, refers just to the Hindi-language industry in
the city of Mumbai. There are several different regional film
industries throughout the country, each in a different language; the
most prominent ones are Tamil, Telugu, Bengali, and Kannada
languages. The regional cinemas share a variety of common tropes
(music, dancing, fabulous costumes, high melodrama, et cetera, ad
infinitum), with noticeable differences; in a general sense, the south
cinemas, Telugu and Tamil in particular, are more floridly rowdy than
the comparatively restrained Bollywood industry. The highest paid
star in Asia after Jackie Chan is the Tamil-language star Rajinikanth,
also known as “Superstar Rajinikanth” — who, when such things
were in vogue, featured in the Indian version of Chuck Norris jokes,
owing to Rajinikanth’s similarly titanic dominance over all forms of
cinematic villainy.

71 | Indian Cinema
The centennial of Indian cinema is being observed this year because

of the 1913 feature-length “Raja Harishchandra,” an adaptation of
Sanskrit epics. From there a rich cinematic tradition emerged, with
Indian films being recognized for their global commercial appeal as
early as the twenties, and through on to the present day.
Political influences (see the next point) led the Indian film industry —
which is not to say filmmakers themselves — to evolve in direct but
discrete parallel to their Western counterparts: The Golden Age of
production was roughly concurrent with the various New Waves in
Europe, the rise of blockbusters in the 1970s coincided with the time
they took off in America, and so on. Increasingly in the 21st century,
there’s been a tendency, particularly in Bollywood, to emulate
American and European films (shortening running times,
cutting musical numbers, etc.), though this has yet to carry over to the
regional cinemas, which still proudly flaunt their idiosyncrasies.

72 | Indian Cinema
A great deal of the creative isolation of early Indian cinema, and the
development of its own set of rules largely separate from those of the
other world cinemas, dates back to regulations the British government
established to promote British films over American ones (in the days
when Britain ruled India). After winning political independence from
Great Britain in 1947, the national film industries, already
aesthetically independent, remained that way.
Beyond the aesthetic impact of politics, the thematic content of many

Indian films naturally reflects Indian history and politics. Countless
films deal with rebellions against the British or remember rebellion
against the British fondly. The partition between India and Pakistan is
a frequent subject as well, with political tensions between the two
countries providing stories for everything from Cold War-style
espionage between the two countries to doomed romances between an
Indian boy and a Pakistani girl, to — this being India — both at the
same time.
Even a cursory, surface-level understanding of events like this can
help greatly in understanding the context of Indian films — not
because they’d be incomprehensible without it, but because they are
made, for the most part, for Indian audiences familiar with all these
events, so occasionally details are elided to avoid over-explaining. It’s
not that one can’t “get” Indian films without that, it just helps one get
them in a different way.
Not all Indian films are masala films, but masala films are uniquely
Indian. Masala films are the cinematic equivalent of the melange of
spices used in Indian cooking that provide the name. Every
conceivable genre is thrown into the pot — meaning the screenplay

73 | Indian Cinema
— and cooked up by the director. It makes perfect sense: In making a

movie for the whole family to see, what Hollywood calls a four-
quadrant blockbuster, why not throw every existing film genre into
the mix?
With multiple genres

happening
simultaneously —
let’s say, a romance
subplot, a comedy
subplot, and a
melodrama subplot all
alternating under the
auspices of an action
adventure main plot
— there are,
invariably, tonal shifts
that can take some
getting used to.
Everything is
heightened: the hero’s heroism, the heroine’s beauty, the villain’s evil.
Another, simpler way to look at masala is as you would approach
Shakespeare, or any classical dramatic literature: sudden
thunderstruck true love next to low comedy next to high drama next
to history. And, when necessary, sword fights.
Contrary to the trend in Western musicals, where great care is taken to
have the actors themselves sing — regardless of whether they actually
can — Indian films have not only never made any effort to hide the
fact that nearly all of their songs are lip-synced (with rare exceptions
made for stars who actually can sing or are famous enough that their
desire to is indulged).

74 | Indian Cinema
The artists, called playback singers, who provide the stars’ singing
voices — like Asha Bhosle, Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, or
Sukwinder Singh (to name but a tiny fraction) — are as legendary as
the faces on the screen. There is no question of “settling” for a career
as a playback singer, but it can be every bit as prestigious as acting.
One of the ways in which

the Indian film industries,
and in particular
Bollywood, resemble
classic Hollywood is in
their systemic manufacture
and cultivation of movie
stars. Like Hollywood, the
history of Bollywood is rife with failed star launches.
On the other hand, when it works, it really works. This is partly
because of the heightened nature of so many Indian movies, but also
in part due to the institutional support they receive in maintaining
their glamor and larger-than-life image. Indian movie stars really feel
like movie stars. Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Shammi Kapoor,
Dharmendra, Rajesh Khanna, Dev Anand, Amitabh Bachchan, Rishi
Kapoor, The Three Khans (Aamir, Salman, Shahrukh). Madhubala,
Waheeda Rehman, Asha Parekh, Shamila Tagore, Parveen Babi,
Zeenat Aman, Hema Malini, Rekha, Sridevi, Kajol, Madhuri Dixit,
Aishwarya Rai, Rani Mukerji, Kareena Kapoor.
Stars, even more so than in the West, essentially play themselves;
heroes will be introduced in dramatic low-angle shots to make them
look thirty feet tall, heroines lit glowingly as divine visions. Some
films lay it on thicker than others, but there’s never any question
about who the stars are.

75 | Indian Cinema
Some aspects of the release calendar may look familiar to American

audiences: Big holiday blockbusters come out on Eid (the holiday
commemorating the end of Ramadan), sort of like the way they do
during U.S. holidays. Less familiar is the way Bollywood in particular
basically shuts down during cricket season. While the Indian Premier
League is on, very few releases of any consequence hit theaters, a dry
period comparable to January in the American film industry.
The Hindi industry’s version of the Oscars, the Filmfare Awards, skew
slightly more populist (which would delight all the authors of “the
Oscars are out of touch with popular taste” thinkpieces that raise
everyone’s blood pressure each year). More importantly, the Filmfares
give out an award for “Best Action,” which is just wonderful.
Ironically, a lot of Western film lovers have an easier time with Indian
arthouse and indie fare, both of which are known as “parallel cinema”
in India. (That’s an ironic title given the parallel evolution of the
American and Indian film industries.) These titles favor
naturalistic/realistic approaches. Some filmmakers known as parallel
cinema filmmakers will employ elements of pop cinema, like songs
and movie stars. One such example is Mani Ratnam’s 1998 film “Dil
Se,” which starred Shahrukh Khan, and blended serious political
commentary with a lyrical romantic tragedy.

76 | Indian Cinema
The most famous name in this movement is the great Bengali auteur
Satyajit Ray, one of the most celebrated filmmakers in the world, let
alone south Asia. The height of Ray’s career coincides, by no
accident, with the Golden Age of Indian cinema, stretching roughly
from independence until the 1960s. Indian art cinema today often
recalls American “Indiewood” films of the late 1990s and early-to-
mid-2000s: a hybrid of arthouse and pop, backed by the industry itself
but maintaining distance from mass-market blockbusters. Like their
American counterparts, some are better than others, with the best
quite good and the worst not very.
In too many mainstream Hindi films to count, the big tough hero who
can throw cars with his mustache and is master of all that he surveys
comes home to find his mother yelling at him about his lack of
responsibility, his need to get married and other pedestrian concerns.
It’s not just something that’s played for laughs, either.

77 | Indian Cinema
Generally (in mainstream films at least), in a choice between an

individual and either a literal family or a group standing in for one,
the moral point of view expressed is that the family/group should
come first and nearly always does. For Americans, maybe the most
individualistic people in history, this is occasionally a tough pill to
swallow — but more than any of the other items on this list, it’s
essential that one understands the source of this ingredient before
approaching these films.
—
For American audiences, Indian films offer a cultural challenge unlike
others posed by different foreign cinemas. Because of the relative
isolation of the Indian film industries with regard to the West, since it
took almost a century before any broad tendency to emulate other film
cultures arose, India occupies a unique place in film culture, one
every cinephile should explore. With the right mindset, immersion in
these waters can be a wonderful experience indeed.

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SAUMYA GIRI

Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to

It helped me in doing a lot of Research and I came to

I would also like to thank my parents and friends and

Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

One of the most flourishing cinema industries found today is in India.

Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

While a number of other film-makers, working in several Indian

Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

The next noteworthy phase of Hindi cinema is associated with

Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

It is without doubt that under the influence of the Bengali film-makers

These film-makers, such as Shyam Benegal, Ketan Mehta, Govind

The well-liked Hindi cinema is characterized by important changes

Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

The Indian film industry, famously known as Bollywood, is the

Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

2.1 Indian Art Cinema

India is well known for its commercial cinema, better known as

Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

2.2 Indian Commercial Cinema

Commercial cinema is the most popular form of cinema in India. Ever

Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

2.3 Regional Cinema India

Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

3. Indian Art Cinema

India is well known for its commercial cinema, better known as

The directors of the art cinema owed much more to foreign

Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

In South India, art cinema or the parallel cinema was well-supported

Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

4. Indian Commercial Cinema

Indian commercial cinema, from the 1960s onwards - when

With changing times television had become an integral part of every

Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

The 1970s witnessed the making of

It is in commercial cinema that one gets to see the 'Indianness' of

Indian commercial films are basically morality plays, where good

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direct appeal to the vast masses of moviegoers and

Indian commercial films are, as already noted,

This concept of evil, so central to Indian commercial cinema, has

There are a number of genres associated with Indian commercial

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diverse forms of union with divinity. There are

Indian Commercial films play a central role in the construction of

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4.1 Genres of Indian Commercial Cinema

There are a number of significant genres associated with Indian

Advanced Diploma in Mass Communication

5. Regional Cinema India

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