REGION: South Asia

Country: Indian Cinema (Bollywood)

History and Revolution of Indian Cinema:

Indian cinema is one of the most popular ones in the world. It is not only watched widely in the
South Asian region but is also immensely popular among countries like Russia, China and the
Middle East, Turkey, etc. Each year around 1000 films are released by Indian cinema. These
films are made in different cities of India but the ones that are made in Bombay are more
popular as these are made in Hindi/Urdu language and are in high demand. Indian cinema
experienced a remarkable revolution from the silent films to the talkies, from the black and white
to colours, from multiple reels to a single showreel, from no graphics to animation. Now let’s
look at a detailed history of Indian cinema and its evolution.

Silent films (1890s-1920s)

The history of Indian cinema dates back to the 19th century. It started when lumiere brothers
showed their films at the watson hotel in Mumbai. The history of Indian cinema started when
Save dada (Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatavdeka) who was a portrait photographer in Bombay
ordered himself a camera from England, after he saw lumiere brothers films as he was
impressed by their work. His first film (documentary) which was a simple recording of a wrestling
match is considered the 1st motion picture of Indian cinema. Many people forget about Save
dada’s contribution and give all the credit to Dadasaheb Phalke, while he created the first
feature film of indian cinema the credit of 1st motion film creation still goes to Save Dada.

Pundalik (1912) was the first indian film released in India. It was a silent marathi film. Some
people believe that it is not the first film of indian cinema as it was a photographic recording and
the photographer was a british man too and the processing of the film was done in London..
Thus the reason why Dadasaheb Phalke is considered the pioneer of Indian cinema as he
released the first full length motion picture in India which was produced by him. It was a silent
marathi film “Raja Harishchandra”, only one print of the film was made and shown at the
coronation cinematograph, which was a huge commercial success. Thus Dadasaheb Phalke
laid the foundation of the regular feature film industry in India. By 1920 Indian film industry
started working in full swing. Per year about 27 films were being produced in India at that time.
In 1931 this rate increased to 207 films per year.

Jameshed Faramji Madan was a business tycoon who started the exhibition, distribution and
production of films and plays. The first Indian chain of cinemas was owned by him. He produced
10 films annually and distributed them across the subcontinent. In the early 20th century motion
pictures became a popular mass medium in India. People claimed watching movies as their
favourite pastime as it was affordable as well as entertaining. At that time movie tickets were
quite cheap and were being sold for an anna (4 paisas). The response of audience caused
massive production of movies
Talkies 1930s-mid 1940s)
Indian cinema experienced a change in production of films in terms of technology and style.The
major accomplishment for Indian cinema in this era was its first film with sound. “Alam Ara”
released in 1931 in both Urdu and Hindi language was a major hit. This marked the start of the
talkies film era. The 1930's also saw the beginning of songs and dances in the films. Many films
produced following Alam Ara had dialogues, several songs, dances and became immensely
popular all over the subcontinent.this era proved to be lucky for many stars especially the
musicians. Some evergreen musicals were produced in this era like Devi Devyani and Indra
Sabha. Thus we can say that slowly indian films were becoming a complete entertainment
package. The South Indian film industry also saw the rise of talkies in the 1930s.

This era witnessed the establishment of film studios throughout India as films were becoming
popular among the masses by 1935. Many films produced in this time were banned by british
raj. Movie production declined during the second world war. The only movies that were made
were based on showing the miseries of a common man, slavery, prostitution and polygammy.
Post world war II era saw a rise in Masala film production. This genre included songs, dance,
romance, action all in one film. In the mid 1940s, partition separated India and Pakistan and as
a result many studios moved to Pakistan. This also started a trend of film based on the theme of
Indo-Pak separation.

Film finance corporation was also established post partition, its recommendations were
implemented much later.

Golden era (1940’s-1950s)

The era after the end of british rule was called the golden era. This era saw the rise of legendary
actors like Raj kapoor, Dilip Kumar, Meena Kumari and many more. Bollywood dominated the
film industry in this era. It also saw the beginning of dubbing and play back singing. Thus
legendary singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhonsle, Muhammad Rafi and Kishor Kumar
rose to fame.

The Golden era is the most valued period in the history of Indian cinema. It witnessed the
transition from black and white to colours. It gave birth to tremendous artists and directors who
had their signature style of making films. “Pather Panchali” a fil directed by Satyajit Rai proved
to be a huge success for the cinema and ended up winning the best film category the Cannes
film festival. Many directors took inspiration from Rai and started making films that got them
global recognition.

The Golden era also saw the rise of parallel cinema. Commercial films were being produced
simultaneously with strong social themes like ‘Mother India’, ‘Shree 420’, ‘Do Bigha Zamin’,
‘Kagaz k phool’, ‘Pyasa’ etc. Hindi films competed with many many international films at the
Cannes film festival in the 1950’s. Thus this era experienced the success of both parallel and
commercial indian cinema.
Decade of 1960s and 1970s:

This era is associated with production of movies that had a huge budget like Pakeeza, Bobby,
Sholay, Kabhi Kabhi, Amar Akbar and Anthony. Movies involving action and romance were
being made in this era. Also gangster based movies like “Deewar” were being produced that
starred Amitabh Bachan in the role of an angry young man. Other popular actors of this era
were Mithun Chakraborty, Anil Kapoor, Jaya Bachan, Rekha.

The 1970s saw the rise of Bollywood. The era witnessed change in the story structure, genre,
style, characters, wardrobe,content.

1980’s till now:

This era portrayed a mixed genre of romance, thriller, action and comedy. New technology like
Dolby Digital sound effects, special effects, choreography was being incorporated in the movie.
There was a shift from gangster based movies to romance films with lots of songs and dances.
Family oriented movies like ‘Hum saath saath hain” were also made in the 1990s. New
celebrities like Amir Khan, Salman Khan and Shahrukh khan gained popularity and hence
began the rule of three khans in the entire film industry. Actresses like Juhi Chawla, Madhuri
Dixit, Sridevi also became popular in the 1980s and 1990s.

Comedy and action based movies became popular in the 80s and 90s most of them starred
Govinda in it alongside Karishma kapoor and Raveena Tandon. The most popular films of the
80s and 90s are “ Mr India, Tezab, Qayamat se Qayamat tak, Hum sath sath hain, Meine pyar
kiyaa, Hum aapke hain koun, Hero no 1 and Rangeela”

The era of the 2000's saw the rise of Indian cinema globally. The big production houses like
Yash Raj films, Dharma Productions, Red chillies entertainment, Eros entertainment made films
based on different themes. The most popular ones being Lagaan, Kal ho na ho, Hum Tum, KOi
mil gaya, Chak de India, Ghajni, 3 Idiots, etc. 2000’s also gave success to many new faces like
ranbir Kapoor, Priyanka chopra, Dipika Pdukone, Abhishek Bachan

2010s also saw the rise of new generations of popular actors like Varun Dhawan, Ranveer
Singh, Sidharth Malhotra, Sushant Singh Rajput, Aliya bhatt, etc, Vidya Balan and Kangana
Ranaut gained huge success through their women centric films like Dirty Picture, Kahaani,
Queen, Tanu weds Manu etc.

This is how Indian cinema and bollywood evolved through the years. It has come a long way
since its first silent film was released in 1913. Bollywood today, has extreme popularity and fans
around the globe.

Star system:
Actors themselves are brands, most of the times a movie becomes hit because of the actors.
Promotions done through interviews in talk shows, appearing in tv shows, radio interviews and
the controversies associated with them helps in promoting movies. These celebrities earn their
fans by maintaining a good on screen and off screen reputation. The big stars of Bollywood
usually appear in positive roles only as this is how they have gained their fan following by
setting up a superficial image of themselves.

I sometimes wonder how come illogical, stupid plot line movies of celebrities like Salman Khan
and Shahrukh khan e.g. tube light, zero end up earning 100 crores? Now it’s all clear, star
power is the major reason! India is a country where people literally worship their favorite
actors/actresses, they would starve/skip one time meal but wouldn’t miss the movies of their
favorite stars.

This is the biggest advantage of star system. They attract audience to their movies which
obviously means more money for the films. These celebrities thus become a brand for movies, if
a movie stars them then it automatically becomes a hit. Fans of such famous celebrities book
tickets of their movies as early as they can so that they can become one of the first ones to
have watched their movies. This is their way of showing their love for their idols. As compared to
Salman Khan’s movies, movies with strong script and influencing storyline often do not get
much fame because they lack celebrity power for example movies like “saandh ki ankh”
Few A list celebrities dominate the bollywood industry today, it includes the three khans too.
They even own their own production houses as their fee is so high that most producers can not
afford to hire them thus they have started making their own movies. They are not afraid to take
the risk as a new producer usually because they know their fans' support wouldn’t let their film
sink.

In bollywood, the actors are literally treated as God by their fans. Fans respect and love them so
much. If you have seen the movie “Billu Barber” there is a scene where Sahir Khan is
introduced through a song. That song portrays how the famous bollywood stars are treated by
their fans. I have heard some crazy fan stories, I would like to share a few here. Two teen boys
who ran away from shelter home, took a train to meet tiger shroff, a 15 year old girl who ran
away from her house to meet Salman khan, there is this fan of Hrithik Roshan who own a tea
stall in a small city of India he bought 70 early morning show tickets for his movie “Mohenjodaro”
just to support him, A fan who cycled 1700 km to meet Aaamir khan. There are many more
crazy fan stories obviously all can’t be mentioned. Since these fans idolize their favorite stars
whenever they do something wrong they get offended tto, sometimes to an extent where their
extreme love turns into extreme hate. This reminds me of how Deepika Padukone faced her
fans' hate when she supported the CAA protest. This resulted in a flood of hate on her social
media accounts as the fans didn’t expect her to go against their government. Some even
boycotted her then upcoming film “Chappak” In India fans have always shown extremity be it in
loving their idols or hating them after they do some things wrong.

Stereotypes and prejudices:

People use cinema as an escape from their monotonous routine and to get themselves
entertained. It is the obligation of cinema to not impose people with things/scenarios that may
have a negative impact on their thinking or on how they perceive things. Unfortunately over the
years bollywood has been manipulating and shaping the minds of people by using certain
stereotypical approaches and prejudice in their movies regarding gender, certain religions,
cultures and races.stereotyping. For instance Muslims in India still do not have a safe
environment to live in, thus bollywood movies portraying them as extremists/terrorists only adds
up to their sufferings. Women all around the world have tried so hard to break themselves free
from stereotypical views of the society but bollywood films still objectify and stereotype
Them by showing them merely as a sex object. I’ll go through different stereotypical categories
and will use some scenes from various movies as case study:

Religion stereotyping:

Portrayal of Muslims in Indian movies is more negative than positive. These movies are
considered against the Muslims and try to stereotype Muslims negatively not only in Indian
society but all over the world. Through the effective medium, Bollywood is demolishing the
Image of Islam and Muslims across the globe. Muslims are shown as traitors, terrorists, disloyal,
and cruel people Names and Appearances play a very important role on how Bollywood
stereotypes muslims. Names like moosa bhai’ , ‘”yousaf bhai” etc are used to represent terrorist
to set up the idea that they are muslims. The Muslims that they portray in their movies belong to
two categories:

1. Conservative Muslims: Muslims, wearing typical salwar kameez, check scarf on shoulders
and cap for male or Burka, veil or typical hijab for females is conservative. The master of the
26/11 attack in the movie was shown dressed in shalwar kameez.

2. Modern Muslims: Muslims are also shown in formal modern dresses for example Ehsaan and
his friends in “Kurbaan”, Dr Faizan Khan in “My name is khan”, “Samir” and his partners in “New
York” are immense examples of this perspective.

Below I have written few Bollywood movies names that showed muslims as terrorists:
1. Kurbaan
2. Agent vinod
3. Fanaa
4. New York
5. Lamhaa

In these movies, Muslim characters are misrepresented by justifying their evil deal with Islam.
Terrorists and people related to them say “INSHALLAH”, “BISMILLAH”, “ALLAH hamary sath
hai” and similar other words related to Islam before any evil deed like bombing or murdering. In
movie “Agent Vinod” a suicide bomber said BISMILLAH before blast. Islamic slogans like
“NARA E TAKBEER” have also been used by Muslims while planning to do something
dangerous for society as happened in the movie “Lamhaa” and “hotel taj”. Islam is also
portrayed as a religion of terror through creating wrong perception of religious practices and
concepts like jihad, shahadat, address on Jummah prayer or Eid and sometime Qurbani. In the
movie “My name is khan” there is a scene in a mosque in which a person represented as a
scholar of Muslims gives a wrong perception regarding our religious hero’s story. In one scene
of “Lamhaa” regarding the address of Jumah prayer, a sense of miss guidance is clearly
delivered about Jihad. These small yet powerful impact scenes are used to portray Muslims in a
negative limelight.Sometimes in movies terrorist’s nationality or link toward different countries
like Afghanistan and Pakistan is highlighted. For example in the movie “Agent Vinod” and “ek
tha tiger” a negative picture of ISI and the army is drawn. In the movie “New York” the
nationality of two terrorist is mentioned as Pakistani. In the movie “Kurbaan” “Ehsan khan” a
terrorist and leading character also belonged to Pakistan. In movie “Lamhaa” Pakistan is also
portrayed as a country which train the terrorist as a Muslim character, as a dialogue in the
movie said “jis shidat k sath tum ny quran ki ayyatain yad ki hain usi shidat k sath Pakistan main
ja training karna”. This shows the prejudicial behavior of Indians towards muslims presented
through their movies.

Gender stereotyping:

Bollywood follows are the stereotypical roles when it comes to the heroines in the filmwhile
doing that they also represent women as sex objects. Women are shown as beautiful/hot in the
eyes of male viewers. They are shown in revealing clothes usually on the posters. Some movies
completely based onobjectification of women are “Murder”, “Aksar”, “Jism”. “Hey baby”, “Garam
Masala”,”kuch kuch locha hai”, etc in all these movies men are shown a shown as playboys and
women are sex objects.

In Bollywood movies mostly women are shown as dependant on their husbands like in movie
“aksar” the main female lead is dependant on her husband and boy friend. In ‘jism” again
woman is shown dependant on men in he rlives. Both owmen in these films are shown
vulnerable.There are many movies where women nare shown on posters just for the sake of
female presence as it attracts more attention, where as in reality they don’t have much role in
the film. For example “raees”,mahira khan had a very small role in the movie whereas the poster
depicted her as a main lead.

Genres and film theories:

Bollywood movies are usually based on following genres:

● Action : E.g Force, Ek tha tiger, etc
● Adventure: E.g Jab we met, Zindagi na milegi dobara, Yeh Jawani hai Dewani, etc
● Comedy: E.g Housefull, Golmaal, etc
● crime/thriller: E.g Ittefaq, Badla, The body, etc
● Drama: E.g Dangal, Malang, Queen, etc
● Epic: E.g Bajirao Mastani, Padmavati, Devdas, etc
● Sci-Fi: E.g Krish, Koi mil gaya, Raone, etc
● Horror: E.g Pari, Raaz, Ek thi Dayan
 ● Coming of age: E.g Dil chahta hai, Wakeup Sid, Tamasha

The film theories on which bollywood movies are often based on includes the following:
● Commercial purposes: Om shanti Om, Ae dil hai mushkil, tanu weds manu etc

● Feminist film theory: E.g, Chak de, English Vinglish, thappad, Marry Kom, Queen

● Male gaze theory: E.g hey baby, Kuch kuch locha hai, Garam Masala, etc

● Social realist theory: for instance movies like Masaan, Udaan,Peepli live, Pad man etc

Themes used in bollywood movies:

Talking about the themes used in Bollywood movies, I would say it is mostly based on “Masala”.
In India, people usually go to watch movies in order to give themselves a break from their
monotonous busy routine. They prefer to see content that would entertain them. For them
entertainment means a movie full of songs, dances, action scenes and romance. They prefer
content with entertainment rather than awareness. If there are two films opened together at the
cinema one like Pink (without any romance element or songs or dances) the other one DIlwale
(with full of songs, dances, romance and action) It is obvious if they would prefer Dilwale as it
would entertain them. Thus the film makers make more masala movies (that have multiple
genres infused into a single movie) to fulfil the demand of the audience as they are the ones
who get them rating and success at the box office.

That is the reason why movies with strong social themes do not do well on the box office as
people prefer entertainment, fiction and superficial content over movies based on such issues
addressing real life problems.

Parallel cinema vs Commercial cinema:

Let’s first see the difference between parallel cinema and commercial cinema.

Parallel cinema:
● A part of Indian movement
● It is an alternative to main stream cinema
● Also known as Art cinema
● These films are known for their serious content and realism
● They mostly support an informative/social message
● It emerged in the 1950's, faced a decline in 1990’s and re-emerged in late 20’s.
● It then implied to offbeat movies that contain different plot lines from what the audience
is used to seeing
● Such stories require intellect to understand
 ● Some popular example of such films are dhobi ghat, black Friday, Mr and Mrs iyyer,
Stanley ka dabba, bum bum bole, etc

Commercial cinema:
● Usually based on fictional stories
● It has action, drama, suspense, romance element
● It has a strong star cast
● It has big budget
● It has lavish sets
● It has music and dances
● It has artificial content and is understood by everyone

Themes used in parallel cinema movies:

Following themes are used kin parallel cinema movies:

● Friendship and self esteem: For example, Stanley ka dabbaa

● Relationships: For example, the lunch box and rain coat
● Caste and culture For example, Masaan
● Innocence and humanity: For example, Bum bum bole
● Racial discrimination: Mr and Mrs Iyer

Which type of cinema is preferred in bollywood?

People in India prefer commercial film cinema over parallel cinema movies.Commercial movies
usually end up grabbing the attention of most people as people choose to see movies in order
to give themselves a break from their monotonous routine so they usually prefer content that is
fun to watch with a plot-line that is easy to understand. Whereas some people find it very
difficult to understand a parallel cinema concept. Some people also perceive it as a form of
documentary as they are a bit dry and lack music and dances. Audience play a huge role in
making a movie successful like if people do not go to cinemas to watch a movie than that movie
wouldn’t earn much, may be it could earn even less than the budget of the movie which means
it would be “flop” film makers need audiences to watch movies so that they can earn profits.
That is why films are made according to the preferences of the audience. In bollywood very few
filmmakers choose to make parallel movies because they don’t have a big chance to earn
crores.

Political Implications on movies/ effect of war, conflicts/movies:

Cinema is a powerful tool that has the power to bring a change it can make and break the
mindset of people. Bollywood through its movies has always tried to fulfil political agendas and
in this way manipulate the minds of indian citizens. They usually villain-ize Pakistani/Muslims in
their controversial movies. They create the mind set that Muslims and Pakistani people are evil
who only think of ways through which they could harm India.
Even the government in India try to get their personal political propagandas and agendas
portrayed through the bollywood film. For instance in the reign of Narendra Modi the leader of
BJP party, movies like “Uri: The surgical Strike” , “PM Narendra Modi”. Through these movies
he fulfilled his propaganda in molding the minds of people and to get votes from them in the
next elections. These strategies are not only refined by the BJP party, Congress has also used
this tactic in the past in movies like “My name is Raga” that showed Rahul Gandhi in a heroic
manner.

Many times bollywood movies took advantage of major Political events and incidents to gain
rating from people. In these movies they portray Indians as real heroes and Pakistan as the evil.
For instance, movies like “Border” that depicted the 1071 Indo-Pakistan war. Again Pakistan
was shown as the villain and indian were shown as the heroes. Majority of the facts in the
movie were manipulated and unrealistic.

Movies 1971 was again an anti Pakistani movie that portrayed muslims as cruel and showed the
heroic (not so much but they wanted to show it like this) as they escaped from pakistani prison.
Then there are movies that portray Muslims and Pakistanis as terrorists. Like the movie 26/11,
Fanaa, New York, Lamhaa. There was this movie called “Diljale” that targeted pakistani army
and showed how they plan to carry out a terrorist attack on India. “Gadar ek prem katha” is a
movie against Pakistan that shows pakistani politicians as cruel beings. “Agent Vinod” is a
movie that shows Pakistani ISI woman officer falling for Indian man and then turning against her
own country. This was a dig at ISI as they wanted to show the force weak.

Psycho social implications/ social responsibility:

I think bollywood has its fair share of movies that address some major societal/social issues and
tried to bring a change through its movies. Bollywood has played a role in informing the society
regarding the issues that are not talked about (like 3 idiots tackled the issue of mental pressure
given by education system) .It helped in creating an ideal image for taboo issues ( like cheeni
kum normalizing age differences between couple/adult romance) It tried to influence Public
opinion (like film Thappad talked about domestic violence) and showed elimination of social
evils through movies (daawat e ishq for dowry issue)

Here is a list of movies from bollywood that used a socially responsible approach as mass
media:

● Jolly vs LLb ( portrayed the loop holes in justice system)

● Pink ( addressed that No means NO!)
● 3 Idiots ( addressed the effect of mental pressure given to students by education
system)
● Udaan ( showed the effects of control freak parents on children)
● Prem rog ( tried normalizing a widow’s second marriage)
● Taare Zameen par (addressed the problem of dyslexia)
● Pk (talked about how cast and religion has divided people)
● The lunch box ( tried erasing the taboo about adult romance)
● Heroine ( addressed the evils of fashion/Film industry)
● Table no 21 ( addressed bullying/ragging effects)