Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Cinema
India's film industry was born in the late 19th century - the first major Indian-made motion
picture,
Panorama of Calcutta,
was screened in 1899. India's first real feature film,
Raja
Harishchandra,
was made during the silent era in 1913 and it's ultimately from this film
that Indian cinema traces its vibrant lineage.
Today, India's film industry is the biggest in the world - twice as big as Hollywood.
Mumbai (Bombay), the Hindi-language film capital, aka 'Bollywood', is the biggest produ-
cer, but India's other major film-producing cities - Chennai (Madras; Kollywood), Hydera-
bad (Tollywood) and Bengaluru (Bangalore; Sandalwood) - also have a huge output. A
number of other centres produce films in their own regional vernaculars too. Big-budget
films are often partly or entirely shot abroad, with some countries vigorously wooing Indi-
an production companies because of the potential spin-off tourism revenue these films gen-
erate.
An average of 1000 feature films are produced annually in India. Apart from hundreds of
millions of local Bolly-, Tolly- and Kollywood buffs, there are also millions of Non-Resid-
ent Indian (NRI) fans, who have played a significant role in catapulting Indian cinema onto
the international stage.
Broadly speaking, there are two categories of Indian films. Most prominent is the main-
stream 'masala' movie - named for its 'spice mix' of elements. Designed to have
something for every member of the family, the films tend to have a mix of romance, action,
slapstick humour and moral themes. Three hours and still running, these blockbusters are
often tear-jerkers and are packed with dramatic twists interspersed with numerous song-
and-dance performances. There's no explicit sex, or even kissing (although smooching is
creeping into some Bollywood movies) in Indian films made for the local market; however,
lack of nudity is often compensated for by heroines dressed in skimpy or body-hugging at-
tire, and lack of overt eroticism is more than made up for with heaps of intense flirting and
loaded innuendoes.
The second Indian film genre is art house, which adopts Indian 'reality' as its base. Gen-
erally speaking they are, or at least are supposed to be, socially and politically relevant.
Usually made on infinitely smaller budgets than their commercial cousins, these films are
the ones that win kudos at global film festivals and award ceremonies. The late Bengali dir-
ector Satyajit Ray, most famous for his 1950s work, is the father of Indian art films.
