History of Indian Cinema

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What we will be discussing

• History of Indian Cinema
• What Bollywood Is
• How Music Influences Indian Films

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• Bollywood
• Movies

By Suraj Tandon
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History

• The Beginning The Silent Movie Era
• Cinema came to India on July 7, 1896 - Lumiere
  Brothers' Cinematograph films in Bombay.
• In 1899, Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatavdekar - two
  short films The Wrestlers and, Man and
  Monkey.
• First entirely Indian-made film, Raja
  Harischandra, (Considered Father of Indian
  Cinema) (produced and directed by D. G. Phalke)
  -
• released on May 3rd, 1913.

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First Feature Film Raja Harishchandra -1913
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• The Era of Talking Movies (1930 -1940)
• India's first talkie Alam Ara (Light of the
  world) Used a single sound system. Sound and
  image recorded as one.
• Was released on March 14th, 1931.
• Produced by
• Ardeshir Irani. Through
• Imperial Film Co.

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• Majority of Indias population during the late
• 1890s was illiterate.
• Film industry exploded in India because
• movies were a means in which the citizens of
• India could entertain themselves.
• Movies produced within the 1930s 1940s
• contained many songs and dances.

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• As the talkies emerged, so did issues related to
  language of the film emerge. The various regional
  languages in India led film makers to produce
  films in both the regional language (Bengali,
  Marathi), and in Hindi, in order to cater to the
  larger Hindi-speaking market.
• The films of this era were mostly musicals and
  some of them had up to 40 songs.
• Three big filmmaking institutions, Madan
  Theatres, Krishna Film Co., and Imperial Film Co.

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• The films in the 30's were more modernistic in
  their outlook.
• One of the most prominent films of this period is
  Pramathesh Barua's Devdas(1935).
• Playback singing was introduced to Indian cinema
  by Nitin Bose in 1935, with the Hindi film Dhoop
  Chaon (sunlight and shade).
• Double sound system where sound and image were
  recorded separately. Allowed for easy editing
  afterwards.

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SIGNIFICANT FILMS
1931 Alam Ara c. Ard. Irani (first Indian
talking film)1931 Shirin Farhad (sound and Image
recorded separately)1931 Jamai Babu c. D.R.
Bardkar (Images of Urban Calcutta)1932 Noorjaban
c. Adr. Irani (Indias first talkie in
English)1932 Indraprastha c. T. Marconi (song
dance spectacular) 1934 Karam c.1935 Devdas c.
Yusuf Muljee, Bimal Roy, Sudhin Majumdar Dilip
Gupta1936 Bangalee c. Bibhuti Das1936 Sant
Tukaram c. V. Avadhoot1937 Mukti c. Bimal Roy
(Tracks, Mix of Interior Exterior,
Expressionism Realism)1938 Duniya na Mane c.
Avadhoot
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Pramathesh Barua's 'Devdas' (1935) Original
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Dilip Kumar in Bimal Roy's 'Devdas' (1955)
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Sharukh Khan Madhuri Dixit in Sanjay Leela
Bansali's 'Devdas' (2002)
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• 1951 1960
• There was an active support for "parallel cinema"
  which talked about social issues, problems and
  values of the society.
• The Film and Television Institute of India was
  established at Pune in 1959
• 1950s and 1960s regarded "Golden Age" of Indian
  cinema in terms of films, stars, music and
  lyrics.

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• 1961 1980
• In the 70s, gap between multi-starrer, big budget
  films increased. Mostly action oriented with
  revenge as their dominating theme.
• Rise of India's greatest superstar, Amitabh
  Bachchan (Sholay/Flames 1975).
• 1981 1990, Even to present time
• Revival of the musical love stories in Indian
  cinema.

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What is Bollywood?

• Bollywood is the informal name given to the
  popular Mumbai-based film industry in India.
  Created by blending Bombay (the city now
  officially called Mumbai) and Hollywood, the
  famous center of the United States film industry.
• It is commonly referred to as "Hindi cinema.
  Majority of films produced by Bollywood are in
  Hindi dialect
• They are usually musicals. Very rare to see an
  Indian movie without song and dance. Half of
  movie is usually musical other half contains
  dialogue.

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• Consist of many songs and dances approximately
  5-6 songs/dances per movie. Songs are also
  5-10 minutes in length.
• In 2002 more than 1200 films were produced.
• On average Bollywood produces more than 1000
  films a year.
• Include many plots love triangles, comedy,
• and dare-devil thrills -- all are mixed up in a
• three hour long extravaganza.
• Movie soundtracks are released sometimes
• even before the movie is released.

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• Why musicals? See next slide
• Songs and dances in
• popular Indian cinema
• are used as natural
• expressions of
• everyday emotions
• and situations.
• Indian cinema does not require that its
• performers act, dance, and sing they
• must merely act and dance.

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• Why musicals? Contd
• Has always been associated with Indian culture.
• Dates back to ancient India during introduction
  of Sanskrit (first language of India).
• Song and dance have been and are still associated
  with many religions (eg. Hindu religion). (Two
  clips played from Laagan/Tax)
• Dramas or plays performed by religious members of
  such faith contained song, music, and dance.
• People would sing and dance in praise or hope of
  rain to replenish crops.
• Also associated with Punjabi culture.
• Two types of song and dance originating out of
  Punjab are Bhangra and Giddha. (Clip played from
  Asa Nu Maan Watna Da/We are proud of our
  country).
• Were performed hundreds of years ago and are
  still performed today in hope and celebration of
  a good harvest of crops.

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• Songs are sung by professional
• play-back singers that are pre-recorded and
  lip-sung by dancing actors and actresses.
• Playback singers are featured in the opening
  credits.
• Song lyrics are usually about love.
• Kissing is rarely seen within Indian films.
  Considered a taboo within Indian culture, not
  only within films but in public places. Song
  lyrics and musical underscore within film allow
  for such sexual and physical display to be
  expressed without actually having to perform it
  on screen. (Clip played from Hum Dil De Chuke
  Sanam/I have already given my heart)

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• Each movie has its own theme song.
• Dialogue and song lyrics are often in Hindustani
  vocabulary blend of Hindi and pure Urdu.
• Many elegant and poetic Arabic and Persian
  loan-words.
• Renown male playback singers K. L. Saigal,
  Kishore Kumar, Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh, and Manna
  Dey.

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• Renown female playback singers Lata Mangeshkar
  and her sister Asha Bhosle.
• Lata made the Guinness World Records for singing
  most songs Thirty-thousand

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• Music often borrowed from not only Indian
  classical, folk, and devotional music, but also
  from Japanese music (as in the film "Love in
  Tokyo"), Persian music, and from Western music.
• Film music is often set to large, Western-style
  orchestras. Musical underscore for film is
  created in the same manner as Western or
  European films.
• Instrumentalists do not get film credits.
• Instruments used to produce underscore bansuri,
  dhol, harmonium, sitar, tabla, violin, grand
  piano etc.

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Sitar
Tabla
Bansuri
Harmonium
Dhol
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BOLLYWOOD VS. HOLLYWOOD

• 1,013 FILMS PRODUCED
  739
• 3.6 bil. TICKETS SOLD
  2.6 bil.
• 1.3 bil. WORLDWIDE REVENUES
  51 bil.
• 12.6 ANNUAL GROWTH RATE
  5.6
• 1.5 mil AVG. PRODUCTION COST PER FILM
  47.7 mil.
• 500,000 AVG. MARKETING COST PER FILM
  27.3 mil.

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• Greater number of tickets sold by Bollywood
• is explained by Indias population being far
• greater than U.S.As
• Smaller revenue generated by the
• Bollywood industry in comparison to the
• Hollywood industry is a result of excessive
• piracy of Indian films.
• Low production and marketing costs of
• Bollywood films is a result or lack of
• government funding and economic turmoil
• within India.

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Finances

• Indian government is not an active supporter of
  lending out money to film companies.
• Indian banks were often forbidden to lend out
  money to film companies.
• Film companies receive financial support from
  private organizations.
• Support is still very modest compared to
  Hollywood standards.

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Highest paid Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai
25 Million Rs. (Rupees) 625,000 Cdn. year.
Highest paid Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan
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• Most expensive movie ever made Devdas(2002)
• Highest grossing film Sholay
• Contact
• For more information
• Suraj Tandon
• B.Sc.(Hons)
• tandons_at_mcmaster.ca