Bollywood – The home of cinema
Bollywood means Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India. It is considered to be the largest in the world in terms of number of films produced. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the Indian film industry. Bollywood is generally referred to as Hindi cinema. There has been a growing presence of Indian English in dialogue and songs as well. It is not uncommon to see films that feature dialogue with English words and phrases, or even whole sentences.
The term “Bollywood” has origins in the 1970s, when India overtook America as the world’s largest film producer. The name was created by conflating Bombay (the former name for Mumbai) and Hollywood, the center of the American film industry. However, unlike Hollywood, Bollywood does not exist as a physical place. Though some deplore the name, arguing that it makes the industry look like a poor cousin to Hollywood, it has its own entry in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Background of Bollywood
First Silent movie of Bollywood
Raja Harishchandra (1913), by Dadasaheb Phalke, was the first silent feature film made in India. It was a major commercial success. By the 1930s, the industry was producing over 200 films per annum.
First Bollywood sound movie
The first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Irani’s Alam Ara (1931), was a major commercial success. The 1930s and 1940s were tumultuous times: India was buffeted by the Great Depression, World War II, the Indian independence movement, and the violence of the Partition. Most Bollywood films were unabashedly escapist, but there were also a number of filmmakers who tackled tough social issues, or used the struggle for Indian independence as a backdrop for their plots.
First Color Movie of Bollywood
In 1937, Ardeshir Irani, of Alam Ara fame, made the first colour film in Hindi, Kisan Kanya. The next year, he made another colour film, Mother India. However, colour did not become a popular feature until the late 1950s. At this time, lavish romantic musicals and melodramas were the staple fare at the cinema.
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