More Than Bollywood: India’s Cinema History

Long movies with dances, songs, beautiful landscapes and impetuous subjects. Even on such a small set of characteristics it is easy to guess that this is an Indian cinema. The recognizable image is so firmly entrenched in the films of this country that it even turned into a stereotype, and therefore it becomes a surprise for many foreign viewers that there are far from dancing and songs in all the films.

Another stereotype: the term Bollywood, which is often called the film industry in India, means only its part, which is located in the city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay).

In fact, the geography of Indian cinema includes 16 regions in which they make films in more than 20 languages. In many ways, thanks to this diversity, the country has been able to maintain the leading position in the world ranking in the numbest of films produced annually for many decades .

The History of Cinema in British India

From the middle of the 19th century to the mid-20th century, India was a colony of Great Britain, and if the overall results of this period are quite controversial, it was to the benefit of the British in the issues of cinema under the rule of the British. It was thanks to them that India was one of the first in the world to get acquainted with the invention of the Lumiere brothers: the cinema with six films, among which were the famous “Arrival of a Train” and “Exit of Workers from a Factory”, was brought to Bombay on July 7, 1896.

The first film screening took place at the Watson Hotel and was probably organized exclusively for the British public. However, some historians suggest that wealthy people from India could attend the session.

Film screenings at Watson were repeated for several days, and then it was decided to move the cinema to a larger room – to the Novelty Theater. There, the Lumiere films were shown from July 21 to August 15.

There is no information about how many people managed to attend the sessions during this time, but it is known for sure that Indian photographer Harishchandra Sakha ram Bhatavdekar was one of them. Inspired by what he saw, he bought a video camera in England and in 1899 made the first Indian film “The Wrestler” (“Wrestler”).

Bhatavdekar was not the only Indian who was inspired by the cinema: in parallel with him, the photographer from Calcutta Halal Sen began to shoot films, and he went further and in 1899 organized the first in the history of India film company The Royal Bio scope.

The next important moment in the development of Indian cinema occurred in 1910 and began also with watching a movie in a movie theater. This time the inspiration was visited by the photographer and magician Dadasaheb Phalke when he watched The Life of Christ (1910). The biblical story that was played on the screen made the director think about national identity

The idea to make a film about Indian culture did not give Phalke peace, and so he seriously embarked on the realization of his dream: he went to London, bought equipment there, was trained by professionals, then created a small studio in India, assembled a film crew. Finally, in 1913, he released the first Indian feature film, Raja Harishchandra.