In the initial years, the Lumiere shows were held in makeshift tents constructed on playground or any other open space, small halls of institutes like the Faramji Cawasji Institute at Dhobi Talao or in the hastily converted stage theatres like the Novelty or the Gaiety (now Capitol). The more elite of these shows were held at the Watson’s Hotel and sometimes even in the imposing premises of the Town Hall. Thus began what was later to become a flourishing exhibition trade. This extraordinary visual medium took its first major step on May 3, 1913 when Dhundiraj Covind alias Dadasaheb Phalke made the first full length film ‘Raja Harishchandra’. He valiantly struggled against all odds since 1910 when he had seen ‘The Life of Christ’ and decided to take up the movie business as his profession. After eighty years of service in educating and entertaining people, the film industry has been recently given the status of an ‘industry’. Over the last hundred years, cinema has also created legends in their own lifetime.
The studio era of cinema can definitely be called the golden period of the fledgling medium in the country. New Theatres, Prabhat and Bombay Talkies, Ranjit Studios were among the four great institutions of the studio era. A new history dawned in the Indian film industry with the first talkie Alam Ara released on March 14, 1931 at Mumbai’s Majestic cinema. The film was made by Imperial Studio’s Ardeshir Irani and was based on a popular Persian play of the same name. Master Vithal and Zubeida were the lead actors and Prithiviraj Kapoor was the villain. Era of playback singing in films started in 1935 AD. K.L. Saigal was the singing superstar of the 30’s and 40’s and became extremely popular for his songs like Ghum diye mushtaqil, and Dukh ke ab din. Each number was a new elegy to the death of the romantic dream.
The legendary beauty Devika Rani was the first lady of Indian Cinema. Karma (1933), Achhut Kanya (1936) catapulted her to great fame and later she took reins of the Bombay Talkies studio to become the first and the only female studio chief ever in Mumbai.
Indian film industry over the years has continued to rise phenomenally with Mumbai emerging as the main center of film production activity. Hindi films became extremely popular and till date act as the cultural ambassador of the country abroad. The Hindi cinema has given to its lover, singing sensations Noorjehan and Suraiya, singing legends like Lata Mangeshkar, Geeta Dutt, Asha Bhonsale, actresses of substance—Nargis, Madhubala, Meena Kumari, Geeta Bali, Nutan, Waheeda Rehman, film makers who endeared Hindi films to the cinegoers, Mehboob Khan, B.R. Chopra, K. Asif, Sasadhar Mukherji, Bimal Roy, Guru Dutt, Raj Kapoor and V. Shantaram. Music directors like Naushad, Shankar Jaikishan, S.D. Burman and singers with golden voice, Mohammed Rafi, Mukesh and Kishore Kumar brought music in cinema alive.
A host of talented artistes later made their vow to carry the torch of spreading the movement of cinema in the country. Music directors Laxmikant Pyarelal, R.D. Burman, film makers Yash Chopra, actors like Dharmendra, Manoj Kumar, Sunil Dutt and later the superstardom elevated Rajesh Khanna and Amitabh Bachchan to dizzy heights of name and fame. Aamir Khan, Shahrukh Khan and other actors are true inheritors of their legacy. Actresses Sharmila Tagore, Hema Malini, Rekha, Sri Devi, Madhuri Dixit won admiration of the classes as well as the masses. Besides the popular cinema, the art cinema also flourished with Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Gulzar leading the movement and artistes like Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Om Puri, Naseerudin Shah coming into prominence. The dream factory of India will continue to churn out new dreams for the people. And Mumbaikars will always be the first to witness them.
Mumbaikar cine-goers are the craziest of their kind in the world. You can find them queuing up outside the cinema halls even at 8 AM in the morning! They decide the fate of any new Bollywood blockbuster. If they like the ‘masala’ in it then there are craziest of them who watch a single movie as many as twenty five times. Legendary film Sholay staring Sanjeev Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra had a successful run for continuous four years at the Minerva talkies (now no more) in Mumbai. Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge broke this record by successfully running for more than 300 weeks (more than six years) in the historical Hindmata Theatre, again, in Mumbai.
Now owing to the changing mindset and tastes of the audience, sequels to successful Hindi films seems to be the new mantra for Bollywood despite the fact that filmmakers had burnt their fingers in the past for similar attempts. Filmmakers do not get a chance to make sequels since countless replicas; killing the audience interest and leaving very little chance of making a good sequel follow one hit film. The example is of Hum Aapke Hain Kaun a hugely successful film by the Rajshri Productions, directed by the immensely talented Sooraj Barjatya. The success of the story led to 20-25 other films exploring the same theme of joint families and Indian traditions, and the sacchrine sweet subject was chewed to bitterness. Five years down the line every filmmaker from Subhash Ghai to Satish Kaushik resorted to making family dramas leading to an exodus. Eventually, when Sooraj released his second film on the same subject, Hum Saath Saath Hain, it was a resounding flop.
Today the entertainment industry in Mumbai (including viz. films, television, cable TV, television software, music cassettes and CDs and radio) is trying to cross the sky. It is a huge industry in which almost five million people work in it directly or indirectly. As for film production India ranks next to US. In all eight films are churned out every year. They include 250 in Hindi, 200 each in Tamil and Telugu and 150 in other languages. The average expenditure for a Hindi film is 5 crore rupees. In the year 2000, 412 Indian movies were exported entailing a revenue of 45 crore. The rights for TV telecast, music etc fetch separate fortunes for each film. Thus the Bollywood entertains and also mesmerizes you, creates a dream city around you and forces you to forget the reality, at least for a while.
Now numbers of Hindi blockbuster and masala films are shot in foreign locations thus helping the tourism industry. People of Indian Origin are scattered all over the globe and they like to watch Hindi and other language films. Especially countries like Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Maldives (having historical relations with India) provide a big market for Hindi films. No wonder then various countries try to woo Indian film producers from Bollywood for shooting their films (at least the song sequences) on exotic locations in their region. Thus Bollywood films are being regarded as the biggest media to attract tourists.
Indians leading in IT revolution in the Silicon Valley of US are also attracted towards this lucrative entertainment industry centered in Mumbai with the latest technique of Imax. The Imax technique makes the picture deep and big and thus takes the viewer more close to reality. The half¬circular screen in such Imax theatres can make any period film look contemporary. One such Imax theatre was started at Wadala in Mumbai, which is the first in India and largest in the world. Hopefully these technical marvels will help to keep the viewer glued to the theatre screen in the era of video-piracy. Otherwise the Bambayya Hindi films are fast losing their contents and objectives. In the absence of visionary producers, creative directors and commanding writers, the average Bollywood films are simply borrowing the ideas from western movies. Twenty years hence we will have very few milestones to remember like Lagaan and Gadar.
Speaking on Bollywood would remain incomplete without offering a tribute to the Superstar of the Millennium, Amitabh Harivanshrai Bachchan and the Mangeshkar sisters. Much of Bachchan’s popularity emerges from his ability to transgress all forms of class barriers, or rather incorporate bits and pieces of every class through his own style and substance. A career spanning more than three decades had not been smooth sailing for Amitabh who says that his father’s mantras had fashioned his entire outlook towards life and helped him cross the turbulent waters. After his initial films sank without a trace, the gawky young man could very well have gone home. But he chose to stay on and inspired by his father’s mantra rewrote cinematic history with his angry, rebellious and larger-than-life image in ‘Zanzeer’ (1973) and many other films including the legendary ‘Sholay’. In astounding hit after hit, he continued with the ‘angry young man’ image, extending its possibilities, assimilating new genres like comedy and dance and the slow burn filament metamorphosed into the one-man industry who earned awards galore, honours and immortality in wax at Madam Tussaud’s Museum in London. This great superstar reinvented himself in a new avatar as the anchor of serialized game show Kauri Banega Crorepati and became a success story on the small screen as well.
Lata and Asha Mangeshkar do not need any introduction as they introduced themselves in every Indian home more than seventy years ago with their gifted voices and versatility in singing in almost every recordable Indian language! Till date these are the only two female playback singers who have been awarded the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke Award for their contribution to music in the Bollywood. Each of them has more than 12,000 songs in at least 18 languages and non-film musicals to their credit and it is difficult to believe that they are able to sing with equal finesse for film artistes who are less than half their age, as well as older heroines. Especially Asha sings pop with the same elan with which she renders devotional songs and bhajans. The sensuality in her voice mysteriously disappears when she renders an emotional and sad song. And her smile remains as endearing as it was more than half century ago!