100 years of Indian Cinema and Bollywood

2013 is a year to cherish for the Indian film industry, as Indian and Bollywood cinema completes a glorious, memorable and transforming 100 years.

Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi film industry based in Mumbai (Bomby) Maharashtra, India.  The term is often used incorrectly to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; however it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers making films in multiple languages.  Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of the largest centers of film production in the world.

Over the years, the Livingston Public Library has built a collection of more than 500 Indian and Bollywood movies ranging from classics to modern titles.

As a tribute to the centenary of this entertainment phenomenon, the Livngston Public Library has also added a few new titles on Bollywood that shed light on the industry, its stars and glamour:

Bollywood: Gods, Glamour and Gossip, by Kush Varia, surveys this style of filmmaking; explores the history and workings of the industry. Bollywood: a Guidebook to Popular Hindi Cinema, by Tejaswini Ganti, is a guide to its cultural, social and political significance, and history of the industry. Bhaichand Patel compiled a collection that celebrates Bollywood's most enduring superstars in Bollywood's Top 20: Superstars of Indian Cinema. 

Anyone with an interest in Indian cinema and popular culture will surely enjoy The Greatest Show on Earth: Writings on Bollywood, an eclectic anthology edited by Jerry Pinto. Finally, Tejaswini Ganti gives the reader a look inside the social and professional worlds of the industry in Producing Bollywood: Inside the Contemporary Hindi Film Industry.

The Library also subscribes to film magazines like Filmfare and CineBlitz in English and Filmi Duniya in Hindi, as well as music CDs of film melodies.

Bollywood: a brief history

Raja Harishchandra, Indian cinema's first silent film, was released on 3 May 1913.  In the 100 years since, Indian films - which include Bollywood productions - have become a cinematic phenomenon watched by millions of people around the world regardless of their religion or background, with an unparalleled identity and unique storytelling style.

By the 1930s, the industry was producing over 200 films per annum. The first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Irani's Alam Ara (1931), was a major commercial success. There was clearly a huge market for talkies and musicals; Bollywood and all the regional film industries quickly switched to sound filming.

Following India's independence, the period from the late 1940s to the 1960s is regarded by film historians as the "Golden Age" of Hindi cinema.  Some of the most critically acclaimed Hindi films of all time were produced during this period. Examples include the Guru Dutt films Pyaasa (1957) and Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959) and the Raj Kapoor films Awaara (1951) and Shree 420 (1955).

While commercial Hindi cinema was thriving, the 1950s also saw the emergence of a new Parallel Cinema movement. Though the movement was mainly led by Bengali cinema, it also began gaining prominence in Hindi cinema.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, romance movies and action films starred actors like Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar and Shashi Kapoor and actresses like Sharmila Tagore, Mumtaz and Asha Parekh. In the mid-1970s, romantic confections made way for gritty, violent films about gangsters and bandits. Amitabh Bachchan, the star known for his "angry young man" roles, rode the crest of this trend with actors like Mithun Chakraborty and Anil Kapoor, which lasted into the early 1990s. Actresses from this era included Hema Malini, Jaya Bachchan and Rekha.

The 2000s saw a growth in Bollywood's popularity in the world. This led the nation's filmmaking to new heights in terms of quality, cinematography and innovative story lines as well as technical advances in areas such as special effects, animation, and so on. Some of the largest production houses, among them Yash Raj Films and Dharma Productions were the producers of new modern films.

The opening up of the overseas market, more Bollywood releases abroad and the explosion of multiplexes in big cities, led to wider box office successes in India and abroad.