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Raja Harishchandra
The creation of of cinima as artistic expression in India dates back to 1913 when silent films were all the craze (Litt, 2021).
- Raja Harishchandra was the first Bollywood film -
Progress
During the early 1920s, there was an increase in production companies and so most movies were made during this era. The genres were mostly mythological or historical in nature. They reflected core values in India's socialist culture as well as religion (Gupta, 2022). -
The Increase
108 Bollywood films were created (Matt, 2022). -
Ardeshir Irani's Alam Ara
The first Indian feature film with sound was released. Was a huge success in the industry and became the beginning of what would be an integral part of India's culture and what they are known for. This movie was an important milestone in the creation of Indian culture (Litt, 2021). -
WWll
When WWll hit, India saw a decrease in the number of movies being produced in Bollywood. This was due to: tense social culture, limited imports of film stock, government restrictions, etc (Litt, 2021). -
The Golden Age of Hindi Cinema
Many critically acclaimed films were produced between 1940 and 1960, leading it to be labelled the golden age of hindi cinema (Matt, 2022). -
The New Wave
Bollywood went through the most significant changes. India gained independence. Many people argue this was when India's modern cinema was really born. This was when genres shifted and fans received what they demanded. These new films raised awareness and questioned social justice and corruption issues in India, reflecting its modernist and socialist culture (Litt, 2022). -
Parallel Cinema Movement
An alternative to Bollywood Cinemas was created in parallel. Films borrowed heavily from Indian literature and were in competition with popular Bollywood films from across the country (Gupta, 2022). -
Mehboob Khan's Mother India
This movie, released in 1957, was very important to Indian film culture as it was widely recognized not just in India, but around the world. Mother India was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. -
Pyaasa
The film Pyaasa was produced and contributed to Bollywood fame and was one of the films that made the time period known as the golden age (Litt, 2022). -
American Influence
American films have had a dominant influence on Indian films. Many Indian filmmakers have followed the pattern of American filmmaking and have successfully been able to make great films from inspiration (Matt, 2022). -
The Term 'Bollywood' was introduced
The emergence of Bollywood was what gave it it's an iconic name, giving it worldwide recognition. It grew to become one of the country's most independent and lucrative industry which carried not only artistic expression but political, social, and philosophical impacts (Matt, 2022). -
The emergence of the masala film genre
The masala film genre involves the combining of many one dimensional genres to create a very diverse film. Genres such as romance, action, comedy and drama are brought together (Gupta, 2022). -
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Bollywood Gains Attention
In the 1970s to 1980s, Bollywood began to be noticed by people from different countries and cultures. Grittier films began to emerge, peaking interest from Western societies (Gupta, 2022). -
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Audience
Movies became more commercialized and catered to the middle to upper class, returning to their niche audience (Litt, 2021). -
Civil Rights Niche Movies
Very few Bollywood movies catalyzed civil rights movements within the country. These are only for niche audiences (Litt, 2021). -
Culture Change
Movies begin to possess English titles with more Western themed plots. This genre is targeted at a younger audience that, due to advancements in technology, can now see the popular North American blockbusters that were previously unavailable (Matt, 2022) -
Amitabh Bachchan
Considered one of the greatest and most influential actors in the history of Indian cinema. Contributed a great deal to the development of Indian film (Matt, 2022). -
Political Affect
A downside of this collective brainwashing of the masses through films in India is that although most politically motivated movies based on true events have the relevant information available in the public domain, the depiction of the concerned incidents is often skewed and whitewashed to portray the dominant or ruling party as more powerful than their opposition (Husain, 2021). -
Boycott
Bollywood is under boycotting (Rawat, 2023)