The Beginnings
India is well ahead of any other country in film production. The first exposure to motion picture which India received was in 1896, when the six soundless short films were unveiled by Lumiere Brothers' Cinematographe at Watson Hotel, Esplanade Mansion, Bombay on July 7^th. The first Indian to expose celluloid in camera was Harishchandra Bhatvadekar. Its consequent screening took place in 1899, when he shot two short films and exhibited them under Edison's projecting Kinetoscope.

F.B. Thanawalla and Hiralal Sen were two other Indian pioneers engaged in the production of short films in Bombay and Calcutta in 1900. Around 1902, Abdullah Esoofally and J.F. Madan launched their career with Bioscope shows of imported short films. In 1912, R.G. Toney and N.G. Chitre made a silent feature film Pundalik, which was released on May 18^th. The film was half British in its make.

Dhundiraj Govind Phalke who was generally
known as Dada Saheb Phalka, holds the credit for the production of India's first fully Indigenous silent feature film Raja Harishchandra. The film heralded the birth of the Indian film industry. It was released on May 3, 1913 at the Coronation Cinema, Bombay; and had titles in Hindi and English.

The first Indian talkie Alam Ara, produced by the Imperial Film Company and directed by Ardeshir Irani was released on March 14, 1931 at the Majestic cinema in Bombay. The talkie had brought immense changes in the whole set up of the Industry. The first talkie films in Bengali; Jamai Shasthi, Telugu; Bhakta Prahlad and Tamil; Kalidasa were released in 1931.

The decade witnessed the release of the first talkie films in Marathi; Ayudhiecha Raja, Gujarati; Narasinh Mehta, Kannada; Dhurvkumar, Oriya; Sta Bibaha, Assamese; Voymati, Punjabi; Sheila and Malayalam; Balan.

The 40's
The decade of World War II and Indian Independence was a momentous one for cinematography all over India. Some memorable films were produced during the 40s such as Shantharam's Dr. Kotnis Ki amar Kahani, Mehboob's Roti, Chetan Anand's Neecha Nagar, Uday Shanker's Kalpana, Abbas's Dharti Ke Lal, Sohrb Modi's Sikander, Pukar and Pritivl Vallabh, J.B.H. Wadi's Court Dancer, S.S. Vasan's Chandralekha, Vijay Bhat's Bharat Milap and Ram Rajya, Rajkapoor's Barsaat and Aag.

Satyajit Ray & the New Indian Cinema
Satyajit Ray's classic Pather Panchali in 1955 was a crucial milestone in the Indian cinema. Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen were the founding fathers of the new cinema in India. Pather Panchali, Apu Sansar, Charulata, Jalsaghar, Saptapaty, Goopy Gyne Bagha Byne, Seemabadha, Jana Arayana, Ashani Sanket and Agantuk are some of Ray's outstanding films. He was fortunate enough to present his films in almost all the leading film festivals of the world. The national and International award won by Ray are numerous. The Oscar award for lifetime achievement was conferred to him in the hospital where he was bed ridden in the last days of his life.

The first International film Festival of India was held in 1952 at Bombay and had great impact on Indian cinema. 

From 70'S
In Bombay, a new groups of filmmakers       emerged on the Hindi cinema. Notable among them are Basu chatterji; Sara Akash, Rajinder singh Bedi; Dastak, Mani Kaul; Uski Roti, Duvidha, Kumar Shahani; Maya Darpan, Avtar kaul; 27-Down, Basu Bhattacharya; Anubhav, M.S. Sathya; Garam Hawa, Shyam Benegal; Ankur, and Kanthiial Rathod; Kanku.

The seventies' popular Hindi hits were Kamal Amrohis Pakeeja, Rajkapoor's Bobby, Devar's Haathi Mere Saathi, Ramesh Sippy's Sholay, Zanjeer, Deewar, Yaadon Ki Baarat, Kabhi Kabhi, Dharamveer, Amar Akbar Antony, Hum Kisise Kum Nahin, Muquaddar Ka Sikandar. The late 80's and early 90s saw the revival of the musical love stories in Hindi Cinema like Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak, Chandini, Hum Aapke Hai Kaun etc. Mira Nair, the young woman director, won the Golden Camera award at Cannes for her first film Salam Bombay in 1989.

Some of the notable commercial and sensitive films of the 1996 were Roja, Darr, Hum Ap Ke Hai kaun, Bombay, Dilwale Dulhaniya Lejayenge, Kalapani, Rangeela, Kathapurushan, Manichitrathazhu, Indian (Hindustani), Agnisakshi and Khamoshi - the Musical. 1999 and 1998 have witnessed a number of worth watching films. Dil Tho Pagal Hay, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai have carved a niche of Shah Rukh Khan for the common Indian cine goers. Sathya, Kaun have tried to set the trend out of tune for the better of the standards.

Shabana Azmi's Godmother, Raja Sen's Amiyo Swajan, Rituparno Ghosh's Asukh, Murali Nair's Maranasimhasanam and Deepa Mehat's 1947- Earth are some of the excellent films of late 90's.

Regional Languages
Down in the South, the New Wave cinema originated in Karnataka and Kerala. Pattabhi Rama Reddy's Samskara (1970) and Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Swayamvaram (1972) were the trendsetters in Kannada and Malayalam respectively. The New Wave masters of Kerala, Adoor and Aravindan, consolidated their position in the eighties with their films Elippathayam, Mukha Mukham, Anantharam of the former and Esthappan, Pokkuveyil, Chidambaram, and Oridath of the latter.

Shaji N. Karun's maiden film Piravi (1988) bagged several national and International awards and was shown in many International film festivals. His latest film Vanaprastham, was screened in Cannes Film festival and is also one of the few Indian films to have commercial release in Europe.

Tamil & Telugu forms the next significant production centers of Indian cinema other than Hindi, in turns of numbers. The southern films have a distinct character and audience of its own.

The other Indian Languages; Punjabi, Gujarathi, Marathi, Assamese and Oriya too have a strong heritage in film making with regional appeal. From Bengal, Orissa, Assam and Manipur came films like Tahader Katha, Bagh Bahadur, Charachar, Uttoran, Wheel Chair, Unnishe April, Adi Mimansa, Lalvanya Preethi, Nirbachana, Halodhia Choraya Baodhan Khai, Firingoti, Haladhar, and Ishanou.

From Tamil and Telugu cinema, there came Anjali, Roja and Bombay (Mani Ratnam), Marupakkam and Nammavar (Sethumadhavan), Karuthamma (Bharathi Raja), Dasi and Surigadu (Dasari Narayana Rao), etc.

Top