The Birth of Bollywood
Origins of the world’s biggest movie industry explained
At the dawn of the 21st century, India was producing nearly 1,000 films a year, in a variety of languages and for a global fanbase. The term Bollywood no doubt conjures images of colourful musical numbers, lavish escapist action sequences and glamorous stars. Yet Bollywood has a long tradition and history within India, much of which has been defined by the country’s own changes and conflicts. This gives Bollywood productions a distinct and unique flavour, far removed from the more typical American and British releases that usually fill the screens at multiplexes. The term Bollywood refers primarily to the Mumbai film industry, which caters to a Hindi speaking audience yet, to Western audiences, the term has been used to refer to Indian cinema as a whole. Stretching back to the dawn of the 20th century and the era of silent film, Bollywood’s story is as striking and engaging as those of the films it produces. While it would be impossible to cover the entire history of the industry, the tropes and trends, the highs and lows, form a distinct narrative that reflects the changing tastes of Indian audiences.
The first full-length Bollywood production was created in 1913 when India was still under British rule. The film, Raja Harishchandra, was written, directed, produced and even distributed by Dadasaheb Phalke, now considered to be the father of Indian cinema. Based on Hindu mythology, the film was originally given a trial showing for leading citizens before being put on a much wider release. The success of Raja Harishchandra opened the doors for a new wave of Indian silent films and Phalke himself would follow it with Mohini Bhasmasur, perhaps just as important for featuring a female lead when acting was deemed a taboo profession for women. Phalke was also the first Indian filmmaker to export his films and took three productions to London for a trade show, where they won foreign acclaim. The director would create other
masterpieces such as 1917’s Lanka Dahan, which was such a huge hit that cinemas were forced to begin screening the film at 7am in order to meet demand. Several other companies were formed and they capitalised on Phalke’s success, producing a slew of similarly themed mythological epics. So why was early Indian cinema obsessed with films on the topic of Hindu myths and legends? As the Encyclopedia of Hindi Cinema explains: “Politicalnationalist topics would have been taboo under British rule. Even contemporary subjects might have been resented in those orthodox times, that too in a new medium which was considered cheap, vulgar and socially unacceptable.”
Despite their popularity, many of these silent films were still relatively low-budget and amateurish productions, particularly when compared to German films from the same era such as The Cabinet of Dr Caligari and Metropolis. These early Bollywood films were not without merit and are historically important, but were arguably lacking the visual refinement and elegance that defined these European works. The man who would be credited with bringing technical sophistication to Indian cinema was Himanshu Rai. Born into a wealthy Bengal family in 1892 in Cuttack, Rai sought the advice of European filmmakers in an attempt to improve the quality of Indian productions. Subsequently, Rai would be the man behind one India’s first big budget productions: Prem Sanyas (The Light of Asia) in 1925. Featuring an entirely Indian cast, including Rai himself in the role of Gautama Buddha, the film was co-produced with Emelka Studios in Munich, Germany, after Rai’s attempts to convince British film studios fell through. He would follow this with a number of other co-productions with UFA, the studio behind the aforementioned German classics.
One of the most renowned traits of Bollywood productions is the sensational song and dance numbers featured in the majority of films, even movies such as 1962’s Bees Saal Baad – ostensibly a moody gothic mystery thriller. This trait began in the early 1930s as Indian filmmakers began to experiment with the new technology of sound. As Rajay Vijayakar explains in his paper The Role of a Song in a Hindi Film, songs were incorporated into the early talkie films as “in a country accustomed to folk and classical music (with huge diversities across state and language), the audiences now got to hear their simpler, hum-worthy variants in the movies. Hence film songs became instantly popular”. He then goes on to state that, in a world where a film with sound was not an immediate guaranteed success, “the savvier filmmakers decided that songs were the way to box office acceptability”. The decision to incorporate songs proved hugely successful, and some of the first recording studios in India grew out of the desire of audience members to repeatedly listen to actors sing songs from
their favourite films. While many elements of Bollywood film production have changed, the inclusion of song and dance remains. Over the years this tradition of film songs, which began with actors singing them ‘live’ and often with very few dancers or supporting acts, has grown in sophistication. Now the songs are often released ahead of films and are an integral part of the viewing experience.
In the 1940s further changes were to come, but not just to the film industry. India itself was about to undergo arguably the single most important event in its own recent history. In 1947 the British, after 300 years of colonial rule, withdrew from India. Under the Indian Independence Act the country was split into two, Pakistan and India, each a new and separate dominion with the intention of purposefully segregating the Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities. What resulted would be the biggest forced migration in recent times that was not the result of war or famine. For Bollywood, 1947 would prove to be just as important cinematically as it was politically. The most popular and highest-grossing film that year was Jugnu, a musical romance about class divide that shows the industry’s lack of desire to confront the issue of partition. The same year also saw legends such as actor, producer and director Raj Kapoor and actress Madhubala make their debuts within the Indian film industry with the release of Neel Kamal. Kapoor would later become one of India’s biggest stars, his work with the actress Nargis in films such as Andaz defining them as one of the country’s biggest acting duos.
One of the most important films following partition was Mother India from 1957, which since its debut has become a national classic, re-released numerous times. Taking its name from the controversial 1927 polemical book by US historian Katherine Mayo, which argued against Indian self-rule, the film was a fierce rebuke of the arguments stated within Mayo’s work. The book has been described by the actress and author Sushmita Mukherjee as having “contained sensational material on child marriages and child brides. No wonder it was celebrated by Imperialists and condemned by Nationalists”. Filmmaker Mehboob
Khan saw a chance to remake his earlier work, Aurat, as a distinctly patriotic and nationalist production that purposefully used the book’s title in a satirical manner. The film also set out to promote the empowerment of women within India in a way that directly contradicted the claims in Mayo’s book. The film Mother India tells the story of Radha, a poor mother who faces a variety of obstacles as she struggles to raise her sons. Despite the various trials and tribulations, Radha never loses her integrity. Gayatri Chatterjee, the author of a BFI Film Classics book analysing Mother India, stated of the film’s enduring popularity: “From 1958, for more than 40 years, every day between nine in the morning and midnight, one could stand still, close one’s eyes and say to oneself, ‘Mother India is playing somewhere in India.’”
It was in the 1960s and 1970s that many of the traits that now define modern Bollywood cinema truly began. While there were more artistically minded productions, it was genre cinema and all-around entertainment that became the order of the day. One of the directors who made a name during this period
“One of the most renowned traits of Bollywood productions is their sensational song and dance numbers”
was Vijay Anand, whose neo-noir and Hitchcockian thrillers such as Teesri
Manzil (The Third Floor) from 1966 and Jewel Thief from 1967 became huge hits at the box office. Bees Saal Baad from
1962 was a gothic thriller, based on the
Sir Arthur Conan Doyle novel The Hound of the Baskervilles, which became the highest-grossing film of that year. It was so successful that the director, Biren Nag, would follow it with Kohraa, a Bollywood take on Rebecca using mostly the same cast and crew. There were also huge Bollywood blockbusters such as 1960’s Mughal-e-azam, a historical drama that has been described by filmmaker Anil Zankar as “one of the great Indian film epics, a phenomenon”. Waqt (1965) was a romantic drama film that starred some of Indian cinema’s biggest names, including Balraj Sahni, Raaj Kumar and Sharmila Tagore among numerous others. The film told the story of two siblings who were separated at birth and then found themselves throughout the course of the film, a trope that would become a hallmark of many Bollywood productions. The film was the first example of the distinctive cinematic style of its director, Yash Chopra, which was defined by picturesque locations and a large dose of glitz and glamour.
Perhaps one of the most surprising genres that originated during this period is the unfortunately named ‘Curry Western’. First appearing in the late 1960s, these films were a response to the Italian lowbudget (and equally ill-named) ‘Spaghetti Westerns’. These films, such as Sergio Leone’s ‘Dollars’ trilogy starring Clint Eastwood (comprising 1964’s A Fistful of Dollars, 1965’s For a Few Dollars More and 1966’s The Good, the Bad and the Ugly), and 1966’s Django, became incredibly popular upon release in India. Seeking to capitalise on the success of these imported productions with homegrown affairs, Indian producers scrambled to create their own unique twist on the most typical of American film genres. Perhaps the most noteworthy of these early ‘Curry Westerns’ is 1975’s Sholay, which has become one of the all-time greats of Bollywood cinema. In the film, a pair of prisoners are hired by a local landlord to rid him of a group of dacoits (a term for a group of armed bandits). The breakout character of the film was Gabbar Singh, the villain of the piece, portrayed memorably by Amjad Khan and made to resemble Gian Maria Volontè, who played the villain in the aforementioned Leone films. So popular were Singh’s unique mannerisms and delivery that he became a Bollywood icon – even having a 2012 film named after him. Such was the success of Sholay that author William van der Heide, when discussing the ‘Curry Western’, stated that since its release “mercenaries and vigilantes have remained the dominant protagonists of Indian popular cinema”.
It was also during the 1970s that a new and still-popular Bollywood genre was created, that of the Masala film. Describing the origins of the style, author Martha P Nochimson states: “Masala is a premixed blend of spices that Indians use to flavour foods. Critics faced with the amazing patchwork of action, comedy, and tragedy in the action films of the 1970s compared them to that well-known Indian combination of spices.” Although it has been suggested that the form existed in Tamil cinema since the early 1950s, most critics attribute it to producer, director and writer Nasir Hussain. His 1973 work, Yaadon Ki Baaraat, is still considered to be the definitive Masala film. Utilising
“Perhaps the most early noteworthy of these 1975’s ‘Curry Westerns’ is Sholay, which has become greats one of the all-time of Bollywood cinema”
the popular long-lost brothers trope made fashionable by Waqt, Yaadon Ki Baaraat follows three brothers who seek both each other and the man who killed their parents. Another director, Manmohan Desai would take the template established in Yaadon Ki Baaraat and make a number of successful blockbusters such as Amar, Akbar and Anthony (1977), Parvarish (1977), Naseeb (1981) and Coolie (1983). Amar, Akbar and Anthony in particular was one of the highest-grossing films of the decade and starred many of Bollywood’s biggest names. When asked about his approach to making films, Desai spoke openly of his desire to give audiences escapism. “I want people to forget their misery,” he said. “I want to take them into a dream world where there is no poverty, where there are no beggars, where fate is kind and god is busy looking after his flock.”
It now seems appropriate to mention one of the other defining traits of Bollywood cinema. To those perhaps more familiar with Western movies, where the average film rarely goes over the 120-minute mark, the runtimes of some Bollywood productions might seem a little on the long side. For example, crime drama Deewar from 1975 has a runtime of two hours and 58 minutes; Amar, Akbar and Anthony runs at three hours and five minutes; and 1965’s classic Waqt is three hours and 26 minutes. For many years an intermission halfway through the film, allowing audience members to take a break and stretch their legs, has remained a common trait. While the length of these films might seem eye-watering for those of us with slightly shorter attention spans, there are numerous reasons for Bollywood’s longer runtimes. Mostly it’s because a large amount of the movie is taken up by the song and dance numbers. For example, a two hour 30 minute Bollywood production might have 45 minutes of song numbers, resulting in an overall runtime of one hour and 45 minutes – no longer than the average Western production.
Following what is considered a relative high point in the 1970s, the Bollywood productions of the 1980s and 1990s were more divisive, with a 2020 Indian Express article stating that: “Most critics generally brush off the 1980s as a ‘Low Point’ in Hindi cinema.” Yet these decades still have their interesting productions, including a big-budget 1980 Soviet co-production based on Alibaba and the Forty Thieves that proved to be a success in both countries. Meanwhile, Mahakaal from 1994 has become an established cult horror film, even receiving a DVD release in the United States due to its similarities to Wes Craven’s 1986 film A Nightmare on Elm Street. Other film genres, such as the aforementioned Masala movies, continued to grow in popularity and became staples of the Bollywood industry, created some of its most iconic moments.
Today the Bollywood industry continues to entertain, with a huge number of films produced across a variety of genres. For any individual looking to dive into the magical world of Bollywood cinema, there are a huge number of movies to choose from. So what are you waiting for? Plan your snack breaks around the intermissions, get your dance moves ready for all the catchy songs, and settle in for a wild ride.