The cinema of India, consisting of motion pictures made by the Indian film industry, has had a large effect on world cinema since the second half of the 20th century. India does not have a single national film industry for any particular language; instead, Indian cinema is made up of various film industries, each focused on producing films in a specific language, such as Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Assamese, Odia and others.
Major centres of film production across the country include Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Kochi, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack, and Guwahati. For a number of years, the Indian film industry has ranked first in the world in terms of annual film output. In 2024, Indian cinema earned ($1.36 billion) at the Indian box-office. Ramoji Film City located in Hyderabad is certified by the Guinness World Records as the largest film studio complex in the world measuring over 1,666 acres (674 ha).
Indian cinema is composed of multilingual and multi-ethnic film art. The term 'Bollywood', often mistakenly used to refer to Indian cinema as a whole, specifically denotes the Hindi-language film industry. Indian cinema, however, is an umbrella term encompassing multiple film industries, each producing films in its respective language and showcasing unique cultural and stylistic elements.
In 2021, Telugu cinema emerged as the largest film industry in India in terms of box office. In 2022, Hindi cinema represented 33% of box office revenue, followed by Telugu representing 20%, Tamil representing 16%, Kannada representing 8%, Malayalam representing 6%, and Marathi representing 3%, with Punjabi, Bengali and Gujarati film industries representing 1% each based on revenue. As of 2022, the combined revenue of South Indian film industries has surpassed that of the Mumbai-based Hindi-language film industry (Bollywood). As of 2022, Telugu cinema leads Indian cinema with 23.3 crore (233 million) tickets sold, followed by Tamil cinema with 20.5 crore (205 million) and Hindi cinema with 18.9 crore (189 million).
Indian cinema is a global enterprise,Khanna, 155 and its films have attracted international attention and acclaim throughout South Asia.Khanna, 158 Since talkies began in 1931, Hindi cinema has led in terms of box office performance, but in recent years it has faced stiff competition from Telugu cinema. Overseas Indians account for 12% of the industry's revenue.Potts, 74
History
The history of cinema in India extends to the beginning of the film era. Following the public screening of the Lumière brothers' and Robert Paul's moving pictures in London in late 1895 and early 1896, respectively, commercial cinematography became a worldwide sensation and these films were shown in Bombay (now Mumbai) that same year.Burra & Rao, 252
Silent era (1890s–1920s) From 1913 to 1931, all the movies made in India were silent films, which had no sound and had intertitles. History of Indian cinema In 1913, Dadasaheb Phalke released Raja Harishchandra (1913) in Bombay, the first film made in India. It was a silent film incorporating English, Marathi, and Hindi intertitles. Films steadily gained popularity across India as affordable entertainment for the masses (admission as low as an anna [one-sixteenth of a rupee] in Bombay). Young producers began to incorporate elements of Indian social life and culture into cinema, others brought new ideas from across the world. Global audiences and markets soon became aware of India's film industry.Burra & Rao, 252–253
In 1927, the British government, to promote the market in India for British films over American ones, formed the Indian Cinematograph Enquiry Committee. This committee failed to support the intended recommendations for promoting British film, instead recommending support for the fledgling Indian film industry. As a result, their suggestions were set aside.
Sound era The first Indian sound film was Alam Ara (1931) made by Ardeshir Irani.Burra & Rao, 253
The first film studio in South India, Durga Cinetone, was built in 1936 by Nidamarthi Surayya in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh. The advent of sound to Indian cinema launched musicals such as Indra Sabha and Devi Devyani, marking the beginning of song-and-dance in Indian films. By 1935, studios emerged in major cities such as Madras, Calcutta and Bombay as filmmaking became an established industry, exemplified by the success of Devdas (1935).Burra & Rao, 254 The first colour film made in India was Kisan Kanya (1937, Moti B).
Swamikannu Vincent, who had built the first cinema of South India in Coimbatore, introduced the concept of "tent cinema" in which a tent was erected on a stretch of open land to screen films. The first of its kind was in Madras and was called Edison's Grand Cinema Megaphone, named for the electric carbons used in motion picture projectors. Bombay Talkies opened in 1934 and Prabhat Studios in Pune began production of Marathi films. However, while Indian filmmakers sought to tell important stories, the British Raj banned Wrath (1930) and Raithu Bidda (1938) for broaching the subject of the Indian independence movement.
The Indian Masala film—a term used for mixed-genre films that combined song, dance, romance, etc.—arose following the Second World War. During the 1940s, cinema in South India accounted for nearly half of India's cinema halls, and cinema came to be viewed as an instrument of cultural revival. The Indian People's Theatre Association (IPTA), an art movement with a communist inclination, began to take shape through the 1940s and the 1950s.Rajadhyaksa, 679 IPTA plays, such as Nabanna (1944), prepared the ground for realism in Indian cinema, as seen in the films Mother India (1957) and Pyaasa (1957), among India's most recognisable cinematic productions.Rajadhyaksa, 681
Following independence, the 1947 partition of India divided the nation's assets and a number of studios moved to Pakistan. Partition became an enduring film subject thereafter. The Indian government had established a Films Division by 1948, which eventually became one of the world's largest documentary film producers.Rajadhyaksa, 681–683
Golden Age (late 1940s–1960s)
The period from the late 1940s to the early 1960s is regarded by film historians as the Golden Age of Indian cinema. This period saw the emergence of the parallel cinema movement, which emphasised social realism. Mainly led by Bengalis, it laid the foundations for Indian neorealism.
The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959, Satyajit Ray) won prizes at several major international film festivals and firmly established the parallel cinema movement.Rajadhyaksa, 683 It was influential on world cinema and led to a rush of coming-of-age films in art house theatres.
During the 1950s, Indian cinema reportedly became the world's second largest film industry, earning a gross annual income of in 1953. The government created the Film Finance Corporation (FFC) in 1960 to provide financial support to filmmakers.Rajadhyaksa, 684 While serving as Information and Broadcasting Minister of India in the 1960s, Indira Gandhi supported the production of off-beat cinema through the FFC. Commercial Hindi cinema began thriving, including acclaimed films Pyaasa (1957) and Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959, Guru Dutt) Awaara (1951) and Shree 420 (1955, Raj Kapoor). These films expressed social themes mainly dealing with working-class urban life in India.
Epic film Mother India (1957, Mehboob Khan) was the first Indian film to be nominated for the US-based Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film and defined the conventions of Hindi cinema for decades. It spawned a new genre of dacoit films. Gunga Jumna (1961, Dilip Kumar) was a dacoit crime drama about two brothers on opposite sides of the law, a theme that became common in Indian films in the 1970s.
Actor Dilip Kumar rose to fame in the 1950s, and was the biggest Indian movie star of the time. He was a pioneer of method acting, predating Hollywood method actors such as Marlon Brando. Much like Brando's influence on New Hollywood actors, Kumar inspired Hindi actors, including Amitabh Bachchan, Naseeruddin Shah, Shah Rukh Khan and Nawazuddin Siddiqui.
1970s–present By 1986, India's annual film output had increased to 833 films annually, making India the world's largest film producer. Hindi film production of Bombay, the largest segment of the industry, became known as "Bollywood".
By 1996, the Indian film industry had an estimated domestic cinema viewership of 600million people, establishing India as one of the largest film markets, with the largest regional industries being Hindi, Telugu, and Tamil films. In 2001, in terms of ticket sales, Indian cinema sold an estimated 3.6 billion tickets annually across the globe, compared to Hollywood's 2.6 billion tickets sold.
Hindi Realistic parallel cinema continued throughout the 1970s,Rajadhyaksa, 685 practised in many Indian film cultures. The FFC's art film orientation came under criticism during a Committee on Public Undertakings investigation in 1976, which accused the body of not doing enough to encourage commercial cinema.Rajadhyaksa, 688
Hindi commercial cinema continued with films starring Rajesh Khanna such as Aradhana (1969), Sachaa Jhutha (1970), Haathi Mere Saathi (1971), Anand (1971), Kati Patang (1971), Amar Prem (1972), Dushman (1972) and Daag (1973).
By the early 1970s, Hindi cinema was experiencing thematic stagnation, dominated by musical romance films. Screenwriter duo Salim–Javed (Salim Khan and Javed Akhtar) revitalised the industry. Their work led to the "angry young man" film movement, with the gritty, violent, Bombay underworld crime films Zanjeer (1973) and Deewaar (1975). They reinterpreted the rural themes of Mother India and Gunga Jumna in an urban context reflecting 1970s India, channelling the growing discontent and disillusionment among the masses, unprecedented growth of slums and urban poverty, corruption and crime, as well as anti-establishment themes. This resulted in their creation of the "angry young man", personified by Amitabh Bachchan, who reinterpreted Kumar's performance in Gunga Jumna and gave a voice to the urban poor. The women on the other hand were shown as ones who have adopted western values and outfits especially by heroines like Parveen Babi (who was featured on the cover of Time magazine for a story on Bollywood's success) and Zeenat Aman.
By the mid-1970s, Bachchan's position as a lead actor was solidified by crime-action films Zanjeer and Sholay (1975). The devotional classic Jai Santoshi Ma (1975) was made on a low budget and became a box office success and a cult classic. Another important film was Deewaar (1975, Yash Chopra), a crime film with brothers on opposite sides of the law which Danny Boyle described as "absolutely key to Indian cinema".
The term "Bollywood" was coined in the 1970s, when the conventions of commercial Bombay-produced Hindi films were established. Key to this was masala film genre, which combines elements of action, comedy, romance, drama, melodrama and musical. Their film Yaadon Ki Baarat (1973) has been identified as the first masala film and the first quintessentially Bollywood film.Kaushik Bhaumik, An Insightful Reading of Our Many Indian Identities, The Wire, 12 March 2016 Masala films made Bachchan the biggest Bollywood movie star of the period. Another landmark was Amar Akbar Anthony (1977, Manmohan Desai). Desai further expanded the genre in the 1970s and 1980s.
Commercial Hindi cinema grew in the 1980s, with films such as Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981), Disco Dancer (1982), Himmatwala (1983), Tohfa (1984), Naam (1986), Mr India (1987), and Tezaab (1988).