Bollywood

Fox Star Studios Eros International Reliance Big Pictures UTV Motion Pictures Yash Raj Films Dharma Productions Red Chillies Entertainment Tips Music Films Viacom 18 Motion Pictures Excel Entertainment Zee Studios Hindi cinema , often known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema , is the Indian Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). The term is a portmanteau of "Bombay" and "Hollywood". The industry is related to Cinema of South India and other Indian film industries, making up Indian Cinema—the world's largest by number of feature films produced. In 2017, Indian cinema produced 1,986 feature films, with Bollywood as its largest filmmaker, producing 364 Hindi films the same year. Bollywood represents 43 percent of Indian net box-office revenue; Tamil and Telugu cinema represent 36 percent, and the remaining regional cinema constituted 21 percent in 2014. Bollywood is one of the largest centres of film production in the w...

"Bollywood" is a portmanteau derived from Bombay (the former name for Mumbai) and Hollywood, California, the centre of the American film industry. Unlike Hollywood, Bollywood is not a physical place; its name is criticised by some film journalists and critics, who believe it implies that the industry is a poor cousin of Hollywood. According to OxfordDictionaries.com, the word "Bollywood" originated during the 1970s, when Indian cinema overtook Hollywood in film production. A number of journalists have been credited by newspapers with coining the word. According to a 2004 article in The Hindu , journalist Bevinda Collaco coined the word; a Telegraph article the following year report that Amit Khanna was its creator. According to Madhava Prasad, author of Surviving Bollywood , the term "Bollywood" was preceded by "Tollywood", which then referred to the cinema of West Bengal. The Bengali film industry, based in Tollygunge, Calcutta, was referred to...

It has been suggested that this section be split out into another article titled History of Indian cinema . (Discuss) (April 2019) Early history (1890s–1940s) In 1897, a film presentation by Professor Stevenson featured a stage show at Calcutta's Star Theatre. With Stevenson's encouragement and camera, Hiralal Sen, an Indian photographer, made a film of scenes from that show, The Flower of Persia (1898). The Wrestlers (1899) by H. S. Bhatavdekar showed a wrestling match at the Hanging Gardens in Bombay. Dadasaheb Phalke's silent Raja Harishchandra (1913) is the first feature film made in India. By the 1930s, the industry was producing over 200 films per year. The first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Irani's Alam Ara (1931), was commercially successful. With a great demand for talkies and musicals, Bollywood and the other regional film industries quickly switched to sound films. Challenges and Market Expansion (1930s-1940s) The 1930s and 1940s were tumultuous times; In...

Moti Gokulsing and Wimal Dissanayake identify six major influences which have shaped Indian popular cinema: The branching structures of ancient Indian epics, like the Mahabharata and Ramayana . Indian popular films often have plots which branch off into sub-plots. Ancient Sanskrit drama, with its stylised nature and emphasis on spectacle in which music, dance and gesture combine "to create a vibrant artistic unit with dance and mime being central to the dramatic experience." Matthew Jones of De Montfort University also identifies the Sanskrit concept of rasa , or "the emotions felt by the audience as a result of the actor’s presentation", as crucial to Bollywood films. Traditional folk theater, which became popular around the 10th century with the decline of Sanskrit theater. Its regional traditions include the Jatra of Bengal, the Ramlila of Uttar Pradesh, and the Terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu. Parsi theatre, which "blended realism and fantasy, music and dance,...

India Perhaps Bollywood's greatest influence has been on India's national identity, where (with the rest of Indian cinema) it has become part of the "Indian story". In India, Bollywood is often associated with India's national identity. According to economist and Bollywood biographer Meghnad Desai, "Cinema actually has been the most vibrant medium for telling India its own story, the story of its struggle for independence, its constant struggle to achieve national integration and to emerge as a global presence". Scholar Brigitte Schulze has written that Indian films, most notably Mehboob Khan's Mother India (1957), played a key role in shaping the Republic of India's national identity in the early years after independence from the British Raj; the film conveyed a sense of Indian nationalism to urban and rural citizens alike. Bollywood has long influenced Indian society and culture as the biggest entertainment industry; many of the country's ...

Bollywood films are primarily musicals, and are expected to have catchy song-and-dance numbers woven into the script. A film's success often depends on the quality of such musical numbers. A film's music and song and dance portions are usually produced first and these are often released before the film itself, increasing its audience. Indian audiences expect value for money, and a good film is generally referred to as paisa vasool , (literally "money's worth"). Songs, dances, love triangles, comedy and dare-devil thrills are combined in a three-hour show (with an intermission). These are called masala films , after the Hindi word for a spice mixture. Like masalas , they are a mixture of action, comedy and romance; most have heroes who can fight off villains single-handedly. Bollywood plots have tended to be melodramatic, frequently using formulaic ingredients such as star-crossed lovers, angry parents, love triangles, family ties, sacrifice, political corruption, ...

Bollywood employs people from throughout India. It attracts thousands of aspiring actors hoping for a break in the industry. Models and beauty contestants, television actors, stage actors and ordinary people come to Mumbai with the hope of becoming a star. As in Hollywood, very few succeed. Since many Bollywood films are shot abroad, many foreign extras are employed. Very few non-Indian actors are able to make a mark in Bollywood, although many have tried. There have been exceptions, however, and the hit film Rang De Basanti starred the English Alice Patten. Kisna , Lagaan , and The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey also featured foreign actors, and Australian-born actress Emma Brown Garett has starred in a few Indian films. Bollywood can be insular, and relatives of film-industry figures have an edge in obtaining coveted roles in films or being part of a film crew. However, industry connections are no guarantee of a long career: competition is fierce, and film-industry scions will fal...

Film scripts (known as dialogues in Indian English) and their song lyrics are often written by different people. Scripts are usually written in an unadorned Hindustani, which would be understood by the largest possible audience. Bollywood films tend to use a colloquial register of Hindustani, mutually intelligible by Hindi and Urdu speakers. Most of the classic scriptwriters of what is known as Hindi cinema, including Salim–Javed, Gulzar, Rajinder Singh Bedi, Inder Raj Anand, Rahi Masoom Raza and Wajahat Mirza, primarily wrote in Urdu. Salim-Javed wrote in Urdu script, which was then transcribed by an assistant into Devanagari script so Hindi readers could read the Urdu dialogues. During the 1970s, the Urdu writers and screenwriters Krishan Chander and Ismat Chughtai said that "more than seventy-five per cent of films are made in Urdu" but were categorised as Hindi films by the government. Urdu poetry has strongly influenced Bollywood songs, whose lyrics also draw from the gh...

This section needs additional citations for verification . Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. ( April 2019 ) (Learn how and when to remove this template message) Sound in early Bollywood films was usually not recorded on location (sync sound). It was usually created (or re-created) in the studio, with the actors speaking their lines in the studio and sound effects added later; this created synchronisation problems. Commercial Indian films are known for their lack of ambient sound, and the Arriflex 3 camera necessitated dubbing. Lagaan (2001) was filmed with sync sound, and several Bollywood films have recorded on-location sound since then.

In 1955, the Bollywood Cine Costume Make-Up Artist & Hair Dressers' Association (CCMAA) ruled that female makeup artists were barred from membership. The Supreme Court of India ruled in 2014 that the ban violated Indian constitutional guarantees under Article 14 (right to equality), 19(1)(g) (freedom to work) and Article 21 (right to liberty). According to the court, the ban had no "rationale nexus" to the cause sought to be achieved and was "unacceptable, impermissible and inconsistent" with the constitutional rights guaranteed to India's citizens. The court also found illegal the rule which mandated that for any artist to work in the industry, they must have lived for five years in the state where they intend to work. In 2015, it was announced that Charu Khurana was the first woman registered by the Cine Costume Make-Up Artist & Hair Dressers' Association.

Bollywood film music is called filmi (from the Hindi "of films"). Bollywood songs were introduced with Ardeshir Irani's Alam Ara (1931) song, "De De Khuda Ke Naam pay pyaare". Bollywood songs are generally pre-recorded by professional playback singers, with the actors then lip syncing the words to the song on-screen (often while dancing). Although most actors are good dancers, few are also singers; a notable exception was Kishore Kumar, who starred in several major films during the 1950s while having a rewarding career as a playback singer. K. L. Saigal, Suraiyya, and Noor Jehan were known as singers and actors, and some actors in the last thirty years have sung one or more songs themselves. Songs can make and break a film, determining whether it will be a flop or a hit: "Few films without successful musical tracks, and even fewer without any songs and dances, succeed". Globalization has changed Bollywood music, with lyrics an increasing mix of Hindi...

Bollywood films are multi-million dollar productions, with the most expensive productions costing up to ₹ 1 billion (about US$20 million). The science-fiction film Ra.One was made on a budget of ₹ 1.35 billion (about $27 million), making it the most expensive Bollywood film of all time. Sets, costumes, special effects and cinematography were less than world-class, with some notable exceptions, until the mid-to-late 1990s. As Western films and television are more widely distributed in India, there is increased pressure for Bollywood films to reach the same production levels (particularly in action and special effects). Recent Bollywood films, like Krrish (2006), have employed international technicians such as Hong Kong-based action choreographer Tony Ching. The increasing accessibility of professional action and special effects, coupled with rising film budgets, have seen an increase in action and science-fiction films. Since overseas scenes are attractive at the box office, Mumbai ...

A number of Indian artists hand-painted movie billboards and posters. M. F. Husain painted film posters early in his career; human labour was found to be cheaper than printing and distributing publicity material. Most of the large, ubiquitous billboards in India's major cities are now created with computer-printed vinyl. Old hand-painted posters, once considered ephemera, are collectible folk art. Releasing film music, or music videos, before a film's release may be considered a form of advertising. A popular tune is believed to help attract audiences. Bollywood publicists use the Internet as a venue for advertising. Most bigger-budget films have a websites on which audiences can view trailers, stills and information on the story, cast, and crew. Bollywood is also used to advertise other products. Product placement, used in Hollywood, is also common in Bollywood.

Bollywood's increasing use of international settings such as Switzerland, London, Paris, New York, Mexico, Brazil and Singapore does not necessarily represent the people and cultures of those locales. Contrary to these spaces and geographies being filmed as they are, they are actually Indianised by adding Bollywood actors and Hindi speaking extras to them. While immersing in Bollywood films, viewers get to see their local experiences duplicated in different locations around the world. According to Shakuntala Rao, "Media representation can depict India's shifting relation with the world economy, but must retain its 'Indianness' in moments of dynamic hybridity"; "Indianness" (cultural identity) poses a problem with Bollywood's popularity among varied diaspora audiences, but gives its domestic audience a sense of uniqueness from other immigrant groups.

The Filmfare Awards are some of the most prominent awards given to Hindi films in India. The Indian screen magazine Filmfare began the awards in 1954 (recognising the best films of 1953), and they were originally known as the Clare Awards after the magazine's editor. Modeled on the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' poll-based merit format, individuals may vote in separate categories. A dual voting system was developed in 1956. The National Film Awards were also introduced in 1954. The Indian government has sponsored the awards, given by its Directorate of Film Festivals (DFF), since 1973. The DFF screens Bollywood films, films from the other regional movie industries, and independent/art films. The awards are made at an annual ceremony presided over by the president of India. Unlike the Filmfare Awards, which are chosen by the public and a committee of experts, the National Film Awards are decided by a government panel. Other awards ceremonies for Hindi films in Ind...

In addition to their popularity among the Indian diaspora from Nigeria and Senegal to Egypt and Russia, generations of non-Indians have grown up with Bollywood. Indian cinema's early contacts with other regions made inroads into the Soviet Union, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, and China. Bollywood entered the consciousness of Western audiences and producers during the late 20th century, and Western actors now seek roles in Bollywood films. Asia-Pacific South Asia Bollywood films are also popular in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal, where Hindustani is widely understood. Many Pakistanis understand Hindi, due to its linguistic similarity to Urdu. Although Pakistan banned the import of Bollywood films in 1965, trade in unlicensed DVDs and illegal cable broadcasts ensured their continued popularity. Exceptions to the ban were made for a few films, such as the colorized re-release of Mughal-e-Azam and Taj Mahal in 2006. Early in 2008, the Pakistani government permitted the import of ...

Pressured by rushed production schedules and small budgets, some Bollywood writers and musicians have been known to plagiarise. citation needed Ideas, plot lines, tunes or riffs have been copied from other Indian film industries or foreign films (including Hollywood and other Asian films) without acknowledging the source. Before the 1990s, plagiarism occurred with impunity. Copyright enforcement was lax in India, and few actors or directors saw an official contract. The Hindi film industry was not widely known to non-Indian audiences (except in the Soviet states), who would be unaware that their material had been copied. Audiences may not have been aware of plagiarism, since many in India were unfamiliar with foreign films and music. Although copyright enforcement in India is still somewhat lenient, Bollywood and other film industries are more aware of each other and Indian audiences are more familiar with foreign films and music. citation needed Organisations such as the India EU Fi...