History of Indian cinema

1896–1912: Moving pictures arrive

Moving pictures reached India within months of their European debut. Marius Sestier, who travelled on behalf of the Lumière brothers, showed a programme of six short Lumière films at Watson's Hotel in Bombay on 7 July 1896. That show is usually described as the first film screening in India. Sestier also shot footage in Bombay, but the Lumières are reported to have rejected it as poor in quality.

Local photographers and businessmen soon took up the new medium. Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatavdekar, a Bombay portrait photographer known as Save Dada, is recorded as one of the people who watched the 1896 Lumière show. He later bought a camera from London. His short film of a wrestling match, The Wrestlers (1899), is generally considered the first film made by an Indian. In 1901 he filmed actuality subjects such as R. P. Paranjpye's return to India, and these are sometimes described as the country's first newsreels.

In Bengal, the photographer Hiralal Sen and his brother set up the Royal Bioscope Company. Sources give its founding year as either 1898 or 1899. Sen made more than forty short films up to 1913, including advertisements for local products and a 1905 record of a protest against the partition of Bengal. Some critics count that film as possibly India's first political film. A fire in 1917, shortly before his death, destroyed his films.

Exhibition also grew into a business. The Parsi theatre owner J. F. Madan moved to Calcutta and in 1902 founded the Elphinstone Bioscope Company, which produced and showed short silent films. His business later became one of the largest cinema chains in the country.

The question of which film was the first Indian feature is still debated. Dadasaheb Torne's Shree Pundalik was released in Bombay on 18 May 1912, and some historians give it that title. Others argue that it was essentially a filmed stage play shot with a fixed camera. The Government of India recognises Phalke's Raja Harishchandra (1913) as the first Indian feature film.

1913–1931: The silent era

Dadasaheb Phalke (1870–1944) made Raja Harishchandra, a mythological feature. It premiered at the Olympia Theatre in Bombay on 21 April 1913 and opened to the public on 3 May at the Coronation Cinematograph in Girgaon. Its intertitles were in English, Marathi and Hindi. Only parts of the film survive. The National Film Archive of India holds the first and last reels, and some historians think even these may come from Phalke's 1917 remake.

No women were available to act in Raja Harishchandra, so men played the female roles. Anna Salunke played the queen Taramati. In Phalke's next feature, Mohini Bhasmasur, Durgabai Kamat and her daughter Kamlabai Gokhale played female roles, and they are often named as the first women to act in Indian films. Sources date that film to 1913 or early 1914. Women soon worked behind the camera too: Fatma Begum founded her own production company in 1926 and directed Bulbul-e-Paristan that year. She is widely credited as the first woman to direct an Indian film.

Production spread beyond Bombay. In 1918 Phalke's company became the Hindustan Cinema Films Company. In Calcutta, Madan's company produced Satyavadi Raja Harishchandra (1917) and Bilwamangal (1919), which is identified as the first Bengali feature. Madan Theatres went on to own more than a hundred cinemas by the late 1920s. In Madras, R. Nataraja Mudaliar made Keechaka Vadham, regarded as the first film produced in South India. Sources date it to 1917 or 1918. In Kerala, J. C. Daniel's silent Vigathakumaran, usually dated 1928 though some sources say 1930, is considered the first Malayalam feature. Upper-caste protesters attacked its Dalit lead actress, P. K. Rosy, and screenings were disrupted.

Several companies that shaped the next decades were founded at the end of the silent period. V. Shantaram and his partners founded the Prabhat Film Company in Kolhapur on 1 June 1929. Himanshu Rai, working with the German director Franz Osten, made The Light of Asia (1925), Shiraz (1928) and A Throw of Dice (1929) for international audiences. That experience led to the founding of Bombay Talkies in 1934. Most films of this period are now lost. Vigathakumaran and Keechaka Vadham, for example, have no known surviving prints.

Colonial authorities kept a close watch on cinema. In 1927 the British government set up the Indian Cinematograph Enquiry Committee, hoping to promote British films in India. The committee instead recommended support for the Indian industry, but its proposals were not taken up.

1931–1939: Sound and the first talkies

Ardeshir Irani's Alam Ara, made by the Imperial Film Company, opened at the Majestic Cinema in Bombay on 14 March 1931 and is recognised as the first Indian sound film. It starred Master Vithal, Zubeida and Prithviraj Kapoor and had seven songs. The first, "De De Khuda Ke Naam Pe Pyaare", was sung by Wazir Muhammad Khan. No print of Alam Ara is known to survive.

Talkies in other languages followed quickly, though several 'firsts' are disputed. Kalidas, directed by H. M. Reddy and released in Madras on 31 October 1931, mixed Telugu dialogue with Tamil songs and some Hindi. Some historians call it the first Tamil talkie, while others prefer to describe it as India's first multilingual film. Bhakta Prahlada, long thought to be the first Telugu sound film, was shown by research to have been released in February 1932, after Kalidas. New Theatres released Dena Paona (1931), cited as the first Bengali talkie. Ayodhyecha Raja (1932) was the first Marathi talkie. Sati Sulochana (1934) was the first Kannada talkie. Jyoti Prasad Agarwala's Joymoti (1935) is widely considered the first Assamese film, and Balan (1938) the first Malayalam talkie.

Songs were part of Indian sound cinema from the start, and soon actors no longer had to sing their own songs on camera. Bhagya Chakra (1935), directed by Nitin Bose at New Theatres, is cited as the first Indian film to use playback singing.

The 1930s were a decade of strong studios. B. N. Sircar founded New Theatres in Calcutta in February 1931. Its films included Debaki Bose's Chandidas (1932) and P. C. Barua's Devdas (1935), and its artists included K. L. Saigal, Kanan Devi and Pankaj Mullick. Prabhat moved to Pune, opened a studio there in 1934, and made Sant Tukaram (1936), which won an award at the Venice festival. Bombay Talkies, founded in 1934 by Himanshu Rai, Devika Rani and Niranjan Pal, made films such as Achhut Kanya (1936), a love story across caste lines. Wadia Movietone made action films starring Fearless Nadia, beginning with Hunterwali (1935). In the south, Durga Cinetone in Rajahmundry (1936) is sometimes named as the region's first studio, although that claim is contested. Colour also arrived: Kisan Kanya (1937) is generally cited as the first Indian colour feature, though Prabhat's Sairandhri (1933) is described as an earlier colour film in some accounts.

1940s: War, independence and Partition

Hindustani-language films of the 1940s were made mainly in Bombay, and filmmakers and actors moved there from Calcutta. Bombay Talkies' Kismet (1943) became Indian cinema's first major blockbuster and ran for more than three years at a single Calcutta cinema. Internal disputes led some of the studio's leading figures to leave in 1943 and set up Filmistan, a sign that the large studios were beginning to lose their hold to independent producers.

Madras became a major production centre. S. S. Vasan founded Gemini Studios there in 1940. Its spectacle Chandralekha (1948), made in Tamil and Hindi versions, was the first Tamil film to get distribution across India. A. V. Meiyappan's AVM Productions, officially dated to 1945, made Nam Iruvar (1947). In 1948 Vauhini Studios and Vijaya Productions merged to form Vijaya Vauhini, which went on to make many Telugu and Tamil films.

Socially conscious filmmaking also emerged. The Indian People's Theatre Association's Nabanna (1944) is credited with pointing cinema towards realism. Chetan Anand's Neecha Nagar (1946), an adaptation of Maxim Gorky's The Lower Depths with a score by Ravi Shankar, shared the top prize at the first Cannes Film Festival in 1946. It was not released commercially in India.

Independence and Partition in 1947 split the industry. Before Partition, Lahore had been a Hindustani-language production centre closely linked to Bombay. Partition divided the industry's assets, several studios went to Pakistan, and Lahore became the centre of Pakistani cinema. Artists also had to choose between the two countries. The singer-actress Noor Jehan, one of Bombay's biggest stars of 1945–47, moved to Pakistan with her husband, the director Shaukat Hussain Rizvi. In Bengal, Partition later became a central theme for filmmakers such as Ritwik Ghatak. In 1948 the new government set up the Films Division to make documentaries and newsreels.

1950s–1960s: The post-independence classics

Historians often call the late 1940s to the early 1960s a golden age of Hindi cinema. Raj Kapoor made Awaara (1951) and Shree 420 (1955). Guru Dutt made Pyaasa (1957) and Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959). Bimal Roy's Do Bigha Zamin (1953) won an international prize at Cannes in 1954. Mehboob Khan's Mother India (1957) became India's first nominee for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. The historical epic Mughal-e-Azam followed in 1960. Hindi films also travelled abroad, especially to the Soviet Union, where Awaara drew very large audiences.

In Bengal, Satyajit Ray (1921–1992) made his first film, Pather Panchali (1955), adapted from Bibhutibhushan Bandyopadhyay's novel. A loan from the West Bengal government helped him finish it after his own money ran out. It won a 'Best Human Document' award at Cannes in 1956 and, together with Aparajito and Apur Sansar, makes up the Apu Trilogy, which won prizes at Cannes, Berlin and Venice. Ray directed 36 films in all, including Jalsaghar (1958) and Charulata (1964). In 1992 he became the first Indian to receive an honorary Academy Award.

Ritwik Ghatak (1925–1976) worked alongside Ray in Bengal but in a very different style. Born in Rajshahi, now in Bangladesh, he never accepted the partition of Bengal. Meghe Dhaka Tara (1960), Komal Gandhar (1961) and Subarnarekha, which sources date to 1962 or 1965, deal with the aftermath of Partition. He also wrote the screenplay for Bimal Roy's Madhumati (1958).

South Indian studios made a large share of the country's films. Vijaya Vauhini, once described as one of the largest studios in Asia, produced Telugu classics such as Pathala Bhairavi (1951), Missamma (1955) and Maya Bazar (1957). AVM made films in several languages, among them the Tamil drama Parasakthi (1952). Scripted by M. Karunanidhi and launching Sivaji Ganesan's career, Parasakthi carried Dravidian reform politics and provoked protests and cuts. In Malayalam, Neelakkuyil (1954) gained national attention, and Chemmeen (1965) became the first South Indian film to win the National Film Award for Best Feature Film. The very first award for best feature, the President's Gold Medal, had gone to the Marathi film Shyamchi Aai (1953).

1960s–1980s: Parallel cinema and new waves

In 1960 the government set up the Film Institute of India in Pune, on the grounds of the old Prabhat studio, and the Film Finance Corporation, which lent money to filmmakers. The institute added television training in 1971 and was renamed the Film and Television Institute of India. In 1975 the finance corporation became part of the new National Film Development Corporation (NFDC). Together the institute and the funding body supported a generation of independent filmmakers, and many of them trained at the institute. Ghatak taught there briefly in 1966.

Mrinal Sen's Bhuvan Shome (1969) is often cited as the start of the Indian New Wave. It won National Awards for best feature and best direction. Sen (1923–2018) worked mainly in Bengali, but he also made films in Hindi, Odia and Telugu. In Hindi, Mani Kaul's Uski Roti (1971) and Shyam Benegal's debut Ankur, which sources date to 1973 or 1974, were landmark works. Benegal followed with Nishant (1975), Manthan (1976), which half a million Gujarat dairy farmers financed by contributing two rupees each, and Bhumika (1977). Benegal's films and those of other directors brought forward actors such as Shabana Azmi, Smita Patil, Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri.

The movement was strong in the southern languages. Pattabhirama Reddy's Samskara (1970), based on U. R. Ananthamurthy's novel and featuring Girish Karnad, challenged caste orthodoxy. A censor board banned it before the national government reversed the decision, and it went on to win the National Award for best feature. It is credited with starting Kannada parallel cinema, later associated with Karnad, B. V. Karanth and Girish Kasaravalli. In Malayalam, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, an FTII graduate who co-founded the Chitralekha Film Society, made Swayamvaram (1972), which opened a new wave in Kerala. His Elippathayam (1981) won a British Film Institute award.

Marathi parallel cinema also grew in the 1970s and 1980s. By the early 1990s, rising costs and growing commercial pressure made art films harder to finance. Later the label 'parallel' was applied more loosely to unconventional films within the mainstream.

1970s–1980s: Masala films and star politics

Mainstream Hindi cinema changed in the 1970s. Scripts by the writing pair Salim–Javed, especially Zanjeer (1973) and Deewaar (1975), gave Amitabh Bachchan the role of an embittered, rebellious hero, widely called the 'angry young man'. Sholay, released on 15 August 1975, became the highest-grossing Indian film of its time. Films such as Yaadon Ki Baarat (1973) and Manmohan Desai's Amar Akbar Anthony (1977) defined the 'masala' formula, which mixed action, comedy, romance, melodrama and songs in one film, often with several leading stars. The nickname 'Bollywood', a blend of Bombay and Hollywood, came into use in this decade.

Output grew in many languages. By 1986 India was producing about 833 films a year, more than any other country. Disco Dancer (1982) started a fashion for disco musicals and, like Awaara before it, found a large audience in the Soviet Union. Malayalam cinema had a creatively rich period that commentators often place in the late 1980s.

In the south, film stardom led to political power. M. G. Ramachandran (1917–1987), a Tamil star in more than 135 films, founded the AIADMK in 1972 after being expelled from the DMK. He was Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu from 1977 until his death, apart from a four-month break in 1980. N. T. Rama Rao (1923–1996), who appeared in more than 300 mostly Telugu films and often played gods such as Krishna and Rama, founded the Telugu Desam Party in March 1982. He became Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh in January 1983. Sources differ on whether he served three or four terms.

The Kannada star Rajkumar (1929–2006), who had lead roles in more than 200 films, took a different path. He led public campaigns for the Kannada language, notably in support of the Gokak report on Kannada in schools, but he turned down offers to stand for election. In Hindi cinema, Amitabh Bachchan served briefly as a Member of Parliament for Allahabad from 1984 to 1987.

1990s: Liberalisation, satellite TV and multiplexes

The economic reforms of the early 1990s changed how films were made, seen and sold. Private satellite television arrived. STAR began broadcasting in 1991, and Zee TV, the oldest privately owned Indian television channel, launched in October 1992. These channels opened a new outlet for films, film songs and film-based programmes.

Films began to move more easily between languages. Mani Ratnam's Tamil film Roja (1992), the first film scored by A. R. Rahman, was dubbed into Hindi, Telugu, Marathi and Malayalam and did well in those versions. In Hindi, family romances such as Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994) and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) were hugely popular. DDLJ was the first Hindi blockbuster with non-resident Indians as its main characters. It helped producers see audiences in the UK, North America and elsewhere as a major market, and it has played at Mumbai's Maratha Mandir cinema since its release. Ram Gopal Varma's Satya (1998) started a wave of gritty Mumbai crime films.

Cinemas changed too. PVR, set up as a joint venture between Priya Exhibitors and Australia's Village Roadshow, opened a modern multiplex at Saket in New Delhi in 1997. Its arrival is usually seen as the start of India's multiplex era.

Film finance also became more formal. For years banks and financial institutions could not lend to film producers, and some funding came from illegitimate sources, including the Mumbai underworld. While Sushma Swaraj was Information and Broadcasting minister, a post she held in 1998 and again from 2000 to 2003, the government declared film production an industry. That made film eligible for bank finance. The decision is often dated to 2001, but the sources consulted here do not give an exact year.

2000s–2020s: Digital films, pan-Indian hits and streaming

In the 2000s Indian cinema became more visible abroad and its output grew. Lagaan (2001) received an Academy Award nomination for best foreign-language film and won eight National Film Awards. The British production Slumdog Millionaire, set in Mumbai, won eight Oscars at the 2009 ceremony. A. R. Rahman won for its score and, with lyricist Gulzar, for the song "Jai Ho". Resul Pookutty shared the award for sound mixing. These were not the first Indian Oscar wins: the costume designer Bhanu Athaiya had shared the award for Gandhi (1982), and Ray had received his honorary award in 1992.

Production grew in many languages. The Bhojpuri film industry revived after Saiyyan Hamar (2001). Telugu cinema has often led the country in the number of films certified, and in 2021 it became the largest Indian industry by box office. S. S. Rajamouli's Baahubali films (2015 and 2017), shot mainly in Telugu and released in several dubbed versions, made popular the 'pan-Indian' release: one film dubbed into many languages and released nationally instead of being remade. Baahubali 2 was the first Indian film to gross more than ₹1,000 crore. The Kannada film KGF: Chapter 2 (2022) and Rajamouli's Telugu film RRR (2022) followed the same approach. Recent industry reports give regional-language films a larger share of the national box office than Hindi films.

Streaming changed how many Indians watch films. Indian platforms such as BIGFlix (2008) and SonyLIV (2013) came first, followed by Netflix in January 2016 and Amazon Prime Video in December 2016. Some films now skip cinemas and go straight to streaming. In 2021 the government brought in rules for online content.

International recognition continued in the 2020s. At the 2023 Academy Awards, "Naatu Naatu" from RRR, composed by M. M. Keeravani with lyrics by Chandrabose, won Best Original Song, the first song from an Indian film to do so. At the same ceremony, Kartiki Gonsalves's The Elephant Whisperers, about a couple in Tamil Nadu's Mudumalai National Park who raise an orphaned elephant, won Best Documentary Short. In 2024 Payal Kapadia's All We Imagine as Light, mainly in Malayalam with some Hindi and Marathi, became the first Indian film in the Cannes main competition since Swaham (1994). It won the Grand Prix.

Institutions: certification, awards, festivals and archives

Films shown publicly in India must be certified by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). The board works under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the Cinematograph Act, 1952, and its headquarters are in Mumbai. It grew out of colonial-era censor boards and took its present name in 1983. Its main certificates are U, U/A, A, and S, which is for specialised audiences. In 2024 age-based U/A levels of 7+, 13+ and 16+ were added. Critics have often questioned the cuts and refusals it orders.

The National Film Awards were first presented in 1954 for films of 1953. Their top honours are the Golden Lotus (Swarna Kamal) and the Silver Lotus (Rajat Kamal), and there are awards for films in many Indian languages. The Ministry ran the awards until 1973, the Directorate of Film Festivals from 1974 to 2022, and the NFDC since 2023. The Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the government's highest honour for a lifetime of work in cinema, was first given in 1969 to the actress Devika Rani. Later recipients include Rajkumar, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Mrinal Sen, Shyam Benegal and Amitabh Bachchan.

The International Film Festival of India was first held in Bombay from 24 January to 1 February 1952 and was organised by the Films Division. Its permanent home has been Goa since 2004. The NFDC, set up in 1975 to support high-quality Indian cinema, has funded or co-produced more than 300 films, many of them parallel-cinema works, and was among the producers of Gandhi (1982).

Preservation is a constant problem, because most silent-era films and many early talkies, Alam Ara among them, are lost. The National Film Archive of India in Pune, set up in February 1964 and built up by P. K. Nair, collects and restores films, scripts and photographs. A fire at its vault in January 2003 destroyed 607 nitrate films that had not been copied, including works by Phalke. Under the government's National Film Heritage Mission, the archive has digitised older films, such as the Manipuri film Yairipok Thambalnu (1984). In March 2022 both the archive and the Films Division were merged into the NFDC.