Indian Cinema Completes 100 Years: 1913 To 2013

It is often said that there are two things that Indians are most fond of - one is politics and the other one is cinema. Of course, politics today has also become a form of entertainment for the public but a genuine form of entertainment has been cinema. This is now reaching a very important milestone. Well, the time has come for Indian cinema to touch the hundred years mark and a lot has gone through the journey of cinema from where it is today to where it started sometime back.

It was in the year 1913 that the first Mookie film came into existence. This was 'Raja Harischandra' which was produced by the legend Dadasaheb Phalke. This was made in Marathi and the venue for such films was the theatres. Jamshedji Framji Madan was the first entrepreneur who owned a set of theatres and produced films annually. Then, came the time of Raghupathi Venkaiah built his own cinema halls in Madras. Today, an award has been instituted in his name in the Nandi awards of Andhra Pradesh.

A new chapter began on March 14th, 1931 with the first Indian talkie film Alam Ara followed by Bhakta Prahlada in Telugu which was produced and directed by H M Reddy. The golden age of Indian cinema came in between 1940 -1960 where parallel cinema came into existence thanks to the likes of Satyajit Ray, Bimal Roy and others. Then came the age of commercial cinema with icons like Guru Dutt coming up with movies like 'Pyaasa' 'Kagaz Ke Phool' followed by Raj Kapoor with his 'Shree 420' 'Awaara' and others. Eventually, movies like Mughal-E-Azam, Madhumati went on to make their presence felt in foreign film circuits.

The modern Indian cinema came into being from the 1970s with the likes of Shyam Benegal, Adoor Gopalakrishnan, Mrinal Sen, Buddhadeb Dasgupta, Govind Nihalani coming up with realistic movies. It was at this time, the emergence of Amitabh Bachchan as the angry man marked a new definition to heroism. Films like 'Sholay' 'Deewar' marked a new chapter. The 1980s saw more of commercial cinema with the likes of 'Ek Duje Ke Liye' 'QSQT' 'Tezaab' 'Maine Pyar Kiya' 'Chandni' creating a major stir at the box office.

The 90s saw the emergence of new age filmmakers like Mani Ratnam, Ram Gopal Varma, Madhur Bhandarkar, Anurag Kashyap, Deva Katta, Nagesh Kukunoor and others. Now, the Indian cinema has reached the new millennium and offbeat moviemakers like Neeraj Pathak, Sriram Raghavan, Sekhar Kammula and others are making their presence felt. A revolution of sorts has happened in terms of defining glamour, entertainment, commercial values, budgeting, marketing and box office reports. Going forward, Indian cinema looks more positive to reach a new league thereby encouraging the regional circuits like Tollywood, Kollywood, Mollywood etc to carve their own presence.

Glimpses of Indian film industry:

First Feature film screened at : Coronation Cinema, Mumbai

Pioneer of Indian silent movies: Raghupathi Venkiah

Censor Board Started in 1927

First Indian talkie film - Alam Ara (March 14 1931)

First color feature film in India - Jhansi Ki Rani (1953)

Founding fathers of new cinema - Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen