The Hindi cinema portal
Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Hollywood". The industry is a part of the larger Indian cinema, which also includes South Indian cinema and other smaller film industries.
In 2017, Indian cinema produced 1,986 feature films, of which the largest number, 364 have been in Hindi. , Hindi cinema represented 43 percent of Indian net box-office revenue; Tamil and Telugu cinema represented 36 percent, and the remaining regional cinema constituted 21 percent. Hindi cinema is one of the largest centres for film production in the world. Hindi films sold an estimated 341 million tickets in India in 2019. Earlier Hindi films tended to use vernacular Hindustani, mutually intelligible by speakers of either Hindi or Urdu, while modern Hindi productions increasingly incorporate elements of Hinglish.
The most popular commercial genre in Hindi cinema since the 1970s has been the masala film, which freely mixes different genres including action, comedy, romance, drama and melodrama along with musical numbers. Masala films generally fall under the musical film genre, of which Indian cinema has been the largest producer since the 1960s when it exceeded the American film industry's total musical output after musical films declined in the West. Dadasaheb Phalke's silent film Raja Harishchandra (1913) is the first feature length film made in India. The first Indian musical talkie was Alam Ara (1931), four years after the first Hollywood sound film The Jazz Singer (1927).
Alongside commercial masala films, a distinctive genre of art films known as parallel cinema has also existed, presenting realistic content and avoidance of musical numbers. In more recent years, the distinction between commercial masala and parallel cinema has been gradually blurring, with an increasing number of mainstream films adopting the conventions which were once strictly associated with parallel cinema. (Full article...)
Selected article
Sholay is an Indian action-adventure film produced by G. P. Sippy and directed by his son Ramesh Sippy. It is considered by the Encyclopaedia of Hindi cinema to be among the greatest films in Indian cinema. Released on 15 August 1975, it stars Dharmendra (pictured), Sanjeev Kumar, Hema Malini, Amitabh Bachchan, Jaya Bhaduri and Amjad Khan. The film, shot in the rocky terrain of Ramanagara, Karnataka, follows two criminals who are hired to capture a ruthless dacoit named Gabbar Singh. The film drew its plot heavily from the conventions of Westerns. When first released, Sholay opened to a tepid response, but owing to word of mouth promotion it soon became a box office phenomenon. It ran for 286 weeks straight (more than five years) in a theatre in Mumbai and achieved a still-standing record of 60 golden jubilees (50 consecutive weeks) across India. It is the first film in the history of Indian cinema to celebrate a silver jubilee (25 weeks) in over a hundred theaters across India. The Indian Central Board of Film Certification initially mandated cuts of several scenes involving violence and death. As such, Sholay was released with a length of 188 minutes. After 15 years, the original director's cut of 204 minutes was made available.
Did you know...
- ... that in the 2008 Bollywood film Krazzy 4, actor Hrithik Roshan (pictured) performed an "item number" for the first time?
- ... that Kaash was the last Hindi film in which Kishore Kumar did playback singing?
- ... that the 1955 Hindi film Vachan marked composer Ravi's debut as a film music director?
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Awards: Bollywood Movie Awards (defunct) • Filmfare Awards • Global Indian Film Awards (defunct) • International Indian Film Academy Awards • National Film Awards • Screen Awards • Star Guild Awards • Stardust Awards • Zee Cine Awards
Institutions Asian Academy of Film & Television • Central Board of Film Certification • Directorate of Film Festivals • Film and Television Institute of India • Film City • Fox Star Studios • National Film Development Corporation of India • Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute
Lists: List of Bollywood films • Film clans • Highest-grossing films in overseas markets • Highest-grossing films
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- Cleanup needed
- Bot-generated cleanup listing • Hindi films and plagiarism • Ramoji Film City • IIFA Awards • IIFA • Anand Bakshi • Ajay Devgan • N. T. Rama Rao Jr.
- Requested articles
- List of missing Indian Films (see also lists of Indian films for redlinks) • Beary Cinema
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- Draft articles: Tulu cinema • Anahat (film) • Prakash Jha • Central Board of Film Certification • Filmfare Awards South • Kerala Film Critics Association Awards • Amitabh Bachchan • Gabbar Singh • Sanjay Dutt • Hindustan Photo Films • Sanskrit cinema
- Citations needed
- Central Board of Film Certification
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