Essay, Paragraph or Speech on “The Indian Film Industry” Complete Essay, Speech for Class 10, Class 12 and Graduation and other classes.

The Indian Film Industry

The Indian film industry is a world of dreams. Fondly and popularly called Bollywood the term a droll reference to Bombay’s version of Hollywood: India produces more than 1,000 films annually in over 20 languages, and the industry is largest in the world. Although extremely lucrative for youngsters, it is a highly unorganized and volatile sector where one can make or break careers. It has major film studios in Bombay, Calcutta, Chennai and Hyderabad. Various other cities also produce films in regional languages that have a limited market due to linguistic limitations. Bollywood’s Hindi movies enjoy a larger national and international popularity. Indian cinema has been the central form of entertainment here and for Indians living in other countries.

Motion pictures came to India in 1896, when the Lumiere Brothers’ Cinematographer unveiled six soundless short films in Bombay. Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatvadekar was first Indian to make a short film on a wrestling match at Hanging Gardens Bombay, and another on playfulness of monkeys, and exhibited them in 1899. India’s first feature film, Dadasaheb Phalke’s ‘King Harishchandra’, a silent movie, was released in 1913.

The first sound film, Ardeshir Irani’s `Alarn Ara’ was released in 1931, followed by Bengali (Jumai Shasthi), Telugu (Bhakta Prahlad) and Tamil (Kalidass) the same year. Some memorable films produced during the forties were Shantharam’s Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani, Mehboob’s Roti, Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar, and Rajkapoor’s Barsaat and Aag.

The first International Film Festival of India was held in 1952 at Bombay. In 1958 Satyajit Ray’s classic Pather Panchali made history by winning the international Cannes’ award. Mehboob’s ‘Mother India’ (1957) was nominated for Oscar award. Satyajit Ray is the only Indian to be honoured with the coveted Oscar Life Time Achievement. Award in 1997. Sixties saw the release of K Asif’s 3D `Mughal-e-Azarn’ (1960) and Paachi’s 70MM `Around the World’ (1967) both opening new vistas. First colour film was `Kisan Kanya’ (1937), and shot in technicolour was Jhansi ki Rani’ (1953).

Satyajit Ray, Ritwik Ghatak and Mrinal Sen were the founding fathers of the new cinema in India. The Hindi average garde seems to have reached its bloom period towards the end of the seventies. The movement then spread to regional cinemas. The late eighties and early nineties saw the revival of the musical love stories in Hindi.

Today, the technology of film-making in India is perhaps the best among developing countries. According to unofficial estimates (2001) the Indian film industry has an annual turnover of Rs.6000 crores, and employs over 6 million people.

Until the late 1990s, it was not even recognized as an industry. The rot or financial amorality of India’s film industry seems to have set in since 1960s. Until then film producers would get loans from film distributors. The financing pattern is suspected to have changed thereafter when the studio system collapsed and `freelance’ performers emerged giving rise to ‘star system’ in which directors, story writers, music directors, choreographers, playback singers, actors etc. commanded exorbitant fees in proportion to the box office performance of their recent films; other sources being corporate, conventional moneylenders, and reportedly underworld. A big budget Hindi movie can cost oven 100 crores which also includes high-end technology and expensive travel costs to exotic locations worldwide.

India has a National Film Development Corporation (NFDC) which finances only some films. A few film makers, who would find it hard to obtain finance from regular sources, approach NFDC for their small budget films. 

The film industry has spawned millions of dreams and has turned them into reality for quite a few. It has entertained generations of Indians and has permeated through caste, colour, creed and different levels of society, permitting each to find its own niche of best loved cinema.

Love it or hate it, the film industry is the lifeline of India. It is a phenomenon that is absorbed in the psyche of all Indians.