Bollywood is the name given to the Hindi Film Industry. It is believed that Bollywood is a portmanteau of Bombay and Hollywood. Bombay is actually the old name of Mumbai city, which is where the most of the Hindi film industry is based. Just like the US film industry is mostly based in and around Hollywood. The origin of the term Bollywood is rather vague. It evolved sometime in the mid 1970s. The origin of the term is believed to be from the features in the popular film publications of that time. The term has acquired huge currency in the popular lexicon, and most refer to it to mean the Hindi Film Industry. To be fair, many powerful voices in the industry actually resent this term, and consider ot to be a pejorative. In their opinion, the term Bollywood reflects poorly on the industry, and depicts it as the poor cousin of the Hollywood.

Right or wrong, the term is here to stay. Most people outside India use the term synonymously with the Indian Film Industry, which is not correct. It stands only for the Hindi Film industry. There is a huge number of films made down south also, and they actually resent being lumped together as Bollywood.As you can see in the chart below, Bollywood constitutes only 20% of the total Indian Film Industry.

Before going any further, consider this: the Indian film industry is the largest film producer in the world. It produces the largest number of movies, more than any other industry in the world. The number of films produced annually runs into several hundreds. Bollywood, that is the Hindi films, are the biggest constituent of the Indian film industry. On an average, about 150-175 Hindi movies are released every year!

Yet, this primacy is in the terms of total number of films only. If you dig out some other numbers then, well, Hollywood comes out way ahead. For example, the total number of movie tickets sold in India is more than in the USA, yet Hollywood is much, much bigger in value terms. The total size of Bollywood in dollar terms is approximately US $ 2 billion. Hollywood is at least 20 times bigger.

The first ever movie produced in India was way back in 1913. It was actually a silent film, named "Raja Harishchandra". It was made by the father of the Indian film industry, Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, better known as "Dadasaheb Phalke". The first sound film was "Alam Ara", and it was a great success. The Indian public, steeped in the tradition of natak, nautanki and music took a great liking to films, and thus was born the commercial cinema in India. The industry had already started churning out more than 200 films per year by the year 1930! Later, with the advent of colour films, the process really took off.

In the beginning, Bollywood adopted a system of production very similar to Hollywood. Big studios such as Nav Ketan and Mehboob Studios dominated the scene. They actually employed the rest of the crew, including actors, on a fixed salary. This early era also produced some of the biggest and most loved names in Bollywood such as KL Sehgal, Raj Kapur, Dlip Kumar, Dev Anand, Guru Dutt, Nargis and Madhubala. They were the pioneers of the Bollywood, and were multi faceted in their own right. Actors like Raj Kapur, Guru Dutt and Dev Anand went on to establish their own studios, and produced great movies. The movies of this period were usually focused on social themes. A few gems that were produced during this period included films like Awaara, Pyaasa, Devdaas, Hum Dono etc.

By the 1960s, the Indian film industry (and particularly Bollywood) has established itself firmly, and had already built a great superstructure on the foundations provided by the pioneers. This period also marked the advent of the second generation of actors and film makers. The Kapur clan flourished, with its prominent members such as Raj Kapur, Shammi Kapur, and Shashi Kapur becoming the darling of the adoring masses. Dev Anand, the "evergreen star" was also going great guns (Can you believe Dev Anand is still making movies, circa 2009 !!?). Moving further into the 1970s, new stars like Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra and Jitendra also came into the limelight. Each established his/her own niche, and was performing beautifully in that. This was the age of the romantic hero.

The rules of the game changed in 1973. A new "superstar" was born in the form of Amitabh Bachchan, who broke new ground with his hugely successful movie "Zanjeer"(The Chain). Although Amitabh had debuted much earlier, he tasted real box office success with this film. The "Angry Young Man" was born, who portrayed the angst of an entire generation. He was ready to break the chains (Zanjeer) of rules and traditions to achieve his goals. Amitabh Bachchan dominated the scene till late 1980s, when he was involuntarily forced into (temporary) retirement due to an injury, a disastrous stint at politics and repeated failures at the box office.

It took another blockbuster in 1988 to revive the fortunes of Bollywood. The movie was "Maine Pyar Kiya". The next year produced another hit, "Qayamat se Qayamat Tak". These two movies again bought the Bollywood focus on romance, and introduced two of the biggest stars, Salmaan Khan and Aamir Khan. By 1993, came the era of the "Anti-Hero", with Shahrukh Khan movies like "Baazigar" and "Darr" making it big on the box office. The year 1995 had another Sharukh Khan movie "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge" reset the trends for Bollywood. Now, the hero was romantic, but he also respected the traditional and family values. The Khan troika (Shahrukh, Aamir and Salmaan) ruled the roost on the Indian Box Office for many, many years. They are still huge stars, with fan followings running into hundreds of millions!

Another notable incident of this period was the resurrection of the original super star, Amitabh Bachchan. He had a string of failures at the box office, and a few bad business decisions in corporatization of his name (Amitabh Bachchan Corporation Limited). But his second coming was helped by another media, the Television. He anchored "Kaun Banega Crorepati", the desi version of "Who Wants to be a Millionaire", and discovered a new style for himself. Gradually, he came back into reckoning and started figuring into a number of hits. He is probably the only star in Bollywood who has scripts written especially for him. The Bachchan family has now become the 'first family of Bollywood', displacing the Kapur khaandaan (family). His son, Abhishek Bachchan and daughter-in-law Aishwarya Rai Bachchan are in the frontline of the biggest stars currently. And oh, one cannot forget his wife, Jaya Bachchan, who is a marvellous actor in her own right. She is also a Rajya Sabha MP at present.

The history of Bollywood will be incomplete without mentioning the parallel cinema movement, or what was popularly called the "Art Cinema" in India. I am using the past tense since the movement has now seamlessly integrated into the mainstream Cinema. The Bollywood had started fine, with movies geared for entertainment, as well as meaning. But the situation changed gradually, with more and more stress being placed on commercial success and viability. There gradually evolved a "Formula" for a successful movie, which was essentially escapist in nature. In the meanwhile, film makers who wanted to make realistic and meaningful films started following their heart, rather than lucre. The Art Cinema has given Bollywood some of the best film makers like Mrinal Sen, Khwaaja Ahmad Abbas, Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani, Prakash Jha etc. and the most powerful performers like Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil and Shabana Azmi.

Bollywood has been justly criticized over the years for pandering to the lowest common denominator. There has been a gradual erosion in the standards of film-making. Scripts are virtually non-existent, with films conforming to a fixed formula believed to be necessary for success at the BO. The Bollywood has also been rather slow on the uptake of new technology for better film-making. There is an absence of wholesome entertainment, since major segments like children are ignored. There have been very, very few films that have been specifically produced for children. Good animation movies are also conspicuous by their absence.

One of the biggest drawbacks for the Bollywood has been the absence of reliable finance facilities. Since the number of films made is very large, and a very few of them see a respectable degree of success, organized financiers like banks have been extremely hesitant. Even though the government has granted it the status of an Industry, organized finance is hard to come by. This has brought in questionable financiers from the underworld and a lot of illegal money is floating around in Bollywood.

Perhaps the most damning piece of (well deserved) criticism is the rampant plagiarism in Bollywood. It has been prevalent in the industry fron the days of yore, when the Indian audience was insulated from the outside world. The unscrupulous film makers took this opportunity to introduce rehashed versions of foreign movies, especially those from Hollywood. Two of the recent biggest hits have been copies of Hollywood movies: "Ghazini" was "inspired" by 'Memento', and the hit movie "Dostana" is mostly based on 'I Now Pronounce you Chuck and Larry'. The theft is not limited to scripts and the story line alone. Sometimes whole scenes and sequences are lifted. Same with the musical scores: the original sound track is rarely original!

This is a rather recent development in the Indian Cinema. It has mostly risen in response to the above criticism of Bollywood, and combines the sensibilities of the Parallel Cinema movement with commercially viable scripts. Over the years, the movers and shakers of Bollywood had rather settled into a comfortable groove, producing Masala Movies by the dozens. The viewers were gradually exposed to world cinema, and became rather fed up of the insipid fare served with regularity by Bollywood. They started demanding quality in script and music. Probably starting with Satya in 1998, film-makers realized the paradigm shift, and have started producing better, improved films.