The iconic Indian film industry which has been enchanting and enthralling Indians and the world, is today about 110 years old. Indian Cinema has passed through 11 decades of entertainment, songs, love in the rain, exotic locations, “mere paas maa hai”, on screen kissing and much more. The growth in the terms of impact and quality has been tremendous in the last 110 years. Cinema has now become an inevitable part of the Indian culture and society, which a SRK or a BIG B wannabe in every nook and corner of this great country.

The very first Indian Film and its making:

First Indian film was made in 1899 by Calcutta based Mr. Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatavdekar (better known as Save dada). He, using a projection apparatus and an imported British camera made two short films namely, The Wrestlers and Man and Monkey. Next pioneering step was the opening of Grand kinetoscope newsreels by F.B. Thanawala in 1900 in Calcutta to produce movies commercially. Janshedji Framjee Madan, started showing movie shows in tents in 1902, who later on went on to establish India’s first Permanent cinema house-Elphinstone Picture Palace, which is now known by the name of Chaplin.

First dramatic full length film was made by R.G. torney and N.G. Chitre, in collaboration with the British, was titled “pundalik”, which was a movie about a Maharashtrian saint. This film was released on May 18, 1912, at coronation cinema in Bombay. The film ran to packed houses. The first indigenous full-length feature film was made by Dundiraj Govinda Phalke, who is better known as Dada Saheb Phalke. The film was titled ‘Raja Harishchandra’ and was released on May 3, 1914 at the coronation theatre, Bombay. The film ran for 23 days. Phalke’s ‘Lanka Dahan’, which came out in 1917, went on to become India’s first box office hit. Dada Saheb Phalke’s contribution to Indian cinema was tremendous and hence, Dada Saheb Phalke lifetime achievement awards were started in his honor in 1969.Devika rani, Grand daughter of Rabindra Tagore, won the first award.

By 1920, there was a regular industry making films at the rate of 27 per year and reaching out to 207 films per year in 1931. Today India makes about 900 films per year, which is a world record. By 1927, world began making talkie movies, ’The Jazz singer’, being the first one to be released as a talkie film. First talkie to be exhibited in India was ‘Melody’. India made its first talkie in 1931. ‘Alam Ara’ was the first full length indigenously made talkie film, which was produced by imperial films and was directed by Ardeshir Irani. It also contained seven songs and was released on March 14, 1931, Bombay’s Majestic cinema. With this beginning, songs were included in every film and the song count reached a whooping 71 in “indrasabha”. Songs in film became a phenomenon for Indian film industry.

Post independence came the golden era for Indian cinema as the scale and audience growing to large number. Satyajit Ray, who is considered to be one of the greatest directors of all time, made three internationally acclaimed films, namely Pather Panchali, Aparajito and Apur sansar. He won the Lifetime Achievement Oscar in 1995.His films gave a new perspective and meaning to the Indian cinema.

Since then Indian cinema has been going great guns with many great artists like Guru Dutt, Lata Mangeshkar, Raj Kapoor, Kishore Kumar and many more taking it new heights. Today, Indian cinema has become a global hot spot with much international collaboration. Recently A.R. Rahman and Rasool Pukotty winning the Oscars prove the potential and talent of Indian film makers.