The history of Bollywood goes all the way back to 1913, which is when Dadasaheb Phalke’s silent movie “Raja Harishchandra” hit the theatres. The movie was such a huge success in India that it greatly inspired creative and technical minds to get into the world of film-making, rising in popularity at a very fast pace. Bollywood used dialogues for the first time in the movie “Alam Ara” in 1931, and the first color motion picture film named “Kisan Kanya” hit the theatres only 6 years later.
The Indian independence movement took place all along “World War 2″ between 1939 and 1945, these were very difficult times for India and the film-making industry produced a lot of “escapist” movies based on hope and happiness during that period in order to help people deal with the events taking place. Values like patriotism and untouchability were dealt with in the movies “Shaheed” and “Achhut Kanya”, both receiving acclaims by the fans.
In 1957, Mehboob Khan produced a movie that was set to emphasize India’s countryside poverty and long-lasting family ideals: Mother India. It was also during those times that Guru Dutt and Raj Kapoor made their most appraised movies, including Pyaasa, Shree 420 and Awara. The indian community got to witness their incredible acting and directorial skills, and they even launched the Mughal era on indian screens with their movie Mughal-E-Azam produced in 1960.
The indian movie industry is not all about actors and directors, it’s also about music composers: SD Burman and OP Nayyar have reached an incredible of success and recognition with their amazing compositions. Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammed Rafi became very successful playback singers all along the 50s and 60s.
The 60s also brought success to Shammi Kapoor, whose Elvis-like looks was an instant hit amongst the indian community. Amitabh Bachchan was discovered in the 70s, his strong personality bringing him fame very quickly. In the 80s action movies were dominant in the bollywood film-making industry, until the release of Qayamat se Qayamat Tak in 1988. It seems that the most popular movies in the 90s are based on romance, with movies such as Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994) and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995).
Bollywood is now a real film-making machine with highly trained professionals and advanced equipment, and most movies don’t stay within the indian borders, they receive acclaim and recognition all around the world. The indian film-making industry really caught the world’s attention in 2000, when box office hits like Dhoom 2, Kal Ho Naa Ho and Devdas received global acclaim.
