It was Jamshetji Nusserwanji Tata who bid the sleeping giant – the Indian sub-continent – awake to the age of technology in the 1870s. The clarion call from the Tatas motivated the Indian nation of agriculturists and artisans to get their act together though they were under the British subjugation those days. Next came the Lumiere brothers from France, in 1896, and they ignited the dormant spirit of the Indians by introducing the invention of cinema and the subsequent shift from silent to talking movies stimulated the Indian minds specially whilst watching the foreign films. These two historical events in the late 19th century partly heralded the beginning of the end of colonialism in India.

On 7th July, 1896, the Indian audiences were taken by storm and were aghast to see the first silent motion picture, in Bombay, demonstrated by Auguste and Louis Lumiere. The cities of Calcutta and Madras were the next to see the silent movies, and it was a resounding success in India with its vast population who were just clamoring for more. From that time there was no looking back and industrialists as well as actors entered the entertainment industry that was christened Bollywood.

The first Indian to make a film was Harishchandra Sakharam Bhatwadekar in the year 1899. He was followed by Hiralal Sen and F.B. Thanawalla, Ardeshir Irani and V. Shantaram and many more. They all made short films like filming the Coronation of Edward VII, Alibaba and the forty thieves, Buddha. The first fully indigenous silent feature film Raja Harishchandra was made in 1913 by Dada Saheb Phalke who was called the Father of Indian Cinema as he pioneered a regular feature films industry in India depicting the various facets of Indian life.

The twenties saw Indian cinema going into business in a big way and the industry was brought under the purview of the Cinematograph Act, which controlled the censorship of Indian and foreign films and licensing the cinema venues. In 1926, Himansu Rai and Franz Osten directed a film called Light of Asia that was internationally acclaimed. Then came the advent of sound and the first film Light of the World was shown in the Majestic cinema in Bombay in1931. It was directed by Ardeshir Irani and the famous Raj Kapoor acted in it. Then came a spate of films in different Indian languages as regional culture came into play, as people from various states would like to hear their own languages like Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Tamil, Urdu and so on. The outbreak of the 2nd World War delayed the introduction of the color movies. Meanwhile a lot of film studios sprouted in Bombay and other premier cities. Some of the famous film studios in Bombay were the Mehboob Studio and the Raj Kapoor Studio. Black money started financing the film industry in the 40s and the Indian films were exposed to the international market in the 50s.

The Indian public, meanwhile, were hooked up on movies. Some would even go for 3 shows in a day. Such was the craze especially in the sixties when Elvis Presley hit the Indian screens with his love songs and gyrating hips, and our heroes and heroines, sang and danced around trees. In a country where other pastimes were limited due to conservative ways, poverty and illiteracy, movies was the only source of entertainment in those early years of Indian Independence. Those days the discotheques, theatrical drama shows were scarce and therefore the films were heavily patronized by people from all walks of life, and this scenario prompted the film producers and actors and playback singers to concentrate their efforts on the movie industry. The underworld was not far behind and they too entered the industry in a big way. Incidentally, as it happens in many countries, the underworld runs a parallel economy in India. And any profitable ventures like real estate, construction activity and even industry is financed by black money. Indirectly, Indian cinema has come under the influence of these dons who control quite a big chunk of Bollywood. 

The development of technology has also made the making of movies quite profitable. Gone are the days when bulky film rolls were transported from the laboratories to picture houses. It was called the analog version and it involved the cost of making prints. Nowadays, most of the producers want to release their films in the digital format, where the cinema is kept in a CD and encrypted with a secret code and played back with the help of a digital/computer projector. Moreover some theatres are going to introduce 2K projectors that are five times more expensive than the 1.3K used right now. But in the use of 2K projector there is better viewing as both picture and sound quality is improved. All said and done going digital also helps the environment as there is less carbon emission. 

Bollywood is quite famous in the world today and Mumbai is its headquarters. Many a dream is realized and broken in this financial capital of India. They say Mumbai never sleeps. A lot of ancillary industries have developed in Bollywood and the work of talent find has become very easy as there are educational institutions that train in various spheres like mimicry, dancing sequences, backstage singing, graphics, grooming and acting and choreography. Incidentally Lata Mangeshkar is called a nightingale of India. Some of our renowned actors are Sharukh Khan, Salman Khan, Amitabh Bacchan, Aishwarya Rai, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukherjee, Juhie Chawla, Priyanka Chopra, Mallika Sherawat, Shilpa Shetty and Kareena Kapur. Some of them, among women, like Aishwarya Rai, are beauty queens of international renown. 

Recently some Hollywood directors have come to India to select some of our actors to feature in their films. Kareena Kapur is going to act opposite Billy Zane of the Titanic fame in a film called Chamera, where she acts as an Asian girl.The film will be directed by Daniel Silverman. Also Jennifer Lynch, is in India to direct Mallika Sherawat to act as a snake woman in a film called Nagin – The Snake Woman. Jennifer will be the first Hollywood director to actually shoot a film in Hindi and the purpose she says is to dispel the myth that India is a snake charmer’s country. Also the Bond girl Denise Richards who thinks that Bollywood is on par with Hollywood is going to act with Akshay Kumar in a film called Kambakht Ishq. The icing on the cake was when Steven Spielberg and Anil Ambani signed a movie deal worth dollar 1.5 billion in Los Angeles in late September 2008. And this was a big financial boost to Hollywood that was going through financial drought with the crumbling of credit markets. Ambani's Reliance Big Entertainment will produce 6 films per year for the next 6 years. 

I will not do justice to Bollywood if I do not mention the famous stars of yesteryears. Raj Kapoor, Rajesh Khanna, Dev Anand, Shatrughan Sinha, Dilip Kumar, Zeenat Aman, Shabana Azmi, Madhuri Dixit, Madhubala, Mumtaz, Rekha, blazed a trail of glory in the annals of Bollywood. But the trends have changed and the modern actors are more realistic. They no longer swear love by running in the meadows and mountains. They are getting westernized and do what comes naturally. The morals we extol in our movies are also commendable. Our censors try to make the films more education oriented though there is a lot of violence seen in some of the recent movies and this again is the influence of the changing times and a by-product of modern lifestyle like woman power, drugs, single parent family, breakup of the joint family and a shade of permissive life that is visible in high societies. 

Bollywood films are in great demand in Europe and America. As the Asian population increases in the West and the westerners take a liking for our movies after visiting India, there is a big hype for Indian movies that are also highly westernized and some are dubbed in English. Kabhi Alvida Nam Kena and Om Shanti Om and many others ran to packed houses in the west. Shah Rukh Khan the erstwhile badshah of Bollywood is a heartthrob in the West. Also Amitabh Bachhan and Rani Mukherjee. Naturally the going price for a single film that these public idols charge runs into crores. Such is the frenzy of the public for these demigods that their very brand commands the heavy remuneration they get. For example Shah Rukh Khan endorses 34 brands and he is more popular than the Olympic gold medallists or the cricket legends like Sachin Tendulkar. Recently Amitabh Bachhan went on a world tour with his son Abhisekh and daughter in law Aishwarya and also celebrities like Preity Zinta, Ritesh Deshmukh and they were joined in Los Angeles by Madhuri Dixit. It is so far proved very successful. 

Finally to choose talent among the upcoming aspirants, Bollywood fraternity have formed a Bollywood Club in Bombay. At this venue big names from Bollywood come shopping for talent, who in turn come face to face with the famous producers and directors, choreographers and lyricists. Kalpana Sharma writing on The Bombay Times says “Adding to the spice, Bollywood Club is the perfect setting for scoops, casting couch gossip and a whole load of inside masala”.

It is no secret though that the popularity of these film celebrities have automatically catapulted some of them on the country’s political scene. Govinda, Amitabh Bachchan, N.T. Rama Rao, M. V. Ramachandran and a host of others at some time entered politics. The Government of India also honored a lot of film personalities with national awards for their distinguished contribution to the country’s image abroad. Moreover Bollywood celebrities rise to the occasion during national calamities and contribute in millions towards genuine tragedies like the present floods in Bihar due to the ravages of the Kosi river. Bollywood gives generously to the deserving people displaying a high sense of social responsibility. As for the average Indian, movies is a great escape from the hardships and drudgery of life. As such films viewing has become a national obsession. Recently, besides screening the modern day situations, the film producers make films that project contemporary social and political issues. And as the public, nowadays, is more informed they can easily digest these films that make them more interested, and they participate with greater passion in the day to day affairs of the country’s destiny. Hence we can safely conclude that the contribution of Bollywood in the life of an average Indian is invaluable and the impact it makes on the international scene is quite formidable.