Indian Cinema

Indian Cinema History:-

     After the screening of a few films produced by Lumiere brothers , British film makers began scouting for locations in India to shot a few scenes for their films .With the “The Wrestlers” , the first ever film to be shot in India proving to be a commercial success , India became a key market for screening of motion pictures.

      In 1913 , The first ever feature length Indian film “Raja Harishchandra” produced and directed by Dadhasaheb Phalke was released and turned out to be a commercial success , Establishing Phalke as a reputed producer and director , he is widely regarded as the pioneer of Indian Cinema.

     However after the emergence of sound films with commercial elements that have more appeal to the masses , Artistic filmmakers like Phalke began to disappear , the legend directed his first sound film titled Gangavataram  , The film was  released  on 1937 , is widely regarded  as the biggest commercial failure in his 19 years film career , and subsequently is also the last film he directed before his death.

Revolution of sound films:-

         In 1931 , Ardeshir Irani produced and directed India’s first sound film with dialogues in Urdu , and 6 years late made Kisan Kanya which happens to be India’s first color film .But was only a moderate success commercially as the cost involved in color grading was very expensive at that time , but yet sound films were still more affordable for producers and audience , hence this marked the beginning of the expansion of the revolution of sound films in India.

Parallel Cinema:-

      The Parallel Cinema is widely regarded as one of the significant movements in Indian Cinema which brought realism , naturalism , content and socio political concepts based films as an counterpart to mainstream commercial cinema.

    It originated in Bengali Cinema led by acclaimed film maker Satyajit Ray who is regarded as the most realistic Indian film director of all time. Sathyajit Ray said that the Italian film The Bicycle Thieves and French film The River were the inspiration for his debut film and many other films that he went on to make. His Abu Trilogy is considered as the greatest Indian film Trilogy of all time.

    Other directors like Guru Dutt , Bimal Roy and particularly Chetan Anand also had a major share in the revolution of parallel cinema , with his film Nechaa Nagar which won the grand prize at Cannes Film Festival and over the years 1950s and 1960s , several Indian Independent films competed for the prestigious award.

    In early 70s era , Parallel Cinema began to show significant growth in Hindi Cinema . It was led by directors like Gulzar , Shyam Benegal and Mani Kaul , the latter’s early films like Uski Roti , Ashahh Ka Ek Din , Duvidha got rave reviews from International critics   and over the years they passed on the torch to directors like Mahesh Bhatt and Govind Nihalani . The Parallel Cinema was also responsible for the emergence of a young breed of actors who went to become legends like Naseeruddin Shah , Om Puri , Pankaj Kapoor etc.

    Adoor Gopala Krishnan extended support for parallel cinema in Malayalam Language with his film Swayamvaram , he is considered as the Sathyajit Ray of Malayalam Cinema.

    However rise of production costs , and domination of commercial films began to overshadow parallel cinema . Underworld Financing , Piracy and no guarantee in return of Investment only made things worse .

     A few years later things started to change as  Ram Gopal Varma’s Satya which is considered as one of the greatest Gangster films ever made was released on July 3rd  1998.The film which starred JD Chakravarthy in the lead was a critical and commercial success , thus set the ball rolling for the resurgence of parallel cinema .

    Mani Rathnam who was well known for his directional work in method actor Kamal Haasan’s  Nayagan forayed into Hindi Cinema with Yuva  a Neo-Noir Political-Crime-Drama , The film which was simultaneously made in Tamil Cinema as Ayutha Ezuthu  with a different actors released to highly positive reviews , while the Tamil Version was a financial success , The Hindi version was a below average at the box office , but is still considered as a major breakthrough in reestablishing parallel cinema.

    The film’s response gave enough confidence for versatile directors to make artistic films . Among the directors Anurag Kashyap was considered the best , his Black Friday is a major success both in Ticket Windows and among film critics.

     In Tamil Cinema Directors like Bala and Mani Rathnam were regarded as pioneers in spreading the wave. Mani Rathnam’s Roja , Bombay , Kanathil Muthamital were straight forward takes of terrorism in India . Bala’s Sethu , Nanda , Pithamagan were noted for its realism involving raw portrayal of anger , fights and dark emotions . All these films also had a fantastic run in theaters.

After the downfall of these directors who faced a major setback with their subsequent films getting hash reviews , panned by critics and audience alike , Vasantha Balan and Balaji Shakthivel emerged. Vasantha Balan’s debut film Veyil and his second film Angadi Theru were moderate successes at the box office but universal acclaim. Balaji Shakthivel who began his career with a semi-commercial film “Samurai” faded from the spotlight after its disastrous run at the box office , but later returned to direct Kadhal and Vazhaku En 18/9 , both these films were noted for featuring tales of innocent people and their suffering because of Anti-social elements .

    After Balaji Sakthivel returned , Prabhu Solomon a director who suffered partially the same fate as Balaji returned with a film titled Mynaa and later Kumki , both these films went on to have cult following among the audience notably for its heart warming narration supported rural folk music , Critics responded positively to his change in style of film making , as latest offerings were money spinners at the ticket windows , Producers were ready to invest their hard earned money in his films.

Economy/Trading:-

        India has about 10,020 screens with a average gross income of about $1.5 billion per year , in which Tamil Cinema produces the most number of films every year while Hindi Cinema generates the major part of the revenue. Lets take a look at the production , distribution and exhibition methods of trading films.

 

There are three popular approaches to transfer of distribution rights via distribution contracts:

1.   Minimum Guarantee + Royalty – Here, the producer sells the distribution rights for a defined territory for a minimum lump sum irrespective of the box office performance of the film. Any surplus is shared between the producer and distributor, in a pre-set ratio (typically 1:2) after deducting entertainment tax, show rentals, commission, print costs and publicity costs. Effectively, the distributor becomes a "financier" in the eyes of the market. This is the most common channel available to high budget producers.

2.   Commission – Here, the distributor pays the producer the entire box office collection after deducting commission. So, the entire risk of box office performance of the film remains with the producer. This is the most common channel available to low budget producers.

3.   Outright Sale – Here, the producer sells all distribution and theatrical rights for a defined territory exclusively to a distributor. Effectively, the distributor becomes a "producer" in the eyes of the market. So, the entire risk of box office performance of the film remains with the distributor.

 Some of the Important films of Indian Cinema:-

 1)The Abu Trilogy(Bengali)

2)Mother India (Hindi)

3)Salaam Bombay(Hindi)

4)Nayagan(Tamil)

5)Lagaan (Hindi)

6)Taare Zameen Par(Hindi)

7)3 Idiots (Hindi)

8) Harishchandrachi Factory(Marathi)

9)Hum Aapke Hain Koun(Hindi)

10)Roja(Tamil)

11)Shiva(Telugu)

12)Athadu(Telugu)

13)Ninne Pelladata(Telugu)

14)Veera Pandiya Kataboman(Tamil)

15)Swayamvaram(Malayalam)

16)Vazhaku En 18/19(Tamil)

17)Indian(Tamil)

18)Karnan(Tamil)

19)Black Friday(Hindi)

20)Yuva/Ayutha Ezhuthu(Hindi/Tamil)