The history of the golden Hindi cine field dates back to those days when India gave birth to movies. To be honest, Hindi cine field is exact formula of cinema, the fictional world where heroes are exceptionally handsome and always right, heroines are extremely pretty and gorgeous and their villains are ultimately venomous and cunning. These three characters are elaborately supported by supplementary cast of friends, mother roles, henchmen, patriarchs, bumbling fools, siblings and many others. These artificial characters can very well jump into dance, laughter and song as easily as they out pour their heats, weep and howl.

The first film to be shot in India is Raja Harishchandra by Dhundiraj Govind Phalke who initiated the cinema field with entire Indian crews. The film was a mythological tale. This was followed by a stretch of Indian mythology movies. Later on, in 1930s and also in 1940s, various historical epics, filmed biographies, legendary romances and several other principal genres were released.
Dadasaheb Phalke’s Raja Harishchandra in 1913 is referred to be India’s first silent film. By 1930s, the film industry was releasing about 200 movies in a year. India’s first sound film in 1931, Ardeshir Irani’s Alam Ara was a blockbuster. There came good marketing era for musicals and talkies and hence the entire Bollywood and all other regional film industries swiftly turned towards sound filming.

It was a crucial period during 1930s and 1940s. India was engaged with Great Depression, the World War II, Indian Independence movement and partition violence. Most of the films in Bollywood escaped unabashedly but many filmmakers were subjected to tough social notions or employed the struggle for independent India as a background for their subject.

In the year 1937, Alam Ara’s famous producer Ardeshir Irani produced first color movie in Hindi by the name Kisan Kanya. The following year, he released another color movie, Mother India. But color did not fascinate people till late 1950s. During this period, melodramas and luxurious romantic musicals were the hot topic in the cine field.

Golden Age of Bollywood

The golden era of Indian cinema got parted during the independence struggle in 1950s. This historical era delivered strong impression to movie industry with their hard core themes focused on social issues relevant during that period. Definitely, they entertained people and they used it as a powerful medium to communicate to the masses.

In the decades of 1950s and 1960s, India produced highly notable movies and most remembered actors. Some of the prominent figures among them are Dilip Kumar, Madhubala, Meena Kumari, Bimal Roy, Nargis, Balraj Sahani, Raj Kapoor, Mehboob Khan and Guru Dutt.

When Bimal Roy and Guru Dutt hold audiences in their hands, the Indian cine field moved a step ahead by releasing K Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam in the year 1960. This movie initiated the fashion of romantic movies in all parts of India.

As commercial movies carried their own name and fame among movie lovers, India art movies also made their presence significant. Many art movie directors including Shaji Karun, Satyajit Ray, Aravindan, Ritwik Ghatak and Adoor Gopalakrishnan took Indian movies to international name and glory.

Bollywood’s Modern Cinema

Towards the end of 1960s and early 1970s, action packed movies and romantic films starring actors including Shashi Kapoor, Sanjeev Kumar, Dharmendra and Rajesh Khanna and actresses including Asha Parekh, Mumtaz and Sharmila Tagore ruled the film industry. During the muddle of 1970s, there was a trend for violent and gritty films based on gangsters (Indian mafias) and also on bandits. At this time, Amitabh Bachchan, the renowned film star known well for his roles as ‘angry young man’ drive this trend with several actors like Anil Kapoor and Mithun Chakraborty who were in the field till early 1990s. Actresses like Rekha, Jaya Bachchan and Hema Malini were predominant at this time.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the trend was back on family based romantic music films like Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak in the year 1988, Maine Pyar Kiya in 1989, Hum Aapke Hain Kaun in 1994 and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge in the year 1995. This era witnessed the outcome of new stars like Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan and actresses like Kajol, Juhi Chawla, Madhuri Dixit and Sridevi. During this period, comedy and action based movies also displayed their success starring Govinda and actresses Karishma Kapoor and Raveena Tandon. Akshay Kumar, the known stunt actor also gained his own popularity by carrying out dangerous stunts in several action movies including Khiladi (was released in series).

The year 2000 saw tremendous growth of Bollywood popularity in international level. The overall film industry improved a lot in terms of innovative and unique story, beautiful cinematography and excellent quality along with ultra modern techniques like animation, special effects and many more. New ultra modern films were produced by largest production units like Dharma Productions and Yash Raj Films.

Bollywood had resisted the production of movies targeted towards narrow audience and it started preferring movies that target all segments of audience. They believe that broad spectrum movies will ultimately expand their box office collection. However, there are few exceptions where few films were produce to appeal audience in rural areas and there are films to please overseas and urban audience.