From the black-and-white era to the OTT surge, Indian cinema has traversed a long road. In its every phase since India’s Independence, it has been influenced by the hopes, aspirations and fears of the people it has sought to entertain
Noor Jehan and Dilip Kumar in a still from ‘Jugnu’ (1947); A still from S.S. Rajamouli’s ‘RRR’ (2022)
In 1947, as India celebrated its Independence, the then reigning singing star of Hindi cinema, Noor Jehan, migrated to Pakistan. There were many more, however, who made the trip from Lahore to Bombay in the aftermath of Partition, and others who stayed back in Bombay, including Jehan’s Jugnu (1947) co-star Yusuf Khan a.k.a. Dilip Kumar, who went on to be hailed as one of India’s finest actors.
The film industry had been in business for nearly three decades but, with the birth of a liberated India, filmmakers took a patriotic turn as evident in films like Shaheed (1948), Naya Daur (1957) and Insaan Jaag Utha (1958). Filmmakers struck a fine balance between feelgood narratives and tales that highlighted the harsh socio-economic realities of a nation still trying to find its feet, with Satyajit Ray’s debut feature Pather Panchali (1955) putting Indian cinema on the global map.
By the 1960s, filmmaking took a technological leap with the advent of colour, even as the hero began to dance and romance, also in foreign locations. In the 1970s and ’80s, however, the rage and anguish of the marginalised Indian found expression in the works of filmmakers like Shyam Benegal, Govind Nihalani and Saeed Mirza. The 1980s also saw the Hindi film industry compete with television for eyeballs. But before one could say TV had killed the movie star, the trio of Khans—Aamir, Salman and Shah Rukh—entered the scene. Their arrival almost coincided with economic liberalisation, which led to films celebrating the aspirational Indian like Simran in Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge, who thought nothing of requesting her family for a Euro trip just before her wedding.
The 1990s saw the advent of satellite television, which ended Doordarshan’s monopoly and created an abundance of opportunities for a new generation of filmmakers, technicians and actors. This ‘MTV generation’ began seeking Hollywood films and even TV shows from the US, prompting cinema owners to up the audio-visual experience. Filmmaking saw yet more change with the entry of the multiplex. For every formulaic mainstream entertainer, there was also an ‘indie’ film that discarded filmy tropes and drew audiences with ingenious storytelling. More Indian films began making an impact at international film festivals. The arrival of YouTube in India in 2008 was another gamechanger as Indians began enjoying short-form content for free. Less than a decade later came subscriber video-on-demand platforms, with Hotstar, SonyLIV and Netflix offering original long-format content from across the world on mobiles. Thus was born a language-agnostic audience, open to watch dubbed or subtitled content. Perhaps why Rocky from K.G.F is not a Kannada film hero, but an Indian one.
