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Silent Era |
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 The birth of the Indian Film Industry was marked with silence. Not because it was an inauspicious start but because of a minor technical handicap- the fact that sound recording was not yet fully developed. One figure clearly dominates the early life of Indian Cinema and its Dadasaheb Phalke. Though the first feature film made in India was a narrative named Pundalik, by N.G. Chitre and R.G. Torney the credit of the first full-length Indian feature film is attributed to this luminaire. Raja Harishchandra was completed in 1913 and released commercially in May that year.Based on the legend of Harishchandra, recounted in Ramayana and Mahabharata, this film gave birth to an industry which was to become the largest of its kind in the world. The germ of this film was born four years before the release of them film itself. After viewing “The Life of Jesus Christ” in Bombay (Mumbai) Phalke said to himself -"Like the Life of Christ we shall make pictures on Rama and Krishna…. Armed with a Williamson camera, a perforating machine, developing and printing equipment and some raw stock Phalke set out for a hitherto untaken journey. Very soon he launched what was to be a landmark in the history of Indian Cinema, Raja Harishchandra. This film was based on the mythological tale about an honest king who prioritizes his principles above everything and sacrifices his kingdom and family for it. The gods impressed with his honesty restore him to his former glory.
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| India was soon recognised as a potentially important film market and in 1916, Universal Pictures set up Hollywood's first Indian agency. Opretty soon the regional cinema hubs mushroomed all over the country the prominene one amongst them are the Tamil one (in Chennai), Bengali (Kolkata) and Telugu (Hyderabad). However, at least 80 percent of films shown in India in the late 1920s were American. Though about twenty-one studios manufactured local films, none of them could gain the popularity o the more polished American films. |
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| The End of the Silent Era |
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 With the introduction of the sound, like in every other film industry, Alam Ara, the first Indian talkie, ushered in an entertainment revolution in the country. The introduction of sound into cinema came on March 14, 1931. This was around18 long years after the first feature film "Raja Harishchandra". The end of this era also meant the end of many successful careers, which had thrived in the relatively cushioned world of silent films: many actors and actresses where unceremoniously disposed off by studios because they didn’t sound “pleasant enough”. However such unfortunate incidents belie the achievement of motion picture advancement in India. Today Cinema is a way of life in India. |
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