Indian films have numerous narrative components. With a comprehensive look at the existing works in India's cinema industry, several main features can be considered for them that exist systematically in a large number of Indian films. Components such as interior characterization, the depiction of nostalgic sorrows, creating contrast between the poor and wealthy strata of society, and dealing with the theme of estrangement, reconciliation, and friendship constitute the main genre of the films for storytelling.
Over the life of the cinema industry of India, numerous filmmaking companies have taken shape and have increased cinematic productions over various years. These same filmmaking companies have placed Bollywood in first place in films produced and also in the number of tickets sold.
The world's leading filmmaking companies, such as Warner Brothers and Sony Pictures and Walt Disney and 20th Century Fox, by investing in India's cinema industry, have helped expand its territory. This is one of the most important and most effective events that has been underway for years in the Bollywood filmmaking industry.
According to statistics, in the history of Indian cinema Bollywood's standing has risen from 1000 Indian national feature films produced in 2005 to 1907 national feature films in 2015. The upward trend of Indian films on the reputable imdb website over several recent years also indicates that reputable productions of India's filmmaking industry are expanding.
The chart below displays the total number of screenings of Bollywood films produced inside India, broken down by year. This indicates Indians' enthusiastic reception of film distribution and also the high number of screenings of works.
Hollywood in India's cinema industry
In the natural cycle of cinema, some international works are placed in a country's film screening slate alongside domestic films. In India this rule is also occurring, but Hollywood's share is greater than that of other rivals. The table below shows the list of the world's highest-grossing films in the history of Hollywood cinema in India:
The most expensive Indian actors in Bollywood cinema
Famous Indian directors and actors have been introduced to the world of cinema and to audiences' minds over the life of Indian cinema. Many have been able, by making or acting in important films, to earn considerable incomes for themselves and for India's cinema industry. In the table you see below, the income of some of these most famous Indian actors in 2021 has been specified:
The number of cinema screens in India
India's cinema industry, with all its historical ups and downs and with all the bitterness and sweetness inside its works, today stands in first place in the volume of cinematic productions worldwide. Even so, however, in terms of gross revenue from the sale of works and also the number of cinema screens for screening and showing works, it has not been able to compete with its top rank at the production level and has been placed at a far lower grade than expected. But with a brief look at the figures of this Indian cinema industry, we will witness its progress in the mentioned fields over the next several years.
After the coronavirus period and its effects on the seventh art, the number of cinema screens fell to 9423 screens. That means for every one million people out of 4/1 billion people, there are only 7 screens for showing. This scale for China comes to 30 screens for every one million people out of 4/1 billion people, and for America to 125 screens for every one million people out of 331 million people. This is while during the coronavirus period, 1500 cinema halls across India were closed.
The pandemic also slowed the expansion of multiplex halls in India. Just as two large multiplex chains in India in 2019 had each established 69 new cinema screens. But this number in 2021 fell to 27 and 41, respectively. But now it is planned that by combining these two large chains, from now on 200 screens will be added annually to the cinema screens of India.
The highest-grossing films in the history of Indian cinema
Many Indian Bollywood films each have a specified amount of investment and ticket sales. Using the tables below, you see in order the highest-grossing and highest-earning films in Bollywood history and the most expensive Indian film produced:
Cultural diversity in India's cinema industry
Bollywood, alongside attention to global markets, has also remained grounded in its own regional culture and language. Given that India has 28 states and 8 union territories, each of these 36 regions has its own accent and dialects. Therefore the films made in this cinema form numerous languages. This subject points to linguistic diversity and also to India's attention to the culture of its regions. The chart below specifies the number of Indian films screened in this country by language in 2020 and 2019:
Indian cinema in the international arena
Despite the fact that India's cinema industry prides itself on the high number of films produced, from the perspective of gross revenue, however, it has been placed at a far lower level than imagined. This contradiction is created by numerous factors, but it is worth noting that the gross revenue of Indian cinema (1/2 billion dollars) compared with the gross revenue of Hollywood (11 billion dollars) is very small. But this industry grew 5/11 percent through 2020 and over two other years advanced with a 10 percent annual growth rate. The chart below shows the amount of Indian cinema's box office revenue compared with the cinema of leading countries with a distinctive style in the cinema and filmmaking industry:
Alongside fully Indian films produced, this country every year produces 1500 to 2000 films in the world's living and common languages. The number of languages covered by India's cinema industry can be estimated at about 20 languages. Ticket sales figures for Indian films produced in Indian cinema show third place for Bollywood among the cinema of other countries in the world in 2021.
India's film festivals
In order to become more familiar, the names of some of India's famous film festivals have been compiled below:
- International Film Festival of India IFFI, founded 1952
- Ladakh International Film Festival
- Dharamshala International Film Festival
- Mumbai Queer Film Festival
- Kolkata International Film Festival
- Bring Your Own Film Festival
The birth of world film festivals and their flourishing, for every country in the world, is a promise of a secure future from an economic perspective and also of strengthening reputation. India too has launched about 100 famous and reputable film festivals over several recent years. India's festivals, on the one hand, become a source for boosting the cycle of production and screening of domestic films, and on the other hand will bring considerable income in the arena of international films to India's economy.
Indian films that have won Oscars
It may be important for every country's cinema to be present every year at one of the world's largest prominent film festivals, namely the Oscars. Statistics show that Indian films have been able, from 1957 to 2022, to have on average one film each year as their representative at this large cinematic festival. But this statistic drops significantly for receiving an Oscar and even a nomination from the accepted works.
The impact of Indian cinema on other fields of art
Since cinema has a high intermingling with the other elements of the seven arts, it can certainly, with its own growth, also strengthen these sectors, or act in the opposite direction. India's cinema industry has also had a great impact on strengthening the field of music and has helped considerably with marketing in this category. Some Indian composers such as Pritam Chakraborty in 2019 earned around 978 million rupees. A.R. Rahman too in 2019 had about 948 million rupees in income from this industry. The art of music is one of the cases that, because of its overlap with the filmmaking industry, always falls under this rule.
Final remarks
The first feature-length silent narrative film for India was made by Dadasaheb Phalke. After that he established the first filmmaking studio in the city of Bombay. At that time perhaps few were aware of the brilliant future of Indian cinema. A future that turned India's cinema industry, that is, Bollywood, into one of the two leading poles of world cinema in terms of annual film production. The seventh art enjoys a very high reception among the people of India. In such a way that the people of this country see cinema as an important part of their daily life. This interest has had numerous effects such as the expansion of India's cinema filmmaking industry and its cultivation, job creation for local people, drawing foreign audiences' attention to the culture of the people of India, attracting the maximum audience, and increasing annual income.
Machine-translated from Persian by Namafar; the Persian original is authoritative. Read the original in Persian