India turns out more motion pictures each year than any other country in the world. And Bollywood, the name given to the center of the Hindi film industry in Mumbai, India, is the dream factory for a great many of them.
On July 24, 1982, in the library of Bangalore University, Hindi film superstar Amitabh Bachchan, known in the media as “a one-man industry,” and around film studios—in mingled tones of envy and awe—as “God,” was shooting a film called Coolie. He spun around from a kick administered by a stuntman, fell heavily on a steel table, and ruptured his intestine. In the ensuing two weeks, while Bachchan, his body wrecked by serious medical complications, battled for his life, India came to a halt.
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi flew to Mumbai to see the stricken star, and her son, future prime minister, Rajiv, cut short a trip to the United States to visit his childhood friend. Directors and producers thronged to Breach Candy Hospital, fans kept a constant vigil, offering their blood, organs, anything that might save Bachchan’s life. Thousands more flocked to prayer meetings held across the city, in temples and mosques, to invoke blessings. An eight-year-old child reportedly fainted on the street when she heard the false rumor that Bachchan had succumbed. Indians living in Singapore closed up businesses when they heard the same report. Film director Ramesh Sippy noted: “The kind of emotion Amitabh has evoked among Indians across the globe is absolutely phenomenal.”
But it’s not surprising. In India, cinema is not entertainment. It’s a passion. Every day, millions of moviegoers flock to the 13,000-odd cinema halls scattered across the country to partake of a movable feast of spectacle, song, and dance. Since film production began in India in the early 1900s, India has made over 27,000 films in 52 languages. Today, India is the largest film-producing country in the world, making around 800 films annually.
Of these, 110-odd films come from the dream factories of Mumbai, also known as Bombay. The Bombay film industry or Bollywood, as it’s popularly known, is India’s Hindi film capital. Mumbai, home to more than 10 sprawling studios, churns out a variety of spectacles, ranging from big budget, multi-star movies to C-grade quickies made on threadbare budgets in 10 to 15 days. At any given time, 200-plus films are under production, with budgets ranging from $50,000 to over $5 million. The approximately $500-million industry employs around 100,000 people. Bollywood pays $15 million annually to the Mahārāshtra state treasury, but its contribution to the vitality of Mumbai is immeasurable.
Mumbai has occupied center stage in film history since the arrival of cinema in India. On July 7, 1896, the first ever film to be screened in India, six Lumière Brothers shorts, was shown at Mumbai’s Watson Hotel. Soon, enterprising Indians like Hiralal Sen in Calcutta and H. S. Bhatavdekar in Mumbai were making similar shorts. By 1912 there were efforts at filming stage plays, and Dadasaheb Phalke, widely acknowledged as the father of Indian cinema, had established Phalke Films in Mumbai. One year later, after pawning his wife’s jewelry and risking physical and financial ruin, he made Raja Harishchandra, India’s first feature film. A resounding success, it ran for over three weeks. In 1931 Ardeshir Marwan Irani, a Mumbai studio mogul, directed the first Indian talkie Alam Ara; in 1937 he produced India’s first indigenously processed color film, Kisan Kanya.
