In India Cinema has been a very important means of entertainment. Here, cinema has seen a century of growth, and it has gone very far in the heights of progress. Originally, in India the cinema was a movie only and it was called because we could only see the stars acting, and there was no sound, no talking, no dialogue and no songs. The audiences could only see action. As time passed by, these movies got converted into talkies and, at that time dialogues got introduced in the pictures. This made the movies more interesting and entertaining.
Also, in the beginning, cinema was only in black and white, but with the passage of time colour entered cinema and black and white pictures got converted to coloured films. Thus, with dialogues and colour films entered a phase of great improvement. This was not the end of the improvements due in cinema there was a lot more to come. In the early stages, each actor and actress had to sing his/ her songs. This curtailed the entry of stars in the movie career. However, our technical advancement soon saw to this problem and it was with the coming of background singing the restriction on entries to cinema got removed.
Soon people who could not sing also entered the career as, there was provision for another man/ woman to sing for him/her from the background. The problem of not taking in for acting people who could not sing was thus solved and Indian cinema saw another hurdle being crossed. Now with this impetus to those who could not sing, the entry of people in cinema was duly widened. With the passage of time there has been a continuous technological advancement in Indian cinema.
In the 20th Century, Indian cinema took huge strides towards growth and, today, at the turn of the 21st Century Indian cinema stands at par with Hollywood cinema. May be we still have a lot to learn from Hollywood but this much is undoubted that, Indian cinema stands second only to Hollywood, specially in terms of its turn out of movies and movie stars. In the earlier times with the orthodox views about dancing, singing and acting, cinema was not considered to be a respectable career, not meant to be followed by the youth of good respectable families.
However, today the boys and girls who join cinema as a career are children from good wealthy and respectable families, and cultured families. This is because there has been a sea change in the thinking processes of the modern people. Also, this change has helped in the improvement of the turn out of cinema. From the earliest times of the existence of cinema in India, it has always been the most popular and the cheapest mode of entertainment. This is why it got the impetus that brought it to this level of success, and its present size.
Even today, cinema in India is very popular but, with the advent of the TV and many other avenues for entertainment, it has become a little less important in the average person’s entertainment list. Besides, the VCP and VCR have further decreased the habit of going out to the cinema halls to see movies. When a picture is available at home, why would anyone like to go to a cinema hall? Thus, though going to cinema halls has come down the popularity of the cinema is still on the upward swing. The cinema in India has, in spite of all hazards retained its unchallenged popularity.
It still remains the most liked mode of entertainment both for the Indian gentry and the Indian masses. It is a matter of pride that, Indian cinema has not only remained popular in India, but it has increased its boundaries elsewhere in world. It is very popular in most of the foreign countries, more so due to the Millions of Indians residing in foreign countries. The latest position just heard about Indian cinema is that Cannes is interested in showing Indian cinemas over there – a great achievement of the cinema industry indeed – Kudos to the Indian cinema.
