Telugu Cinema

The cinema of Andhra Pradesh is the Telugu language film industry in India It is popularly known as Tollywood, as an analogue to the Hindi-language industry of Bollywood.

The state of Andhra Pradesh has the highest number of cinema halls in India. The industry has earned several Guinness records, including nods for the most films directed by male and female directors, the most films produced by a person and for having the largest film studio in the world.

The Telugu film industry originated with the silent film in 1912, with the production of Bhisma Pratighna. The film was directed by Raghupathi Venkaiah and his son R.S. Prakash. The two would go on to produce and direct dozens of films throughout the decade, casting theatre actors in major roles. They established a long-lasting precedent of focusing exclusively on religious themes; Nandanar; Gajendra Moksham and Matsyavatar three of their most famous productions, centred on religious figures, parables, and morals.

In 1931, the first Telugu film with audible dialogue, Bhakta Prahlada was produced by H.M. Reddy. Popularly known as 'talkies', films with sound quickly grew in number and fanbase. In 1934, the industry saw its first major commercial success with Lavakusa. Directed by C. Pullaiah and starring Parupalli Subbarao and Srianjani in lead roles, the film attracted unprecedented numbers of viewers to theatres and thrust the young film industry into mainstream culture.

The outbreak of World War II and the subsequent resource scarcity caused the British Raj to impose a limit on the use of filmstrip in 1943 to 11,000 feet, a sharp reduction from the 20,000 feet that was common till then. As a result, the number of films produced during the War was substantially lower than in previous years. Nonetheless, prior to the ban, an important shift occurred in the industry: independent studios formed, actors and actresses were signed to contracts limiting who they could work for, and films moved from social themes to folklore legends. 1942's Balanagamma typified these changes: the film featured fantasy elements of cultural lore, was produced by Gemini Studios, and its producers added a restricting clause to the lead actress' contract. By 1947, nearly all films were produced by studios with contracted actors. Till date 11567 films are made.

Distributors of Slumdog

Distributors for Slumdog Millionaire

Prokino Filmverleih GmbH, Svensk Filmindustri (SF), Cineart, ABLO, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution, Pathe International, Icon Entertainment International, Lucky Red, Myndform, 20th Century Fox International, Gulf Film, Celador Films, Distribution Company, Acme Film, 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, Forum Film (Bulgaria), Volga, Filmladen GmbH, Bontonfilm, FS Film Oy, Silverbird Cinemas, Svensk Filmindustri Norway, Monopole Pathe Films AG

List of Globalisation Theories

McLuhan 1960
Suggested idea of ‘the global village’. Globalization would be the product of society being ‘increasingly mediated’.

Robertson 1994
Globalization is both the compression of the world and the intensification of consciousness of the world as a whole

Waters 1995
In a globalized world there will be a single society and culture occupying the planet… it will be a society without borders and spatial boundaries. We can define globalization as a social process in which the constraints of geography on social and cultural arrangements recede and in which people become increasingly aware that they are receding.

Moores 2005
Globalization does not marginalize our interest in national or local issues but instead makes our ideas instantaneously pluralized so we can virtually visit lots of individual places rather than experiencing one homogenous ‘world’.

Bauman 1998
Globalization divides as much as it unites; it divides as it unites – the causes of division being identical with those which promote the uniformity of the globe. What appears as globalization for some means localization for others; signalling a new freedom to some , upon many others it descends as an uninvited and cruel fate.

Lull 2006
Although the new electronic networks have partially replaced the relatively stable and enduring traditional communities with which we are accustomed, they also facilitate countless highly specialized social and cultural connections that otherwise would not take place. Millions of people all over the world are taking advantage. As technological and cultural landscapes evolve, the sense of belonging and community does not disappear, it changes shape.

Irvine 2006
At the extreme, modern media simply dissolves time, distance, place and local culture that once divided the globe. In effect we are putting all our cultural eggs in one basket.

McMillin 2007
The cultural and social implications of global market strategies are important. We must examine globalization processes from the ground, from the level of lived experiences.

Slumdog Research List

Slumdog Research List

• Scripting
• Directors and Producers with Nationalities
• Music
• Casting
• Crew
• Post-production
• Awards Won
• Sets
• Finances
• Production Companies
• Distribution
• Revenues
• Languages
• Subtitles
• Influences on

The British Film Industry

British cinema has intended to emphasize the story or drama over the 'look' and 'style' of the film because scripts are generally cheaper than the technical wherewithal artistic expertise to create a film.

The British were poor at distribution because they didn't have the finances to back the films

British stars are better known for their work in Hollywood than they are in the UK

A spokesman from polyman (A major distributer) Says:

‘The British film industry is renowned for its creativity but we need to improve distribution

and training, get closer to our audiences and take a more global perspective.

Only then will British film have a brighter future in the worldwide movie business.’

British film needs to be distinctive and profitable- a successful British film ensures profits are returned to Britain and these profits can be used to make other films, having the money to make films ensures a greater diversity of films appealing to a wider audience.

Indian Film Influences

Copied from http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2008/12/slumdog-millionaires-bollywood-ancestors.html

Slumdog Millionaire's Bollywood Ancestors

by Amitava Kumar

December 23, 2008, 6:00 PM

Slumdog Millionaire has a pedigree. Its director, Danny Boyle, says there are at least three Bollywood films that inspired him directly. Those films were themselves influenced by a long family tree that stretches back to the last days of the nineteenth century.

Here, then, is a list of Slumdog’s ten most flamboyant and influential Bollywood ancestors:

Black Friday (2004). This film, by young director Anurag Kashyap depicts the March 1993 bomb blasts that tore apart Bombay (as Mumbai used to be called). It was based on a book by journalist S. Hussain Zaidi and filmed in an edgy, realistic style. A famous sequence from the film, a 12-minute police chase through the crowded Dharavi slum, is mimicked by Danny Boyle in the opening scene of Slumdog Millionaire, where truant slum-kids take the place of Black Friday’s militants.

Satya (1998) a.k.a The Truth. This film was also cited by Boyle as an inspiration, as was The Company (2002). Both offer slick, often mesmerizing portrayals of the Mumbai underworld. Both films were directed by Ram Gopal Varma, a director with a fine taste for brutality and urban violence. The screenplay for Satya was co-written by Saurabh Shukla (who plays a policeman named Srinivas in Slumdog Millionaire) and Anurag Kashyap, who directed Black Friday; with its intense rhythm and captivating performances, Satya instantly became a contemporary classic in India.

Deewaar (1975) a.ka. The Wall. Boyle describes this melodramatic film as being “absolutely key to Indian cinema.” He could be talking about scores of Bollywood films. Based in Bombay, the hit crime film pits a policeman against his brother, a gang leader based on real-life smuggler Haji Mastan. The actor who played the gangster, was Amitabh Bachchan (who, incidentally, was the original host of the Indian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? As a kid, Jamal, the protagonist in Slumdog Millionaire,wades through fecal waste just to get Bachchan’s autograph.

Parinda (1989) a.k.a. The Bird. Another hugely popular thriller about two very different brothers, this time a Bombay gangster and an educated idealist. Film critics gush over the “low-angle tracking shots and swiftly changing volumes in the image” in this film by Vidhu Vinod Chopra. The actor playing the straight-and-narrow brother, Anil Kapoor, now nearly two decades later, plays the creepy, condescending game-show host in Slumdog Millionaire.

Shri 420 (1955) a.k.a. Mr. 420. One of the series of films made by Bollywood’s Chaplinesque showman, Raj Kapoor, playing on the image of the tramp. Shri 420 reprises the theme of innocence adrift on the mean streets of Bombay. While Jamal’s connection to the wider world in Slumdog Millionaire comes through his job serving tea at an international call-center, the hero of Shri 420 explains his brand of worldliness through this song: “My shoes are Japanese / My trousers are English / The red cap on my head is Russian / But, for all that, my heart remains Indian.”

Devdas (1928, 1935, 1936, 1937, 1953, 1955, 1979, 2002). Devdas was the protagonist of a 1917 Bengali novel that told the story of a young man’s love for his childhood friend, Paro. When the two are not allowed to marry, Devdas goes away to Calcutta and falls in love with a beautiful dancer, Chandramukhi. The love that Devdas and Paro have for each other remains alive but unfulfilled. When Boyle talks of the Bollywood motif of “eternal love” and of “everlasting love that’s pure” he could be describing nearly all Hindi films, but Devdas is the best-known example. The latest adaptation of the novel, directed by Sanjay Leela Bhansali, is the most spectacular of all of them. Love born during the days of childhood, like that between Jamal and Latika in Slumdog Millionaire, remains a beacon through life’s turbulent passage—and through countless, and often stunningly beautiful, song and dance sequences.

Bandit Queen (1994). Director Shekhar Kapur’s intelligent film about real-life bandit Phoolan Devi, a low-caste woman who became a member of the Indian parliament, prefigured Boyle’s interest the slums. Bandit Queen is more realistic than Slumdog Millionaire, and represents a break from Bollywood in its refusal to provide easy redemption. This branch of the Indian film family is an offshoot of new wave Hindi cinema associated with venerable names like Shyam Benegal (Ankur, Nishant) and Govind Nihalani (Aakrosh, Ardha Satya), names that are almost pushed aside by the new generation of glitzy, glamorous film-makers like Sanjay Leela Bhansali and even, now, Danny Boyle.

Monsoon Wedding (2001). Made by New York-based Indian director Mira Nair, and financed by companies outside India, this isn’t technically a Bollywood film. But Sabrina Dhawan’s screenplay about a Punjabi wedding in New Delhi reveals an authentic sensibility that beautifully captures the emotional undercurrents of modern life in urban India. Like Slumdog Millionaire, Monsoon Wedding has a novel, captivating soundtrack that combines Bollywood tradition with innovative sounds.

Guide (1965). Any film made about India for the Western viewer needs to have the obligatory shot of the Taj Mahal in Agra. In Slumdog Millionaire, our hero Jamal ends up there, accidentally becoming a tour guide at the famous monument. Boyle borrows this idea from Vikas Swarup’s novel, Q&A, on which the film is loosely based. Swarup has the accidental tour guide take on a new name, Raju, an obvious homage to the hero of Vijay Anand’s popular 1960s film

Maqbool (2003). Vishal Bharadwaj’s Maqbool is a brilliant adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth set in Mumbai’s underworld. Irrfan Khan, the actor with insomniac eyes who plays Maqbool also appears in Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire as the police interrogator. In its sensitive portrayal of corruption—the way in which ambition and illicit desire can hollow out honesty—the film achieves devastating power. This is Bollywood at its best.

Bengali Cinema

Today, there are two Bengali film industries, one in Kolkata, the Cinema of West Bengal is one of many centres for Indian regional filmmaking and the other one is in Dhaka called the Cinema of Bangladesh is the main national film industry of Bangladesh.

Brief Bengali cinema history

The history of cinema in Bengal dates back to the 1890s, when the first "bioscopes" were shown in theatres in Kolkata, West Bengal. A bioscope is an old fashioned projector which at the time was used to show clips of moving image. Within a decade, Hiralal Sen (a Bengali photographer) set up the Royal Bioscope Company, producing scenes from the stage productions of a number of popular shows at the Star Theatre, Minerva Theatre and the Classic Theatre. Following a long gap after Sen's works, Dhirendra Nath Ganguly (a film enterpreneur/actor/director of Bengali Cinema) established Indo British Film Co, the first Bengali owned production company, in 1918. But, the first Bengali Feature film, Billwamangal, was produced in 1919, under the banner of Madan Theatre. The Madan Theatre production of Jamai Shashthi was the first Bengali motion picture with sound.

Cinema of West Bengal history

The contribution of Bengali film industry to Indian film is hugely significant.

The Bengali film industry has produced classics such as Nagarik, The Apu Trilogy, Jalsaghar, Devdas, Devi, etc. The Apu Trilogy is now frequently listed among the greatest films of all time.

The most well known Bengali actor to date has been Uttam Kumar; he and co-star Suchitra Sen were known as The Eternal Pair in the early 1950s. One of the most well known Bengali actresses was Sharmila Tagore, who debuted in Ray's The World of Apu, and became a major actress in Bengali cinema as well as Bollywood.

In the 1980s, the Bengal film industry went through a period of turmoil, with a shift to an approach more imitating the increasingly more popular Hindi films, along with a decline in the audience and critical appreciation. However, toward the end of the 90s, with a number of directors becoming increasingly well known, many popular and critically acclaimed movies were being produced.

The market for Bengali films has expanded to a 340-million-strong Bengali audience in Bangladesh,West Bengal, Tripura and Assam. The industry could truly flourish if films from this state had a proper distribution network. Whilst around 50 films are produced in West Bengal every year, on average only about 30 make it to the movie theatres.

Bangladeshi Film Industry

As of 2004, the Bangladeshi film industry produced approximately 100 movies. Only a handful of directors from Bangladesh have attained critical acclaim for their outstanding work.

Bangladesh has been officially submitting nominations for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film since 2003. Masud's Matir Moina (The Clay Bird) was the first film to be submitted, and it won a number of other international awards.