Media in Bihar

Bihar Bandhu was launched in 1872 by Keshav Ram Bhatta, a Maharashtrian Brahman who had settled in Biharsharif.

The beginning of the 20th century was marked by notable new publications, including a monthly magazine, Bharat Ratna, published in Patna in 1901.

E-papers, such as the Bihar Times and Patna Daily, have become very popular among educated Biharis, especially those living outside the region.

In 1918, Dr. Sachidanand Sinha started the first English news publication from Patna, published biweekly, called the Searchlight.

Many people supported the efforts to start Searchlight, anchored by a forward nationalist editorial outlook, including Dr. Rajendra Prasad, who was one of the founding members of the paper with Syed Hyder Hussain and Maheshwar Prasad being the Searchlight's first two editors.

In its first few decades, Murli Manohar Prasad was its longest-serving editor, who also went to jail for his outspoken style of articles in the newspaper against the British.

In 1947, it had a Hindi counterpart with the launch of Pradeep from Patna, which was the most sought-after source of news during the anti-corruption JP Movement of the early 1970s.

The Searchlight with Murli Manohar Prasad as the editor, printed several articles during 1928 and 1929 that interpreted various observations made by judges of the Patna High Court as derogatory and hurting the sentiments of the Hindu community.

Motilal Nehru, Sir Tej Narayan Sapru and Sarat Chandra Bose came as lawyers in Patna High Court in defence of Searchlight supporting the newspaper and its editor Murli Manohar Prasad.

The market leader in the English newspaper segment, the Times of India, soon followed suit, starting its Patna edition in the late 1980s.

[18] The industry took off again in 2001 with the hit Saiyyan Hamar ("My Sweetheart" directed by Mohan Prasad), which shot the film's lead actor, Ravi Kishan, to stardom.

[19] These successes led to dramatic increases in visibility, and the industry grew to support an awards show[20] and a trade magazine, Bhojpuri City[21] that chronicles the production and release of what are now over one hundred films per year.

Many Bollywood stars, including Amitabh Bachchan and Ajay Devgan have worked in Bhojpuri films.