Following the screening of the Lumière and Robert Paul moving pictures in London in 1896, commercial cinematography became a worldwide sensation and these films were shown in Bombay (now Mumbai) that same year.

[citation needed] Films steadily gained popularity across India as affordable entertainment for the masses (admission as low as an anna [one-sixteenth of a rupee] in Bombay).

[78] IPTA plays, such as Nabanna (1944), prepared the ground for realism in Indian cinema, exemplified by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas's Dharti Ke Lal (Children of the Earth, 1946).

Mainly led by Bengalis,[87] early examples include Dharti Ke Lal (1946, Khwaja Ahmad Abbas),[88] Neecha Nagar (1946, Chetan Anand),[89] Nagarik (1952, Ritwik Ghatak)[90][91] and Do Bigha Zamin (1953, Bimal Roy), laying the foundations for Indian neorealism[92] The Apu Trilogy (1955–1959, Satyajit Ray) won prizes at several major international film festivals and firmly established the parallel cinema movement.

[99] Film historian Randor Guy called Malliswari scripted by Devulapalli Krishnasastri a "poem in celluloid, told with rare artistic finesse, which lingers long in the memory".

[100] Commercial Hindi cinema began thriving, including acclaimed films Pyaasa (1957) and Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959, Guru Dutt) Awaara (1951) and Shree 420 (1955, Raj Kapoor).

[126] Hindi commercial cinema continued with films such as Aradhana (1969), Sachaa Jhutha (1970), Haathi Mere Saathi (1971), Anand (1971), Kati Patang (1971) Amar Prem (1972), Dushman (1972) and Daag (1973).[importance?]

[136] This resulted in their creation of the "angry young man", personified by Amitabh Bachchan,[136] who reinterpreted Kumar's performance in Gunga Jumna[129][133] and gave a voice to the urban poor.

Commercial Hindi cinema grew in the 1980s, with films such as Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981), Disco Dancer (1982), Himmatwala (1983), Tohfa (1984), Naam (1986), Mr India (1987), and Tezaab (1988).

At the end of the decade, Yash Chopra's Chandni (1989) created a new formula for Bollywood musical romance films, reviving the genre and defining Hindi cinema in the years that followed.

[184] Varma experimented with close-to-life performances by the lead actors, which bought a rather fictional storyline a sense of authenticity at a time when the industry was being filled with commercial fillers.

The film dealt with exploratory dystopian and apocalyptic themes, taking the audience through a post-apocalyptic experience via time travel and folklore from 1526 CE, including a romantic subplot.

[197] It received national and international acclaim for Rajamouli's direction, story, visual effects, cinematography, themes, action sequences, music, and performances, and became a record-breaking box office success.

Actors like Prabhas, Allu Arjun, Ram Charan and N. T. Rama Rao Jr. enjoy a nationwide popularity among the audiences after the release of their respective Pan-Indian films.

[222][223] Fazil's Manichitrathazhu (1993), scripted by Madhu Muttam, is inspired by a tragedy that happened in an Ezhava tharavad of Alummoottil meda' (an old traditional house) located at Muttom, Alappuzha district, with a central Travancore Channar family, in the 19th century.

[234] Set in the late 1970s and early 1980s the series follows Raja Krishnappa Bairya aka Rocky (Yash), a Mumbai-based high ranking mercenary born in poverty, to his rise to power in the Kolar Gold Fields and the subsequent uprising as one of the biggest gangster and businessman at that time.

[237] Rishab Shetty's Kantara (2022), received acclaim for showcasing the Bhoota Kola, a native Ceremonial dance performance prevalent among the Hindus of coastal Karnataka.

Ray cited Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves (1948) and Jean Renoir's The River (1951), on which he assisted, as influences on his debut film Pather Panchali (1955).

[61] The British funded wartime propaganda films during the Second World War, some of which showed the Indian army pitted against the Axis powers, specifically the Empire of Japan, which had managed to infiltrate India.

[273] The "youthful coming-of-age dramas that flooded art houses since the mid-fifties owe a tremendous debt to the Apu trilogy", according to the film critic Michael Sragow.

[295] Playback singers such as Mohammad Rafi, Lata Mangeshkar, Kishore Kumar, Asha Bhosle, Mukesh, S. Janaki, P. Susheela, K. J. Yesudas, S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, K. S. Chithra, Anuradha Paudwal, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Alka Yagnik, Sadhana Sargam, Shreya Ghoshal ,Sunidhi Chauhan, Kumar Sanu, Udit Narayan, Abhijeet and Sonu Nigam drew crowds to presentations of film music.

Other locations include Manali and Shimla in Himachal Pradesh; Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir; Ladakh; Darjeeling in West Bengal; Ooty and Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu; Amritsar in Punjab; Udaipur, Jodhpur, Jaisalmer and Jaipur in Rajasthan; Delhi; Ottapalam in Kerala; Goa and Puducherry.

[300] Films are made in many cities and regions in India including Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, Assam, Bengal, Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu, Kashmir, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Goa, Kerala, Maharashtra, Manipur, Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Mizoram.

Braj-language films present Brij culture mainly to rural people, predominantly in the nebulous Braj region centred around Mathura, Agra, Aligarh and Hathras in Western Uttar Pradesh and Bharatpur and Dholpur in Rajasthan (northern India).

[307][308] Bhojpuri-language films predominantly cater to residents of western Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh and also have a large audience in Delhi and Mumbai due to the migration of Bhojpuri speakers to these cities.

[309] Bhojpuri film history begins with Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo (Mother Ganges, I will offer you a yellow sari, 1962, Kundan Kumar).

Deepa Mehta, Anant Balani, Homi Adajania, Vijay Singh, Vierendrra Lalit and Sooni Taraporevala have garnered recognition in Indian English cinema.

[327] Art film directors include Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihalani, Shyam Benegal,[87] Mira Nair, Nagesh Kukunoor, Sudhir Mishra and Nandita Das.

Among the notable Manipuri films are Imagi Ningthem (1982, Aribam Syam Sharma), Ishanou, Yenning Amadi Likla, Phijigee Mani, Leipaklei, Loktak Lairembee, Eikhoishibu Kanano, Eikhoigi Yum and Oneness.

Many of Tamil Nadu's prominent Chief Ministers previously worked in cinema: Dravidian stalwarts C N Annadurai and M Karunanidhi were scriptwriters and M G Ramachandran and Jayalalithaa gained a political base through their fan followings.