BollywoodFAQ_galley

A Century of Bollywood
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and an influential singing voice for four generations of leading ladies/
heroines.
23. 1947—India wins independence, but the Indian subcontinent is partitioned
into two nations, India and Pakistan. Partition reshuffles the population,
especially in the border states of Punjab and Bengal, and their
leading film industry centers. Bombay emerges as the biggest, while
Calcutta is reduced to a regional-language cinema center, making Bengali
films. The Lahore film industry is shattered, giving way to Karachi as the
filmmaking capital of Pakistan. Thousands of South Asians also migrate
to Britain and East Africa, leading to the creation of specialist cinemas in
those countries showing Bollywood films.
24. 1948—Bollywood’s most influential post-Independence auteur, Raj
Kapoor, establishes his RK Films banner at the age of twenty-four, with
the release of Aag (Fire). In 1950, he builds the iconic RK Studio, which
becomes the most influential hub in the film industry, while establishing
Kapoor and his extended family of actors as Bollywood’s “First Family of
Film.” The RK Studio logo is inspired from a pose featuring Raj Kapoor
Shobhana Samarth as Queen Sita coloring an image of King Rama, in a still from Vijay Bhatt’s Ram
Rajya.
Photo courtesy of NFAI