BollywoodFAQ_galley

A Century of Bollywood
11
pre-song moments, resulted in some unprecedented rough onscreen
foreplay.
29. 1952—Pakistan bans the importation of Indian films to protect its fledgling
motion picture industry.
30. 1952—Actor Jagdish Raj dons the police uniform for the first time, in CID.
He goes on to wear this costume in a record-breaking 144 films.
31. 1954—Bimal Roy’s Do Bigha Zameen (Two Acres of Land) wins the
International Prize at the Seventh Cannes Film Festival, and the Social
Progress Award at Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. Back home,
it wins the Best Director award for Bimal Roy at the first Filmfare Awards
(the Bollywood “Oscars”), starting Roy’s consecutive winning streak from
1953–1955. Inspired by Italian neo-realist cinema, the critical and commercial
success Do Bigha Zameen paves the way for other Indian filmmakers
to attempt similar films in the 1950s.
32. 1955—New Theatres releases its last feature film. Prabhat Film Company
had ceased production in 1953, and Bombay Talkies in 1954. With the
shutting down of New Theatres, the curtain falls on Indian cinema’s first
Big Three studios.
33. 1955—Satyajit Ray’s Pather Panchali (Song on the Little Road), the first of
a trilogy of films to follow the life of a poor village kid, Apu, from childhood
to parenthood, is released. Its world premiere at the Museum of
Raj Kapoor and Nargis in Awara.
Photo courtesy of NFAI