Bhojpuri cinema

Bhojpuri cinema is the segment of Indian cinema dedicated to the production of motion pictures in the Bhojpuri language widely spoken in the state of Eastern Uttar Pradesh and Bihar with major production centres in Lucknow and Patna.^[2][3] The first Bhojpuri talkie film, Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo, was released in 1963 by Vishwanath Shahabadi. The 1980s saw the release of many notable as well as run-of-the-mill Bhojpuri films like Bitia Bhail Sayan, Chandwa ke take Chakor, Hamar Bhauji, Ganga Kinare Mora Gaon and Sampoorna Tirth Yatra.

Bhojpuri cinema
Main distributors	BB Jaiswal Production DRJ Films IJK Films Nirahua Entertainment Prakriti Films Rahul Khan Production SRK Music Films Yashi Films Zabawa Entertainment Vpranjal Film Production
Produced feature films (2022)^[1]
Total	186 (Theatrical)

Bhojpuri cinema has grown in recent years. The Bhojpuri film industry is now a ₹2000 crore industry.^[4] Bhojpuri cinema also caters to second and third generation emigrants who still speak the language, in Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Fiji, Mauritius and South Africa.^[5]

Overview

Bhojpuri originates in Western Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh in East India. Speakers of it and its creoles are found in many parts of the world, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Fiji, Guyana, Mauritius, South Africa, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago, and The Netherlands. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, many colonizers faced labor shortages due to the abolition of slavery; thus, they imported many Indians, many from Bhojpuri-speaking regions, as indentured servants to labor on plantations. Today, some 200 million people in the Caribbean, Oceania, and North America who speak Bhojpuri as a native or second language.^[6]

History

Initial period (1962–1967)

In the 1960s, the first president of India, Rajendra Prasad, who hailed from Bihar, met Bollywood actor Nazir Hussain and asked him to make a movie in Bhojpuri, which eventually led to the release of the first Bhojpuri film in 1963.^[7] Bhojpuri cinema's history begins with the well-received film Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo ("Mother Ganges, I will offer you a yellow sari"), which was produced by Biswanath Prasad Shahabadi under the banner of Nirmal Pictures and directed by Kundan Kumar.^[8] Throughout the following decades, films were produced in fits and starts. Bidesiya ("Foreigner", 1963, directed by S. N. Tripathi) and Ganga ("Ganges", 1965, directed by Kundan Kumar) were profitable and popular, but in general Bhojpuri films were not commonly produced in the 1960s and 1970s. Between 1962 and 1967, 19 Bhojpuri were made.^[9]

Decline (1967–1976)

In this period, only two Bhojpuri films released, namely Vidhana Naach Nachawe (1968) and Dher Chaalaki Jin Kara (1971).^[9]

Revival (1977–2001)

In 1977, Dangal, the first Color film in Bhojpuri released. In 1979, Balam Pardesia released.^[9] In the 1980s, enough Bhojpuri films were produced to tentatively make up an industry. Films such as Mai ("Mom", 1989, directed by Rajkumar Sharma) and Hamar Bhauji ("My Elder Brother's Wife", 1983, directed by Kalpataru) continued to have at least sporadic success at the box office. Nadiya Ke Paar is a 1982 Hindi-Bhojpuri blockbuster directed by Govind Moonis and starring Sachin, Sadhana Singh, Inder Thakur, Mitali, Savita Bajaj, Sheela David, Leela Mishra and Soni Rathod. However, this trend faded out by the end of the decade. By 1990, the nascent industry seemed to be completely finished.^[10] Between, 1977 to 2001, the industry produced about 150 films with an average of 6 films per year.^[9]

The industry took off again in 2001 with the Silver Jubilee hit Saiyyan Hamar ("My Sweetheart", directed by Mohan Prasad), which shot its hero, Ravi Kissan, to superstardom.^[11] This was quickly followed by several other remarkably successful films, including Panditji Batai Na Biyah Kab Hoi ("Priest, tell me when I will marry", 2005, directed by Mohan Prasad) and Sasura Bada Paisa Wala ("My father-in-law, the rich guy", 2005). In a measure of the Bhojpuri film industry's rise, both of these did much better business in the states of Bihar and Jharkhand than mainstream Bollywood hits at the time. Both films, made on extremely tight budgets, earned back more than ten times their production costs.^[12] Sasura Bada Paisa Wala introduced Manoj Tiwari, formerly a well-loved folk singer, to the wider audiences of Bhojpuri cinema. In 2008, he and Ravi Kissan were the leading actors of Bhojpuri films, and their fees increase with their fame. The extremely rapid success of their films has led to dramatic increases in Bhojpuri cinema's visibility, and the industry now supports an awards show^[13] and a trade magazine, Bhojpuri City,^[14] which chronicles the production and release of what are now over 100 films per year.

Many of the major stars of mainstream Bollywood cinema, including Amitabh Bachchan, have recently worked in Bhojpuri films. Mithun Chakraborty's Bhojpuri debut Bhole Shankar, released in 2008, is considered the biggest Bhojpuri hit of all time.^[15] Also in 2008, a 21-minute diploma Bhojpuri film by Siddharth Sinha, Udedh Bun (Unravel) was selected for world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival.^[16] Later it won the National Film Award for Best Short fiction Film.^[17][18]

Bhojpuri poet Manoj Bhawuk has written a history of Bhojpuri cinema.^[19] Bhawuk is widely known as "Encyclopedia of Bhojpuri Cinema".

In February 2011, a three-day film and cultural festival in Patna marking 50 years of Bhojpuri cinema, opened Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo the first Bhojpuri film. The first Bhojpuri Reality Film "Dhokha" is under production under banner Om Kaushik Films is about to be nominated and screened in different International Film Festivals under direction Of Rashmi Raj Kaushik Vicky and Renu Chaudhary.^[20]

National Film Award winners

• Kab Hoi Gavna Hamaar (2005)
• Udedh Bun (2008)

Notable people

Notable personalities of the Bhojpuri film industry include:

Actors

Main article: List of Bhojpuri actors

Actresses

Main article: List of Bhojpuri actresses

Film producers

• Neetu Chandra
• Rajkumar R. Pandey

Film directors

• Rajnish Mishra
• Santosh Mishra
• Rajkumar R. Pandey
• Ajay Srivastava
• S. N. Tripathi

Music directors

• Chitragupt (composer)
• Damodar Raao

Lyricists

• Shailendra (lyricist)

Singers

Main article: List of Bhojpuri singers

Notable films

Main article: List of Bhojpuri films

Notable awards

Main article: List of Bhojpuri film awards

See also

• Cinema of Bihar
• Patna Film Festival
• Rajgir Film City

References

1. "List of featurefilms Certified in 2022" (PDF).
2. Filming Hubs. Film Facilitation Office.
3. "Bhojiwood Losing Its Lustre". from the original on 17 November 2017.
4. Roy, Tasmayee Laha. "Bhojpuri film industry now a Rs 2000 crore industry". The Economic Times. from the original on 17 November 2017.
5. "Regional pride". Business standard. 24 June 2010. from the original on 27 February 2014. Retrieved 22 February 2014.
6. Mesthrie, Rajend (1991). Language in Indenture: A Sociolinguistic History of Bhojpuri-Hindi in South Africa. London: Routledge. pp. 19–32. ISBN 0-415-06404-X.
7. . NDTV Movies. 17 March 2011. Archived from the original on 25 September 2012.
8. IMDB 2013-09-20 at the Wayback Machine
9. Ghosh, Avijit (22 May 2010). CINEMA BHOJPURI. Penguin UK. ISBN 978-81-8475-256-4.
10. Tripathy, Ratnakar (2007) 'Bhojpuri Cinema', South Asian Popular Culture, 5:2, 145–165
11. Subhash K. Jha (29 March 2006). "Meet the star of Bhojpuri cinema". Rediff. from the original on 21 June 2009. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
12. "Move over Bollywood, Here's Bhojpuri," BBC News Online: http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/south_asia/4512812.stm
13. Ashish Mitra (8 December 2006). "Bhojpuri industry On a High". Screen. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
14. . The Hindu. 14 April 2008. Archived from the original on 6 November 2012. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
15. . Screen. 3 October 2008. Archived from the original on 5 October 2008. Retrieved 10 December 2009.
16. Kapoor, Saurabh (7 February 2008). "Bhojpuri cinema heads to Berlin". The Times of India. from the original on 11 May 2018.
17. Discovery of 2008: Siddharth Sinha, Silver Bear Winner at Berlin 2010-07-05 at the Wayback Machine January 2009.
18. . Indian Express. 8 September 2009. Archived from the original on 3 October 2012.
19. "Bhojpuri Cinema ke Itihas(1946–2000) | भोजपुरी सिनेमा Bhojpuri Cinema". 30 November 2006. from the original on 6 August 2013. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
20. "Strong at 50, Bhojpuri cinema celebrates". Indian Express. 14 February 2011. from the original on 19 October 2012.

External links

• Ghosh, Avijit (2010). Cinema Bhojpuri. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-81-8475-256-4.
• Gokulsing, K. Moti; Dissanayake, Wimal (2013). Routledge Handbook of Indian Cinemas. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-77284-9.