Bhojpuri cinema

Bhojpuri films are films in the Bhojpuri language, mainly watched by people from western Bihar, eastern Uttar Pradesh in North India and Terai in southern Nepal.

Overview

Bhojpuri cinema is watched in many parts of the world, where Indian diaspora has settled. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, many colonizers faced labor shortages due to the abolition of slavery; they imported Indians, many from Bhojpuri-speaking regions. Today, many people in the Brazil, Fiji, Guyana, Mauritius, Oceania, South America, Suriname and West Indies speak Bhojpuri as a native or second language, and they do watch Bhojpuri movies.^[1]

History

In 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 first Bhojpuri film's release in 1963.^[2] Bhojpuri cinema 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.^[3] 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.

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 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.^[4]

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.^[5] 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 Uttar Pradesh than mainstream Bollywood hits at the time. Both films, made on extremely tight budgets, earned back more than ten times their production costs.^[6] 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^[7] and a trade magazine, Bhojpuri City,^[8] which chronicles the production and release of what are now over 100 films per year.

Bhole Shankar

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.^[9] 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.^[10] Later it won the National Film Award for Best Short fiction Film.^[11][12]

Bhojpuri poet Manoj Bhawuk has written a history of Bhojpuri cinema.^{[citation needed]}

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.^[13]

Notable persons

Notable personalities of the Bhojpuri film industry include:

Actors

Apart from these regular actors, many bollywood actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Ajay Devgan, Dharmendra, Kader Khan, Mithun Chakraborty, Jackie Shroff, Raj Babbar, etc. have been acted in Bhojpuri movies.^[14][15]

Actresses

Apart from these regular actresses, many bollywood actresses like, Aruna Irani, Hema Malini, Jaya Bachchan, Juhi Chawla, Nagma, Rati Agnihotri, Shilpa Shetty, etc. are also featured in Bhojpuri movies.^[14]

Singers

Apart from these regular Bhojpuri singers, famous Bollywood singers such as Anuradha Paudwal, Alka Yagnik, and Udit Narayan are featured.

Producers

• Poonam S Tiwari(PT FILMS)
• Bishwanath Prasad Shahabadi
• Ajay Sinha and Abhay Sinha (Yashi films)
• Mukesh Pandey (zia records)
• shadab siddiqui (blue eyes film factory)
• Ishtiyaque sheikh bunty (aslam sheikh production)
• Raman Panchori & Abha Singh (Maruti Creations)
• late Sudhaker Pandey (triveni kala mandir)
• Sadhana Singh
• Mahesh bihari
• Balkesh Prajapati (singers)
• Mangal Dev ( Dev Films Production)

Directors

• Aslam Sheikh
• Siddharth Sinha
• S.Kumar
• Mukesh Pandey (Zia Records)
• Anil Chorasiya
• Rajkumar Pandey
• Bali
• Sadhana Singh
• Sajjad ahmad
• Vishal verma
• Bajrangi
• Rakesh Kumar Singh

Notable films

Award

See also

• Cinema of Bihar
• Patna Film Festival
• List of Bhojpuri films
• Magahi language films
• Maithili language films

Notes

References

• Cinema Bhojpuri by Avijit Ghosh. Penguin. 2010. ISBN 978-0-14-310378-3.

External links

• A Bhojpuri cinema portal
• A Bhojpuri cinema blog

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