Bollywood in the International Arena

The first film to be sent to the Venice Cinematograph Exhibition was Seeta in 1934. In 1937, the Marathi film Sant Tukaram received a special jury mention in Venice. In the following year, another film Duniya Na Mane was shown in Venice. In 1949, Dharti Ke Lal became the first Indian film to receive widespread distribution in USSR. In 1954, Bimal Roy's Do Bigha Zameen, showing the influence of Italian neo-realism, received a special mention at Cannes and the Social Progress Award at Karlovy Vary. Hindi cinema's second song-less film Abba's Munna was shown at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 1955. In the same year Satyajit Ray's debut film Pather Panchali had its world premiere at the Museum of Modern Art, New York. It also won the Cannes award for ‘the best human document’, along with several other foreign awards. The film's continuous 226-day run at the Fifth Avenue Playhouse, New York, apparently broke a 30-year record for foreign releases in USA. Raj Kapoor's Jaagte Raho won the Grand Prix at Karlovy Vary in 1957. In the same year Satyajit Ray's Aparajito won the highest Venice Festival honour, the Golden Lion of St.Mark, apart from the best director's plaque at San Fransisco, the Golden Laurel Award as the best non-American film and the Selznick Golden Trophy. Tapan Sinha's Kabuliwala received a special mention for music in Berlin in the same year.

V.Shantaram's Do Aankhe Bara Haath (1957) won a Silver Bear for its impressive treatment of a social problem in the 8th International Film Festival at Berlin (1959). The Hollywood Press Association adjudged it the best foreign film for 1958. In 1963, Ray's Mahanagar won him the best director's award at Berlin. The very next year, Ray got the Berlin award again for his Charulata. Suchitra Sen got the best actress award at Moscow for her role in Sat Pake Bandha (1963). Waheeda Rahman got the best actress award in Chicago for her role in Guide (1965). The first Satyajit Ray retrospective was held at Cinematheque, Paris in 1969. Sanjiv Prakash's India Unveiled won the Golden eagle Award in USA. Gautam Ghosh won the Golden Simurg Grand Prix of the Tashkent Film Festival in May 1988 for his film Antarjali Yatra. In 1990, Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Mathilukal won the FIPRESI and UNICEF awards. Shekhar Kapur's Elizabeth created a sensation by winning several Oscar nominations in 1999. Deepa Mehta's Earth 1947, which is based on Bapsi Sidhwa's novel Ice Candy Man, has won seven awards at the Melbourne film festival (1999).

Cannes has been the favourite ground for Indian directors. Beginning with Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali, which won an award there in 1956, several Indian films were regularly screened there though they did not get any prize. These include Ray's Parash Pathar, Devi and Ghare Baire, Chetan Anand's Neecha Nagar, V. Shantaram's Amar Bhoopali, Raj Kapoor's Awara, Bimal Roy's Do Bigha Zameen and Sujata, M.S. Satyu's Garam Hawa and Shyam Benegal's Nishant. In 1994, Shaji's Swaham (Malayalam) was screened at the Cannes International Film Festival. Shaji N. Karun's another film Vanaprastham in Malayalam was screened at the Cannes in May 1999. Mrinal Sen, Goutam Ghosh and Adoor Gopalakrishnan are among the very few directors who had the priviledge of being invited to Cannes since the 1950s. Meera Nair won the Golden Camera Prize at Cannes in 1989 for her film Salaam Bombay. Eleven years after Mira Nair won the coveted award, the London-based Indian filmmaker Murali Nair won the Best film award at Cannes in May 2000 for his film Marana Simhasanam (Throne of Death).

The new millennium brought new laurels to the Indian cine actors. Anupam Kher's maiden production Bariwali bagged the Berlin festival's Network for Promotion of Asian Cinema (NETPAC) Award for the most outstanding film made in the Asia-Pacific region. Likewise, the renowned actor Om Puri, who had won large audiences in Britain with his performance in the 1997 film My Son The Fanatic, has been nominated for the top British Academy of Film and Television Awards (BAFTA) for his performance in the film East is East. Split Wide Open, a feature film in English made by Dev Benegal, has won the Special Jury Prize and its star, Rahul Bose, the Best Actor Award at the 13th Singapore International Film Festival last week. The film that dwelt on sexuality in contemporary India received the prize for being "adventurous in subject and style."

|| Introduction || Silent Movies || The Era of Talkies || The Early Films-I || || The Early Films-II || Recent Films || Star Kids ||
|| Melody & Music || ||Parallel or New Cinema || || Regional Cinema || || Bengali Cinema||
|| Kannada Cinema|| || Malayalam Cinema|| || Tamil Cinema || || Telugu Cinema|| ||English Films ||
|| Bollywood in nternational Arena || ||Film Censorship ||Film Journalism || ||Film Awards || Famous Cine Personalities ||

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