You may have wondered – Why is Bollywood, a Hindi movie industry, is based in Mumbai with Marathi speaking population and not anywhere else in India?
Let us take you back to the time when Movies were introduced in India, it was India’s First producer-director-screenwriter Dadasaheb Phalke, who took upon himself to do the impossible task of making the first Indian film – Raja Harishchandra. Although the film Raja Harishchandra had Marathi actors and it being a Marathi film, the industry started growing.
Before the Partition, the Bombay film industry was also very close to the Lahore film industry (now the Pakistani film industry also known as “Lollywood”); both produced films in Hindustani (also known as Hindi-Urdu), the lingua franca of northern and central India.
Another centre of Hindustani-language film production was the Bengal film industry in Calcutta, which produced Hindustani-language films and local Bengali language films.
Many actors, filmmakers and musicians from the Lahore industry migrated to the Bombay industry during the 1940s, including actors K. L. Saigal, Prithviraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand as well as playback singers Mohammed Rafi, Noorjahan and Shamshad Begum.
Around the same time, filmmakers and actors from the Calcutta film industry began migrating to Bombay; as a result, Bombay became the center of Hindustani-language film production.
With this growing Industry it became crucial to make films for majority of audiences to so that these films could be profitable, hence making a film in Hindustani-language was more profitable than making a film in Marathi in Mumbai.
Owing to these circumstances a lot of people from other cities and villages started moving to Mumbai to opt for this profession considering that the First Film city was also established in Mumbai. This ensured that the right talent was seen in Mumbai and also since Mumbai was the Financial capital of the Country, it was only the wealthy people in Mumbai who could invest in a risky business like the film industry.
Conclusion – The answer lies in the fact the Mumbai is both Financial and Entertainment capital of the country. With the right talent and the money to back up the artists, Mumbai developed a struggling industry into what we know as Bollywood today. The word Bollywood comes from Bombay + Hollywood and has produced numerous films resulting in giving birth to many talented crew, directors and Bollywood Stars.
Comment down below and let us know why you think Bollywood has presence in Mumbai and not anywhere else in India.