Jadbm.com Conceptual Article LITERATURE TO FILMS: INDIAN CONTEXT Aishwarya Chatterjee1 1Senior Faculty, Department of Media Studies, Institute of Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Development, Kolkata. ABSTRACT The journey of Indian cinema has been noted and studied several times. Indian cinema has itself been a revolution. The movie making perception in India is beyond parameters. The regional and the Hindi film industry, in India is one of the biggest contributors to the Indian economy. The concept of playwriting and storyline has many factors. Indian films scripts portrays human emotion, action, romance, crime, horror, mystery, violence and many other interesting moods. This paper deals with the trend, which is not really new to Indian or International movie making. This work attempts to find out diverse range of novels or any other literary texts which have been adapted to make Indian films. The list of Indian films which have been adopted from books is included in this paper. This paper also tries to discuss about the audience of a particular age group and their choice over such novel based movies. The survey has indicated this popularity trend. Some of the popular novels which have been adopted into movies have been discussed in this paper. Research has shown that most of the filmmakers find adapting the novels into films a better option to get more viewership. Some Shakespeare classics, Jane Austen classics and Sherlock Holmes have been remade countless times, and yet continue to garner a positive audience around the world in several languages. KEYWORDS Indian Cinema, Novels, Adaptation, Literature, Films, Authors. HOW TO CITE THIS ARTICLE: Chatterjee A. Literature to films: Indian context. J. Advances Bus. Management 2016;2(2):110-114, DOI: 10.14260/jadbm/2016/27 INTRODUCTION Devdas (Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s classic novel Cinema, the large screen is considered as the mirror of the adapted into the films thrice – 1936, 1955 & 2002), 3 idiots, society, reflecting various happenings and issues in the society Omkara and so on. through live characters. The live characters of cinema are either from the reflection of real life, or from the pages of any HYPOTHESIS novel. The past India is very different from the present time in Every Study has some Objectives which the Researcher which we are living. With the advancements and upgradation has to Prove. The Hypothesis for this Paper is discussed as of technology adopted by cinema makers has shown a great below improvement, which gives a chance to many creative film 1. Cinema has an impact either strong or weak on the makers, to put forward their interesting ways of re-presenting masses. literature content. Like literature, cinema has produced much, 2. Cinema is the mirror of the society. which touches the innermost layers of human emotion. So, 3. Cinema is a medium between literature and society, for cinema and literature together can make a big difference. It is the exchange of information and views. believed that only Western filmmakers are drawn towards 4. Cinema puts forward various existing novels with several novels and have an urge to adapt them into films. However, issues in front of the audience. stories have influenced film making directly or indirectly time 5. Novels have created their own position in the world of and again. Stories from the Indian mythology like Raja Harish cinema. Chandra (which became the first ever motion picture in 6. Novels and cinema go parallel today. Bollywood), Ramayana, Mahabharata have been continually adapted into motion pictures. Rather, these stories form the Globalisation of cinema has brought-in magnitudinal crux of any film’s story. Speaking about the recent trend in changes in, exchange of information and entertainment. India films, impeccably Prakash Jha’s Rajneeti inculcated Cinema picks up the themes from existing society and even stories from Mahabharata. Relating to the current and the then from society reflected in books. political scenario is a treat in the film. Raj Kumar Santoshi’s Lajja, is a recreation of Sita from Ramayana, which reiterated Brief History of Indian Cinema the condition of a woman. On the other hand, classic examples The history of Indian Cinema goes back to the nineteenth of novel adaptation would be Guide (references taken from century. In 1896, the very first film shot by the Lumiere R.K. Narayan’s The Guide); Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (Bimal Brothers was shown in Mumbai (Then Bombay). But history Mitra’s novel was made into a movie by the same name, in was actually created by Harish Chandra. It was the Beginning Bengali & Hindi respectively). of Bollywood. Father of Indian Cinema; Dadasaheb Phalke released the first ever full-length feature film ‘Raja Financial or Other, Competing Interest: None. Harishchandra’ in 1913. The silent film was a commercial Submission 29-04-2016, Peer Review 05-05-2016, success. Acceptance 12-05-2016, Published 18-05-2016. Corresponding Author: The initial growth of the Indian Film Industry was not as Aishwarya Chatterjee, fast as that of Hollywood. Films based on mythological and Diganta Apartment, historical facts and episodes from Mahabharata and Ramayana Flat No. 11, dominated the 20s, but Indian audiences also welcomed 1/98, Bijoygarh, Jadavpur, Kolkata-700032. Hollywood movies, especially the action films. E-mail: [email protected] DOI: 10.14260/jadbm/2016/27 J. Advances Bus. Management/eISSN-2395-7441/pISSN-2395-7328/Vol. 2/Issue 02/ Apr-June 2016 Page 110 Jadbm.com Conceptual Article Beginning of the Talkies cinema, it has far more other responsibilities as it impacts the The first ever Indian talkie film ‘Alam Ara’ by Ardeshir Irani mind of the audiences. was screened in Bombay (1931). The first song recorded was ‘De de khuda ke naam par’ by W.M. Khan. Literature to Films The ever changing trend in the Indian film industry has gone Growth of Regional Films through several experiments. The concepts have shifted from The regional film industry also made its own mark. The first romance to conflicts, family dramas to social issues, and also it Bengali feature film ‘Nal Damyanti’ (1917) was produced by has been noticed that there have been a good amount of Indian J.F. Madan. Soon after, in 1919, the screening of the first silent movies whose scripts were adapted from popular novels. South Indian feature film named ‘Keechaka Vadham’ was done. Literary text like short stories or popular novels is an easy The first ever talkie film in Bengali was ‘Jamai Shashti’ (1931), way out for filmmakers to create movies. This trend can not produced by Madan Theatres Ltd. H.M. Reddy’s ‘Kalidass’ was only produce a mass following, but also mint loads of money, the first Tamil talkie released in Madras (Oct 1931). Apart yet to present it artistically, is not a meek man’s task. It is not from Bengali and South Indian languages, regional films were an easy task to change a novel into a movie script when it also made in Assamese, Oriya, Punjabi, Marathi, and many comes to visual portraying. What does exactly change when more. In 1932, V. Shantaram’s ‘Ayodhecha Raja’ was the first the novel is being compressed into a three-hour long film? It is Marathi film. the perception of the audience. The viewers need not put in effort to imagine things; they A New Era was Born can see it on screen. At times, compressing the story to fit in The birth of modern Indian Film industry took place around the time length may clutter the essence of the story; that is 1947. Filmmakers like Satyajit Ray and Bimal Roy made why, at times, novel adaptations may lead to poor box office movies focusing on the survival and daily miseries of the lower results. Although many adaptations, till date have turned out class. The historical and mythological subjects took a back seat to be a success at the Box Office, yet the novel remains a priced and, the films with social messages began to dominate the possession for the readers. Literature adaptation has industry. In the 1960s, new directors like Ritwik Ghatak, witnessed success, as well as a failure in the box office. Mrinal Sen, and others started dealing with the real problems Now the adopted films need to be discussed. As of the common Indians. They directed some outstanding mentioned earlier, the literary text adaptation is not a new movies that enabled the Indian film industry to carve a niche trend for Indian cinema. As it is known to all, India is rich in in the International film scenario. cultural and literary content; there is a variety of literature, which is found in several regional languages. Umrao Jaan Golden Age in the History of the Cinema which was based on Mirza Hadi Ruswa’s Urdu novel and The 1950s and 1960s are considered to be the golden age in Masoom which was based on Erich Segal’s Man, Woman and the history of the cinema and saw the rise of some memorable Child were adopted into very popular films. Pinjar (Amrita actors. Music and songs became an integral part of Indian Pritam’s novel by the same name). movies. Indian films gained a unique look as compared to The Namesake (Jhumpa Lahiri’s novel by the same name), international films. The Blue Umbrella (Ruskin Bond’s novel by the same name), Maqbool (the film drew references from Shakespeare’s Bollywood – The Pioneer of Masala Movies Macbeth), Parineeta (Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay’s classic By 1970s, Indian cinema saw the advent of Masala movies in by the same name), Black Friday (based on Black Friday – The Bollywood. The audiences were captivated and mesmerised by True Story of the Bombay Bomb Blasts, a book by S.