Q1: Why the Indian Film Industry developed in Bombay?

What are the things behind this and

discuss the ecosystem?

To understand the context of this question, we have to look at the history of the film industry in
India before partition. In the pre-partition era, film studios existed in Bombay, Calcutta, Madras and
Lahore. Unlike Madras and Calcutta, which produced movies mostly on the regional language,
Bombay and Lahore were producing movies that cater to the Hindi-Urdu-Hindustani audiences of
the entire north-central region of India. As a result, a close connection was established between the
Bombay and Lahore film industries. Such eminent names in the Bombay film circle were actor-singer
K.L. Saigal, Actors Prithiviraj kapur, Dilip Kumar, Shyam, Suraiya and Manorama. Among the music
directors were Vinod, Shyam sundar, Gulham Haider, Jhandey Khan, Foraze Nizami and Khurshid
Anwar. Renowned signers like Mohammad Rafi, Noorjahan, and Shamshad Begum had all moved
from Lahore to Bombay (Ref. Migrants, Refugees and the Stateless in South Asia by Partha S. Ghosh).
This made the Bombay film industry more powerful and welcoming to talents in various
departments of film industry. After the partition, many Hindus and Sikh artists in the Lahore industry
left for Bombay, which is why we see a lot of artists who ruled Bollywood for decades are from
Pakistan or their descendants.

With the rise of the Bombay Film industry, many Calcutta-based producers and directors started
migrating to Bombay. Bimol Roy, Satyajit Ray are the prominent names among them. Not only
directors and producers, but the technicians who worked in the famous studios of Calcutta saw the
opportunity in the Bombay industry and migrated to the city in search of opportunities.

Primarily, Calcutta was the centre of Indian film industry, during this period as both the number of
movies produced and notable films coming out of Calcutta were higher. During 1940s and 1960s, the
golden era of the Indian film industry, this was also the same time in which the centre started
shifting to Bombay along with the artists and technicians. The three primary reasons which I found
are the collapse of the new theatres, the pressures of the World War II on Calcutta and the advent of
Bombay cinema.

Many regions of India are marked by the overwhelmed presence of one language or community. For
example, Calcutta is notable for the dominance of Bengali language and culture of it. But Bombay is
an exception in the cosmopolitan nature; the city is one where one can see and experience different
languages and cultures coexisting. This existence of multiple societies adds to the potential story
telling abilities of the city: a story about any community can be told with the Bombay setting.

Many movies produced out of Calcutta was in Bengali, so most of the country was not ready for this.
The demand for Hindi movies were more than Bengali movies and moving the centre of the Indian
film industry was necessary to cater that demand of Hindi movies.

Unlike any other regional film industry which is situated in its own region, Bollywood is centred in
Bombay which is also the centre for Marathi movies.

Q2: What are the risks and opportunities for the Indian Film Industry in Bombay for the future?

For any film industry to flourish, one requires the infrastructure (studios), the investments
(Production houses), actors and technicians (Cinematographers, Script writers, editors, Sound
engineers). Availability of such an ecosystem is vital to make a film successfully. Mumbai has
developed this ecosystem with time and no other film industry in any part of the country is a match
to it. Bollywood has become self-sustaining through years of building the environment which it
currently operates on.
Bollywood can leverage good skill level of employees in the present market to not only improve
services in Strategy & Execution but also leverage those skills to create global opportunities

I believe there is a great opportunity for the industry to upgrade the infrastructure and technicians
by investing in development activities. This will make sure that more talent flows into the city
making it the unshakable leader in the Indian film industry. Bollywood contributes 42% of the
revenue share of the Indian film industry, which will significantly increase if these developments go
as per the plans. In the recent times, Bollywood is inviting talents from other film industries such as
Kollywood (Tamil film industry), Mollywood (Malayalam Film industry). This provides Bollywood in
bridging the talent gap if any. This talent migration is the one thing that strengthened the whole
industry after the partition.

The other side of the story is the migration of artists and technicians from Bollywood to other
regional film industries. Example, Kollywood produced more films than any other film industry in the
country last year. The opportunities that these regional film industries are on the rise and as any
typical work force, the Bollywood people are on the move to these industries. Even the wages of the
people in these industries are on par with Bollywood.

Also building latest technological infrastructures will reduce the production cost and servicing cost
which are the primary cost parameters in film industry.

Bollywood has extensive distribution network and associates’ network that not only help in
delivering services to the customers but also help in managing competitive challenges.

The overall film industry market is going to grow at a rate of 14% YOY. Bollywood in Mumbai has to
cater to this increase in the number of films produced and the infrastructure and the workforce
required.

This can be seen as both a risk and an opportunity as Bollywood can use this opportunity and
strengthen their hold on the Indian film industry by developing infrastructures and thereby creating
an ecosystem that will sustain Bollywood in the future or be at a risk of losing their workforce and
the revenue share to other regional film industries such as Kollywood or Mollywood which are
growing at a faster rate.

If the cost of production and distribution goes down, Small producers can shell out more money for
their movie promotions and advertisements.

The difference between low budget and high budget films in Bollywood will be minimal if the cost of
production and distribution goes down.

Mumbai has the necessary distribution network for films that’s going to be produced in the coming
years, which makes it an ideal spot for the Hindi film industry to be centred out of.

References:

https://ideas.repec.org/p/iim/iimawp/wp01981.html

https://www.quora.com/Why-did-the-Hindi-film-industry-shift-from-Calcutta-to-Bombay-in-the-
1940s

https://www.news18.com/news/india/100-years-of-indian-cinema-how-bombay-became-
bollywood-591702.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinema_of_India