FROM SCREENING TO STREAMING

From the black-and-white era to the OTT surge, Indian cinema has traversed a long road. In its every phase since India’s Independence, it has been influenced by the hopes, aspirations and fears of the people it has sought to entertain

- Suhani Singh

In 1947, as India celebrated its Independence, the then reigning singing star of Hindi cinema, Noor Jehan, migrated to Pakistan. There were many more, however, who made the trip from Lahore to Bombay in the aftermath of Partition, and others who stayed back in Bombay, including Jehan’s Jugnu (1947) co-star Yusuf Khan a.k.a. Dilip Kumar, who went on to be hailed as one of India’s finest actors.

The film industry had been in business for nearly three decades but, with the birth of a liberated India, filmmakers took a patriotic turn as evident in films like Shaheed (1948), Naya Daur (1957) and