Khan Bahadur Ardeshir Irani was a writer, director, producer, actor, film distributor, film showman and cinematographer in the silent and sound eras of early Indian cinema. He is considered one of the greatest personalities in recent Indian Cinema. He was the director of India's first sound film Alam Ara. He was the producer of India's first colour film Kisan Kanya. He was renowned for making films in Hindi, Telugu, English, German, Indonesian, Persian, Urdu and Tamil. He was a successful entrepreneur who owned film theatres, a gramophone agency, and a car agency.
Ardeshir Irani in 1937 IMPPA President
Ardeshir Irani on the sets of Alam Ara. February 1931
The Cinema of India, consisting of motion pictures made by the Indian film industry, has had a large effect on world cinema since 2nd half of 20th century. Indian cinema is made up of various film industries, including Hindi cinema, which makes motion pictures in the Hindi language and is one of the biggest film industries in the country. In 2021, Telugu cinema became the largest film industry in India in terms of box-office. Major centers of film production across the country include Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Kolkata, Kochi, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar-Cuttack and Guwahati. For a number of years the Indian film industry has ranked first in the world in terms of annual film output. In 2022, Indian cinema earned ₹15,000 crore at the box-office.
Newspaper ad for Shree Pundalik
A scene from Raja Harishchandra
AVM Studios globe.
Satyajit Ray is recognised as one of the greatest filmmakers of the 20th century.[excessive citations]