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India

1971-1980

Death of award-winning director K. Asif in Bombay at the age of 46. [MORE] [ADD]

Veteran director and writer Debaki Bose dies in Calcutta at the age of 72. [MORE] [ADD]

– The agreement between the government and the MPEEA expires.  [MORE] [ADD]

– The FFC’s directive to sponsor independent film-making is written into its official objectives. [MORE] [ADD]

- A big increase in domestic film output makes India the world’s most prolific producer of feature films. [MORE] [ADD]

India 1971: Other Films of Note

Calcutta 71 (Mrinal Sen) [MORE] [ADD]

Seemabaddha (Company Limited) (Satyajit Ray) [MORE] [ADD]

Shantala! Court Chalu Aahe (Silence! The Court is in Session) (Satyadev Dubey) [MORE] [ADD]

Meena Kumari (formerly Baby Meena), dies from cirhossis of the liver at the age of 39.   She made her first film, Leatherface, at the age of 6.   Her final film, Pakeezah, which had previously been performing disappointingly, becomes a hit as a result of her death.  [MORE] [ADD]

Actor Prithviraj Kapoor dies of cancer at the age of 65. [MORE] [ADD]

– The FFC opens the country’s first art house cinema.  [MORE] [ADD]

– M. G. Ramachandra (MGR) is ejected from the DMK party following the death of his mentor Annadurai.   He forms the AMDK. [MORE] [ADD]

– Adoor Gopalakrishnan’s Swayamvaram, the first film produced by the Chitralekha Co-op, is released. [MORE] [ADD]

– The weekly Malayalam film magazine Nana starts publication.   [MORE] [ADD]

– Playback singer Geeta Dutt dies from cirhossis of the liver at the age of 42.  [MORE] [ADD]

- American film imports are stopped following a breakdown in negotiations with US film interests. [MORE] [ADD]

India 1972: Other Films of Note

Do Gaz Zameen ke Neeche (Tulsi Ramsay) [MORE] [ADD]

Matangi Manipur (Contemporary Manipur) (Deb Kumar Bose) [MORE] [ADD]

Nada Manne Nada Koolu [MORE] [ADD]

Pratidwandi (The Adversary) (Satyajit Ray) [MORE] [ADD]

Prakash Mera’s Zanjeer (The Chain) begins a series of ‘angry young man’ films, and makes a superstar of Amitabh Bachchan. [MORE] [ADD}

– The Bombay based trade journal Film Information is published for the first time.  [MORE] [ADD}

– 451 films are produced in India in 1973.  [MORE] [ADD}

India 1973: Other Films of Note

Ashani Shanket (Distant Thunder) (Satyajit Ray) [MORE] [ADD}

Bobby (Raj Kapoor) [MORE] [ADD}

Director Satyajit Ray presides over the opening of the fifth Indian Film Festival in New Delhi, where controversy arises over a semi-nude scene in the film Siddhartha. [MORE] [ADD]

– Hindustan PhotoFilms begins limited production of positive colour stock.  [MORE] [ADD]

– The Film Festival of India becomes an annual event.  [MORE] [ADD]

– The Film Institute of India merges with the TV Training Centre to become the Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) [MORE] [ADD]

India 1974: Other Films of Note

Ankur (Shyam Benegal) [MORE] [ADD]

Sonar Kella (The Golden Fortress) (Satyajit Ray) [MORE] [ADD]

27 Down (Awtar Krishna Kaul) [MORE] [ADD]

Premiere of Sholay (Flames), India’s first 70mm stereophonic film at Bombay’s Minerva Theatre.   The film runs for five years.  [MORE] [ADD] 

Film composer Sachin Dev Burman dies in Bombay at the age of 69.  [MORE] [ADD] 

– An agreement with the MPEAA results in US films being imported into the country once more.   [MORE] [ADD] 

India 1975: Other Films of Note

Blood (Chidananda Das Gupta)  [MORE] [ADD] 

Jai Santoshi Maa (In Praise of Mother Santoshi) (Vijay Sharma).  [MORE] [ADD] 

Nishant (Shyam Benegal)  [MORE] [ADD] 

Playback singer Mukesh dies of a heart attack in Detroit, USA, at the age of 53. [MORE] [ADD]

– Strict censorship laws come into force during a period of emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi.  [MORE] [ADD]

– Original copies of Amrit Nahata’s Kissa Kursi Ka, a political satire, are destroyed by agents of the Congress Party.   Nahata remakes the film after the Emergency is lifted.   [MORE] [ADD]

– The Committee on Public Undertaking attacks the FFC’s art-film policy.  [MORE] [ADD]

India 1976: Other Films of Note

The Churning (Shyam Benegal) [MORE] [ADD]

The Middle Man (Satyajit Ray) [MORE] [ADD]

Once Upon a Time (Girish Karnad) [MORE] [ADD]

The Royal Hunt (Mrinal Sen) [MORE] [ADD]

Films of Note

The Chess Players (Satyajit Ray) [MORE] [ADD]

Satyajit Ray’s Shatranj Ke Khiladi (The Chess Players) struggles to find a distributor in India despite his popularity abroad.   The film stars Sanjeev Kumar, Saeed Jaffrey and Richard Attenborough. [MORE] [ADD]

Raj Kapoor’s Satyam Shivam Sundaram (Love Sublime), starring his brother Sashi and Zeenat Aman, features Hindi cinema’s first on-screen kiss for years. [MORE] [ADD]

– Krihna Shah’s Shalimar is the country’s first Panavision film. [MORE] [ADD]

– The Orissa Film Development Corporation finances ‘Janta Cinema Houses’ in semi-urban and rural areas.   [MORE] [ADD]

India 1978: Other Films of Note

The Elephant God (Satyajit Ray) [MORE] [ADD]

Junoon (Shyam Benegal) [MORE] [ADD]

Films of Note

And Quiet Rolls the Day (Mrinal Sen) [MORE] [ADD]

The FFC and Indian Motion Picture Export Corporation merge to form the National Film Development Corporation (NFDC). [MORE] [ADD}

Bengali actor Uttam Kumar, veteran of more than 120 films, dies of a heart attack in Kolkata at the age of 53. [MORE] [ADD}

– K. S. Karanth’s Report of the Working Group on National Film Policy is ignored by the government.  [MORE] [ADD}

– Satyajit Ray declines an offer to head the newly-formed Forum for Better Cinema begun by independent film-makers. [MORE] [ADD}

– Film lyricist Sahir Ludhianvi dies.  [MORE] [ADD}

India 1980: Other Films of Note

The Bogeyman (Govindan Aravindan) [MORE] [ADD}

Cry of the Wounded (Govind Nihalani) [MORE] [ADD}

A Folk Tale (Ketan Mehta) [MORE] [ADD}

In Search of Famine (Mrinal Sen) [MORE] [ADD}

The Kingdom of Diamonds (Satyajit Ray) [MORE] [ADD}