Bhojpuri cinema has evolved in a big way in recent times. This has attracted many big stars from mainstream Bollywood to become a part of the Bhojpuri film industry.
Until recently, Bhojpuri cinema was struggling for its survival and was in a dying state. But the joint endeavor of the artists, directors and producers of Bhojpuri cinema revived the industry by making it profitable again.
Today, Bhojpuri cinema has created a niche for itself and demand for it in the world market has blown up tremendously. Audience for Bhojpuri movies is not only in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, but all around the world. Bhojpuri movies are watched by the Indian diaspora settled in Brazil, Fiji, South Africa, Guyana, Suriname, Mauritius, and Trinidad and Tobago.
There are over 200 million Bhojpuri speaking people in West Indies, Oceania and South America who watch Bhojpuri films.
History of Bhojpuri cinema
Bhojpuri cinema came into being in the year 1961 with release of first Bhojpuri film, Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo (“Mother Ganges, I will offer you a yellow sari”). This film was produced by Biswanath Prasad Shahabadi after the first President of India, Dr. Rajendra Prasad, who hailed from Bihar, met Mr. Shahabadi and asked him to make a Bhojpuri movie. This film was produced under banner of Nirmal Pictures and directed by Kundan Kumar.
In the following decades, Bhojpuri films were produced only in fits and starts. The industry was revived and took off again in 2001 with the “Silver Jubilee” hit Saiyyan Hamar (“My Sweetheart”, directed by Mohan Prasad), catapulting the hero of the film, Ravi Kissan, to superstardom.
The success of this film was followed by other remarkable hits like Panditji Batai Na Biyah Kab Hoi (“Priest, tell me when I will marry”, 2005, directed by Mohan Prasad) and Sasura Bada Paisa Wala (“My father-in-law, the rich guy”, 2005). These movies went on to do better business than mainstream Hindi movies in the states of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.
Sasura Bada Paisa Wala also marked the acting debut of Manoj Tiwari, a well-known folk-singer. Today, Manoj Tiwari and Ravi Kissan are still the leading actors of the Bhojpuri film industry with their fees increasing with every hit.
The frequent hits have resulted in increasing remarkable visibility of the Bhojpuri film industry as it now also supports an award show and trade magazine called Bhojpuri City. Mainstream Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan and Mithun Chakraborty have worked in Bhojpuri films.
In February 2011, 50 years of Bhojpuri cinema was celebrated in Patna by organizing a three day film and cultural festival. This event was opened with the screening of the first Bhojpuri film, Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo.
List of Bhojpuri Actors
- Nazir Hussain
- kunal Singh
- Ravi Kishan
- Dinesh Lal Yadav
- Sunil Chhaila Bihari (superstar of Angika and Bhojpuri)
- Shivam Bihari
- Manoj Tiwari
- Pawan Singh
- Khesari Lal Yadav
- Parvesh Lal Yadav
- Vinay Anand
- Krushna Abhishek
- Rajesh Tripathi
- Dilip Sinha (actor)
- Kamal jee Mishra
- Aaryan Sigdel
- Rakesh Pandey
- Manish Vatsalya
- Rashmi Raaz Kaushik VICKY
- Biraj Bhatt
- Chandan Singh
- Sanjay Singh
- Vivek Chauhan
- Sikandar Kharbanda
- Shadab Siddiqui
- Tavish Raj
- Sujit Kumar
- Parichay Das
- Raj Nagina
- Devki Bhaujai
- Manoj Bhawuk
- Manoj Tiger
- Awdesh Mishra
List of Bhojpuri Cinema Actress Name
- Shweta Tiwari
- Pakhi Hegde
- Nagma
- Rambha
- Rani Chaterjee
- Kajal Raghwani
- Seema Singh
- Monalisha
- Shambhavna Seth
- Rinku Ghosh
- Padma Khanna
- Anjana Singh
- Uravashi Dholakia
- Prema Narayan
- Jayshree T.
- Aruna Irani
- Antra Biswas
- Poonam Sagar
- Mamta Tiwari
- Shraddha Sharma
- Divya Desai
- Swati Sen
- Ramya Sri
- Hema Malini
- Jaya Bachchan
देखिये: भोजपुरी फिल्म न्यूज़