Bhojpuri originates in Western Bihar and Eastern Uttar Pradesh in East India. Speakers of it and its creoles are found in many parts of the world, including the United States, the United Kingdom, Fiji, Guyana, Mauritius, South Africa, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago, and The Netherlands. During the late 1800s and early 1900s, many colonizers faced labor shortages due to the abolition of slavery; thus, they imported many Indians, many from Bhojpuri-speaking regions, as indentured servants to labor on plantations. Today, some 200 million people in the Caribbean, Oceania, and North America who speak Bhojpuri as a native or second language.^[6]

Initial period (1962–1967) edit

In the 1960s, the first president of India, Rajendra Prasad, who hailed from Bihar, met Bollywood actor Nazir Hussain and asked him to make a movie in Bhojpuri, which eventually led to the release of the first Bhojpuri film in 1963.^[7] Bhojpuri cinema's history begins with the well-received film Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo ("Mother Ganges, I will offer you a yellow sari"), which was produced by Biswanath Prasad Shahabadi under the banner of Nirmal Pictures and directed by Kundan Kumar.^[8] Throughout the following decades, films were produced in fits and starts. Bidesiya ("Foreigner", 1963, directed by S. N. Tripathi) and Ganga ("Ganges", 1965, directed by Kundan Kumar) were profitable and popular, but in general Bhojpuri films were not commonly produced in the 1960s and 1970s. Between 1962 and 1967, 19 Bhojpuri were made.^[9]

Decline (1967–1976) edit

In this period, only two Bhojpuri films released, namely Vidhana Naach Nachawe (1968) and Dher Chaalaki Jin Kara (1971).^[9]

Revival (1977–2001) edit

In 1977, Dangal, the first Color film in Bhojpuri released. In 1979, Balam Pardesia released.^[9] In the 1980s, enough Bhojpuri films were produced to tentatively make up an industry. Films such as Mai ("Mom", 1989, directed by Rajkumar Sharma) and Hamar Bhauji ("My Elder Brother's Wife", 1983, directed by Kalpataru) continued to have at least sporadic success at the box office. Nadiya Ke Paar is a 1982 Hindi-Bhojpuri blockbuster directed by Govind Moonis and starring Sachin, Sadhana Singh, Inder Thakur, Mitali, Savita Bajaj, Sheela David, Leela Mishra and Soni Rathod. However, this trend faded out by the end of the decade. By 1990, the nascent industry seemed to be completely finished.^[10] Between, 1977 to 2001, the industry produced about 150 films with an average of 6 films per year.^[9]

The industry took off again in 2001 with the Silver Jubilee hit Saiyyan Hamar ("My Sweetheart", directed by Mohan Prasad), which shot its hero, Ravi Kissan, to superstardom.^[11] This was quickly followed by several other remarkably successful films, including 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). In a measure of the Bhojpuri film industry's rise, both of these did much better business in the states of Bihar and Jharkhand than mainstream Bollywood hits at the time. Both films, made on extremely tight budgets, earned back more than ten times their production costs.^[12] Sasura Bada Paisa Wala introduced Manoj Tiwari, formerly a well-loved folk singer, to the wider audiences of Bhojpuri cinema. In 2008, he and Ravi Kissan were the leading actors of Bhojpuri films, and their fees increase with their fame. The extremely rapid success of their films has led to dramatic increases in Bhojpuri cinema's visibility, and the industry now supports an awards show^[13] and a trade magazine, Bhojpuri City,^[14] which chronicles the production and release of what are now over 100 films per year.

Many of the major stars of mainstream Bollywood cinema, including Amitabh Bachchan, have recently worked in Bhojpuri films. Mithun Chakraborty's Bhojpuri debut Bhole Shankar, released in 2008, is considered the biggest Bhojpuri hit of all time.^[15] Also in 2008, a 21-minute diploma Bhojpuri film by Siddharth Sinha, Udedh Bun (Unravel) was selected for world premiere at the Berlin International Film Festival.^[16] Later it won the National Film Award for Best Short fiction Film.^[17][18]

Bhojpuri poet Manoj Bhawuk has written a history of Bhojpuri cinema.^[19] Bhawuk is widely known as "Encyclopedia of Bhojpuri Cinema".

In February 2011, a three-day film and cultural festival in Patna marking 50 years of Bhojpuri cinema, opened Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo the first Bhojpuri film. The first Bhojpuri Reality Film "Dhokha" is under production under banner Om Kaushik Films is about to be nominated and screened in different International Film Festivals under direction Of Rashmi Raj Kaushik Vicky and Renu Chaudhary.^[20]

• Kab Hoi Gavna Hamaar (2005)
• Udedh Bun (2008)

Notable personalities of the Bhojpuri film industry include:

Actors edit

Actresses edit

Film producers edit

• Neetu Chandra
• Rajkumar R. Pandey

Film directors edit

• Rajnish Mishra
• Santosh Mishra
• Rajkumar R. Pandey
• Ajay Srivastava
• S. N. Tripathi

Music directors edit

• Chitragupt (composer)
• Damodar Raao

Lyricists edit

• Shailendra (lyricist)

Singers edit

• Cinema of Bihar
• Patna Film Festival
• Rajgir Film City

• Ghosh, Avijit (2010). Cinema Bhojpuri. Penguin Books Limited. ISBN 978-81-8475-256-4.
• Gokulsing, K. Moti; Dissanayake, Wimal (2013). Routledge Handbook of Indian Cinemas. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-136-77284-9.