Gujarati cinema

Gujarati cinema or Gujarati film industry, informally referred as Dhollywood or Gollywood, is one of the major regional and vernacular film industry of Cinema of India associated with Gujarati language. The industry dates back to 7 April 1932, when the first Gujarati film Narsinh Mehta was released. After flourishing through the 1960s to 1980s, the industry saw a decline. The industry is revived in recent times. The film industry has produced more than one thousand films since its inception. The Government of Gujarat announced 100% entertainment tax exemption for Gujarati films in 2005 and policy of incentives in 2016.

Etymology

Bollywood, the sobriquet for the Hindi language film industry based in Mumbai, inspired the sobriquet Dhollywood for Gujarati film industry due to profuse use of Dhol, a purcussion drum. It is also referred Gollywood, a portmanteau derived from Gujarat and Bollywood.

History

Silent films era (1913–1931)

There were several silent films which were closely related with Gujarati people and culture before advent of talkies. Many film directors, producers and actors who are associated with silent films were Gujarati and Parsi. There were twenty leading film company and studios owned by Gujaratis between 1913 and 1931. They were mostly located in Bombay (now Mumbai). There were at least forty-four leading Gujarati directors during this period.