‘Bhojpuri Filmon Ka Itihas’ written by Dr Rajendra Sanjay released!
Ever since Dadasaheb Phalke made a first film in India, the film industry has seen tens of thousands of films being made in various languages. Though Hindi films are immensely popular across nation, regional films too share the burden of entertaining viewers. Bhojpuri films too are heavily popular in it’s region and the industry has quite a few superstars who also work in Bollywood. First Bhojpuri film was made in 1962 and today it’s a flourishing industry. Dr. Rajendra Sanjay has taken efforts to document the history of Bhojpuri films and has written a book, ‘Bhojpuri Filmon Ka Itihas’. The said book was released at a function which was attended by dignitaries from various fields.
On this occasion people associated with literature and journalism were present along with the people from the film industry. Poet and journalist Devmani Pandey, actress Lily Patel, actor Linesh Phanse, poet-lyricist Rasbihari Pandey, film critic Ajay Brahmatmaj, journalist Alok Gupta, RJ Kirti Prakash, director Sanjay Singh Negi, journalist and poet Poonam Vishwakarma and film producer and financier Sammy Siddiqui among others graced the occasion.
Bhojpuri touches the international platform even though it is a regional dialect because Bhojpuri speaking people are present in most of the countries in the world. However, the first Bhojpuri film ‘Ganga Maiya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo’ was made in 1962. In a Hindi film ‘Alam Ara’, which was made in 1931, a Bhojpuri song ‘Daras bin more hain tarse nain, pyare mukhda dikha ja mohe’ was used and it enthralled the audience. Bhojpuri people wrote many hit songs for Hindi films in Bhojpuri dialect, which became superhits. In
1982, inq a Hindi film ‘Nadiya Ke Paar’, out of total eight songs, seven songs were in Bhojpuri and all of them were hits. In fact, having a Bhojpuri song in a Hindi film had become a success mantra those days.
In the thirty years from 1931 to 1962, many films were made in other regionil languages like Marathi, Gujarati, Assamese, Kannada, Punjabi, Oriya, Malayalam, but Bhojpuri films weqre nowhere on the horizon. India’s first President Dr. Rajendra Prasad voicedq his displeasure about the same. On his suggestion, Vishwanath Prasad Shahabadi, the owner of a Mica Mines in Bihar, took inspiration to make a film in Bhojpuri. He produced the Bhojpuri film ‘Ganga Maiya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo’ with the help of, one of the noted Hindi film actors, Nazir Hussain. This very first film smashed many records.
Writer Dr. Rajendra Sanjay informed about many new topics regarding Bhojpuri films. In this book, a list of 173 Hindi films’ songs written in Bhojpuri made from 1931 to 1961 is also incorporated. Biography of Bhikhari Thakur, known as Shakespeare of Bhojpuri, is also briefly described in the book with photos. He also informed that inexperienced producers, mediocre directors, technicians and writers started ripping off Bhojpuri films for money which was the reason of downfall of the Bhojpuri film industry. Whereas in the third phase (2000-2008) some new achievements were witnessed. Hindi film’s most successful stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Mithun Chakraborty, Shatrughan Sinha etc acted in Bhojpuri films. Later Ravi Kishan, singer Manoj Tiwari became superstars. Now Bhojpuri Films Awards show takes place too.