Friday, August 20 , 1976

Bombay Film Industry Booming

By Leslie Murphy

Bombay (Reuter) — The motion picture industry in this undisputed film capital of India turns out three to four new films a week and many people here see everyone of them. 

Bombay is overwhelmed with huge posters and advertising the latest releases and featuring excellently drawn likenesses of the stars. Most do not carry their names, because they are so well known here it would be almost an insult . 

Most Bombay productions follow the standard formula of popular Hindi melodrama with songs, dances, romance, a large slice of fantasy and violent passion — but not too violent. 

The industry is bogged down with many taboos and several actions from kissing to drinking, are banned from the screen. 

Outside the fantasy world, life is hard for more serious film-maker. Even as renowned an artist as Satyajit Ray, probably the best-known Indian director abroad, has trouble getting as showing for his work in India. 

Nonetheless, the cinema has become one of Bombay's major industry, employing an estimated 20,000 peoples. 

But rising costs and uncrowded market have forced some of the best-known studies here and in Madras, the country's other film metropolis, out of business. 

The government has also taken a closer intrest in the industry, its lavish expenditure and its standard, since imposing a state of internal emergency a year ago. 

At least 500 films a year are produced in India. Madras last year accounted for some 250 of these, Bombay, more than 150 and Calcutta, about 30. Many of them run for only a few days and there makers are never heard from again. 

But India has also just witnessed its first $10 million money-spinner, Sholay (Flames) which has astounded everyone with its success, grossing more than triple the income of any previous film. 

It is still playing packed houses around the country, with two different endings already used and talk of a third being written in. 

Popular known as " curry western " . It is also the first 70-mm epic made here and seems certain to establish a trend for more films of the same kind. 

It runs for 3 ½ hours and featured spectacular photography and some good acting as it recounts the exploits of a dacoit (bandit) gang and his eventual annihilation.

Its hero is Dharmendra, the most popular super star of India and Hema Malini, a leading actress, in what remains a male-dominated world. 

Even Sholay's action is slowed by the inevitable songs and dances. But film-makers here hope that with editing and an English soundtrack, it could become the first Indian film to make major impact on Western audiences.