<P> Raja Harishchandra (1913), by Dadasaheb Phalke, is known as the first silent feature film made in India . By the 1930s, the industry was producing over 200 films per annum . The first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Irani's Alam Ara (1931), was a major commercial success . There was clearly a huge market for talkies and musicals; Bollywood and all the regional film industries quickly switched to sound filming . </P> <P> The 1930s and 1940s were tumultuous times: India was buffeted by the Great Depression, World War II, the Indian independence movement, and the violence of the Partition . Most Bollywood films were unabashedly escapist, but there were also a number of filmmakers who tackled tough social issues, or used the struggle for Indian independence as a backdrop for their plots . </P> <P> In 1937, Ardeshir Irani, of Alam Ara fame, made the first colour film in Hindi, Kisan Kanya . The next year, he made another colour film, a version of Mother India . However, colour did not become a popular feature until the late 1950s . At this time, lavish romantic musicals and melodramas were the staple fare at the cinema . </P> <P> Prior to the 1947 partition of India, which was divided into the Republic of India and Pakistan, the Bombay film industry (now called Bollywood) was closely to the Lahore film industry (now the Lollywood industry of Pakistani cinema), as both produced films in Hindi - Urdu, or Hindustani, the lingua franca across northern and central India . In the 1940s, many actors, filmmakers and musicians in the Lahore industry migrated to the Bombay industry, including actors such as K.L. Saigal, Prithviraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand and singers such as Mohammed Rafi, Noorjahan and Shamshad Begum . Around that time, filmmakers and actors from the Bengali film industry based in Calcutta (now Kolkata) also began migrating to the Bombay film industry, which for decades after partition would be dominated by actors, filmmakers and musicians with origins in what is today Pakistani Punjab, along with those from Bengal . </P>

What is the first colour film in india