Some of the most critically acclaimed Hindi films of all time were produced during this period.
Several other Hindi films from this era were also ranked in the Sight & Sound poll, including Raj Kapoor's Awaara (1951), Vijay Bhatt's Baiju Bawra (1952), Mehboob Khan's Mother India (1957) and K. The 1970s saw the emergence of the masala film genre, which combines elements of multiple genres (action, comedy, romance, drama, melodrama, musical).
The masala film was pioneered in the early 1970s by filmmaker Nasir Hussain, Masala films launched Amitabh Bachchan into the biggest Bollywood movie star of the 1970s and 1980s.
"Tollywood" is now also popularly used to refer to the Telugu film industry in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
The term "Bollywood" itself has origins in the 1970s, when India overtook the United States as the world's largest film producer.
The devotional classic Jai Santoshi Ma was also released in 1975.
Another important film from 1975 was Deewar, directed by Yash Chopra and written by Salim-Javed.
At this time, lavish romantic musicals and melodramas were the staple fare at the cinema.
Following India's independence, the period from the late 1940s to the 1960s is regarded by film historians as the "Golden Age" of Hindi cinema.
Bollywood, formally known as Hindi cinema, is the Indian Hindi language film industry, based in the city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay), Maharashtra, India.
Bollywood is part of the larger cinema of India (also known as Indywood), By revenue, Bollywood is the largest film producer in India, and the second largest film producer in the world after Hollywood.
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.