House full
Silent film genre, exhibition and audiences in south India
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8961402 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Stephen Hughes (0000-0002-8187-4871, SOAS University of London, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2006 |
| Volume | 43 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 31-62 |
| Publication date | 2006-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The Indian Economic & Social History Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0019-4646 • E-ISSN: 0973-0893 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/001946460504300102 |
| OpenAlex | W1989653146 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 4 |
| References cited | 9 |
This article explores how genre matters for the history of cinema audiences in south India. I focus on the development of silent film genre categories in south India during the 1920s as they were used according to the local conditions to help imagine, define and cultivate cinema audiences. I argue that from the late- 1910s, film genre classifications helped exhibitors and film critics to conceive of, calculate and socially differentiate the steadily growing audiences for cinema. Using material from archival sources and newspapers—advertisements, reviews and film criticism—this article documents how the emergence of film genre categories and their subsequent refinement through the 1920s addressed and articulated a stereotyped sociology of local film audiences in Madras. At the beginning of the 1920s there were three main classifications of films recognised in the local cinema market of Madras—serials, short dramas and Indian films. For almost a decade these three categories broadly covered the range of films available in Madras. Local exhibitors and film critics saw each type of film as part of a changing system of complementary and contrasting entertainment alternatives corresponding to definitive kinds of local audiences. As there are few sources and little scholarship which can help deal with early film audiences, the history of film genres offers unique insight into how those in Madras imagined the always indeterminant social reality of film audiences
Art · Criticism · Entertainment · Film genre · Film industry · Film studies · Literature · Media studies · Movie theater · Newspaper · Political science · Scholarship · Sociology · Visual arts · Cinema and Media Studies · History · Law · Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism · South Asian Cinema and Culture
| Unique citing works | 4 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,31 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2025 (13) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 4 |