Ganga Maiya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo of Bhojpuri language was made in 1961. The first President of India (and a native of Bihar), Rajendra Prasad, told the actor Nazir Hussain of his desire to watch a film in Bhojpuri.
The film became a huge success and the Bhojpuri film industry came into existence. Today this industry produces about 50 films each year, having audiences not only in Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh but also in other parts of India. Wherever Bihari migrants and countries such as Mauritius and Fiji that have a large population of Bihari ancestry, these films are showcased and viewed with enthusiasm.
In the 2000s, many Bhojpuri films yielded unbelievable revenues and this encouraged interest in the industry even more.
Few mega-hits of the decade in Bhojpuri are Sasura Bada Paisawala (whose box office earnings were over 40 crores), Daroga Babu I Love You and Nirahua Rickshawala.
The Bhojpuri film industry has provided work to many Bollywood actors and technicians. With the increment of the enormous budget, the movies now have scenes shot in foreign locales and have actors from abroad too.
The sexually explicit content has changed the audience profile and has deteriorated the quality of the Bhojpuri cinema. One such example is Bhojpuri director Nitin Chandra, whose film Deswa did not manage to get a commercial release despite being well-received at national and international film festivals. According to him, contemporary Bhojpuri films were “killing both cinema and language”. With popular songs such as Lollipop Lagelu (‘You Look Like a Lollipop’), Tanik sa Jeans Dheela Karaa (‘Loosen Your Jeans a Bit’) these allegations of vulgarity and frivolity cannot be ignored.
Apart from these regular actors, many Bollywood actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Abhishek Bachchan, Ajay Devgn, Rahul Roy, Dharmendra, Kader Khan, Mithun Chakraborty, Jackie Shroff, and Raj Babbar, Rahul Dev, Bollywood actresses like Aruna Irani, Hema Malini, Jaya Bachchan, Juhi Chawla, Rati Agnihotri, and Shilpa Shetty have also worked in Bhojpuri movies. Besides Bhojpuri singers, famous Bollywood singers such as Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Usha Mangeshkar, Geeta Dutt, Anuradha Paudwal, Alka Yagnik, Kavita Krishnamurthy, Sonu Nigam, and Udit Narayan have also joined this film industry.
