Silent era In the 1920s, films directed by
Franz Osten and
Himansu Rai, including
The Light of Asia and
A Throw of Dice, could be considered English-language films because the intertitles were in English. With the advent of sound, directors such as Osten and Rai chose Hindi as the language, thus effectively bringing to a close this phase of English-language films made in India.
Crossover films An attempt to make English talkies in India named
Karma failed domestically in 1933. Indian crossover films appeared in
Indian cinema with international productions with Indian themes, starting with
Merchant Ivory Productions' first venture,
The Householder (1963), which has an India story, setting with an Indian cast, and included
Shashi Kapoor,
Leela Naidu, and
Durga Khote. This was followed by a number of India-themed films largely propelled by Indian-born producer,
Ismail Merchant. However, it took a while before an Indian director would commercially take up making films in the English language.
Indian productions The first such film came at the peak of the
Parallel cinema movement, when
Aparna Sen directed
36 Chowringhee Lane (1981) to critical acclaim. Its lead actress,
Jennifer Kendal was even nominated for a
BAFTA Award. The genre was able to stand on its own with
Dev Benegal's
English, August (1994) which was widely accepted by urban audiences and became its first hit, drawing an audience of 20 million. In the 2000s, Aparna Sen visited the genre again, and made two successive English features in
Mr. and Mrs. Iyer (2002) and
15, Park Avenue (2005), which won a string of
National Film Awards. Meanwhile, film directors of Indian descent, such as
Mira Nair,
Deepa Mehta, and
Gurinder Chadha, continued to make English-language films on Indian themes to international acclaim. This further opened up the genre, both creatively and commercially. ==List of films (partial)==