Editing Musical film (section)

===Early sound films (1930s–1940s)===
[[File:Achhut Kanya.jpg|thumb|right|Melodrama and romance are common ingredients to Bollywood films. Pictured ''[[Achhut Kannya|Achhut Kanya]]'' (1936)]]

[[Bollywood music]]als have their roots in the traditional musical [[theatre of India]], such as [[classical Indian musical theatre]], [[Sanskrit drama]], and [[Parsi theatre]]. Early [[Bombay]] filmmakers combined these Indian musical theatre traditions with the musical film format that emerged from early Hollywood sound films.<ref name=Gokulsing>{{Cite book|title=Indian Popular Cinema: A Narrative of Cultural Change|last=Gokulsing|first=K. Moti|author2=Dissanayake, Wimal|author-link2=Wimal Dissanayake|publisher=Trentham Books|year=2004|isbn=978-1-85856-329-9|pages=98–99}}</ref> Other early influences on Bombay filmmakers included [[Urdu literature]] and the ''[[Arabian Nights]]''.<ref>{{cite book|last=Gooptu|first=Sharmistha|title=Bengali Cinema: 'An Other Nation'|date=2010|publisher=[[Routledge]]|isbn=9781136912177|page=38|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DcUtCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA38}}</ref>

The first Indian sound film, [[Ardeshir Irani]]'s ''[[Alam Ara]]'' (1931), was a major commercial success.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060326/spectrum/main1.htm |title=Talking Images, 75 Years of Cinema |work=The Tribune |access-date=9 March 2013}}</ref> There was clearly a huge market for talkies and musicals; Bollywood and all the regional film industries quickly switched to sound filming.

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.