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Right from its inception, Indian cinema has been used by a class of filmmakers to highlight prevalent socio-political issues like casteism, peasant rights, famine and migration. Early examples of Indian cinema's socio-realist movement include Dharti Ke Lal (1946), a film about the Bengal famine of 1943 directed and written by Khwaja Ahmad Abbas, and Neecha Nagar (1946), a film directed by Chetan Anand that won the Grand Prize at the first Cannes Film Festival. Yet the number of such films was very few and they did not perform well at the box office. The Film Finance Corporation (FFC) established in 1960 started financing selected projects through low interest loans. In the early 1960s, with the rolling of film institutions in the country like Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune, Maharashtra, film students could watch cinema from around the world. They could closely observe film movements like Italian Neo-realism, Latin American cinema and French New Wave. It is worth mentioning that people like ace director of Indian parallel cinema Ritwik Ghatak were teaching at the institute during the initial period of its establishment. These factors had prepared a ground for a Parallel Cinema Movement in the country. Mrinal Sen鈥檚 Bhuvan Shome

(1969) financed by the FFC is regarded by many as the launching pad of this movement. The new class of films was now being critiqued and reviewed by scholars. It was opined that as against the mainstream cinema which primarily focused on light doses of entertainment to a tired generation, it was necessary to reflect the true picture of the country which was young and facing new challenges of development. Against this backdrop, in 1970 journalist Arvind Mehta coined the term 鈥楽amantar鈥� or 鈥楶arallel鈥� cinema in Madhuri, a Hindi Journal published by the Times of India Group. Soon the term gained popularity and thus Indian films now had a parallel stream of films and filmmakers, distinguished by a large number of factors.

In contrast to the studio system, filmmakers of this genre preferred location shootings and took up rural based projects. They believed that 鈥榩ost independence鈥� India actually resided in the villages. Film scholars have attributed this ruralist drive to the influence of two factors -first being Satyajit Ray鈥檚 Apu trilogy and second being the literary sources, which were being adapted in large numbers for the screen. This rural setting of the Parallel Cinema demanded incorporation of folk elements in them.

Many students from FTII went back to their home states and introduced new styles of filmmaking. This new style was devoid of the fantasy and extravaganza laden popular genres of cinema and portrayed life in its truest sense. This has been termed as the beginning of a Parallel cinema movement in India, initially led by the Bengal school of filmmaking. In the 1960s, the Indian government began financing independent art films based on Indian themes. Many of the directors were graduates from FTII, Pune. Moreover, the concept of collective filmmaking was also taken up by a group of FTII graduates when K. Hariharan, Mani Kaul, Saeed Akhtar Mirza and Kamal Swaroop together directed the much acclaimed Marathi film Ghashiram Kotwal in 1976, adapted from a play with the same name, by playwright Vijay Tendulkar.

Parallel cinema, or New Indian Cinema, was therefore, an alternative to the mainstream commercial Indian cinema. It is known for its serious content, realism and naturalism, symbolic elements with a keen eye on the sociopolitical climate of the times. Films of this new genre, which depicted reality from an artful perspective, were mostly funded by state governments to promote an authentic art genre in Indian cinema. Internationally acclaimed filmmakers such as Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Tapan Sinha, and others made their mark during this phase of Indian cinema. It later gained prominence in other film industries of India with filmmakers like Adoor Gopalakrishnan, G. Aravindan and Girish Kasaravalli.

The most influential among them was Satyajit Ray, whose films became successful among European, American and Asian audiences. The most famous Indian 鈥榥eo-realist鈥� was the Bengali film director Satyajit Ray. Though Ray has ventured into multiple genres and proved his genius, yet his famed Apu Trilogy of three films, namely Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956) and Apur Sansar (1959), which won major prizes at the Cannes, Berlin and Venice Film Festivals, are regarded as masterpieces of world cinema.

Marking the end of the idealistic 50s, Indian cinema not only witnessed a beautiful assimilation of entertainment in the form of subtle stories depicting lives of people next door. Representing the lives of Indian people on the celluloid without exaggeration of any kind, this genre of films was like a breath of fresh air for the cinegoers. People could easily connect to this gentle portrayal of the growing middle class which had simple stories weaved artistically with soft music and low-toned dialogues, carving a middle path between the extravagance of mainstream cinema and the stark realism of art cinema. Film historians have termed this genre as 鈥榤iddle of the road cinema鈥�. Renowned filmmakers like Basu Chatterji (Piya Ka Ghar, Rajnigandha, Ek Ruka Hua Faisla etc.) and Hrishikesh Mukherji (Chupke Chupke, Bawarchi, Khubsoorat) are regarded as pioneers of this genre.

This period witnessed the birth of two new streams of filmmaking in India. Moreover adaptation of literature was heavily done during this phase. Film scholars and historians opine that the changing demographics and temperament of the Indian populace could be precisely documented by studying this period of filmmaking. Hence this period is considered as a part of the 鈥�Golden Age鈥� of Indian cinema.