Indian crossover films appeared in Indian cinema with international productions with Indian themes, starting with Merchant Ivory Productions

Merchant Ivory Productions

Merchant Ivory Productions is a film company founded in 1961 by producer Ismail Merchant and director James Ivory. Their films were for the most part produced by the former, directed by the latter, and scripted by Ruth Prawer Jhabvala, with the noted exception of a few films. The films were often...

 first venture, The Householder (1953), which has an India story, setting with an Indian cast, which included, Shashi Kapoor

Shashi Kapoor

Shashi Kapoor , born Balbir-Raj Prithviraj Kapoor on 18 March 1938 in Calcutta , is an award-winning Indian film actor and film producer. He has also been film director and assistant director in Hindi Films. He is a member of the Kapoor family, a film dynasty in India's Bollywood cinema...

, Leela Naidu

Leela Naidu

Leela Naidu was an Indian actress who starred in a small number of Hindi and English films, including Yeh Raaste Hain Pyaar Ke , based on the real-life Nanavati case, and The Householder, Merchant Ivory Productions' first film...

 and Durga Khote

Durga Khote

Durga Khote was an Indian actress, starting as one of the foremost leading ladies of her times, she remained active in Hindi and Marathi cinema, as well as theatre, for over 50 years, starring in around 200 films and numerous theatre productions....

, followed by a number of India-themed films largely propelled by Indian-born producer, Ismail Merchant

Ismail Merchant

Ismail Merchant was an Indian-born film producer, best known for the results of his famously long collaboration with Merchant Ivory Productions which included director James Ivory as well as screenwriter Ruth Prawer Jhabvala...

. However it took a while, before an Indian director would commercially take up making films in English language.

First such film came at the peak of Parallel cinema

Parallel Cinema

The Indian New Wave, commonly known in India as Art Cinema or Parallel Cinema as an alternative to the mainstream commercial cinema, is a specific movement in Indian cinema, known for its serious content, realism and naturalism, with a keen eye on the sociopolitical climate of the times...

 movement, when Aparna Sen

Aparna Sen

Aparna Sen is a critically acclaimed Bengali Indian filmmaker, script writer, and actress. She is the winner of three National Film Awards and eight international film festival awards.-Biography:...

, directed 36 Chowringhee Lane

36 Chowringhee Lane

36 Chowringee Lane is a 1981 film written and directed by Aparna Sen and produced by Shashi Kapoor. The film was very well received upon release. It stars Jennifer Kendal in a critically acclaimed role and Debashree Roy.-Plot:...

(1981) to critical acclaim, and for its lead actress, Jennifer Kapoor, who was even nominated for a BAFTA

BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role

Best Actress in a Leading Role is a British Academy Film award presented annually by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts to recognise an actress who has delivered an outstanding leading performance in a film.- Winners and nominees :...

. The genre was able to stand on its own with Dev Benegal

Dev Benegal

Dev Benegal is an Indian director and screenwriter, most known for his debut film English, August , which won the 1995 National Film Award for Best Feature Film in English....

's English, August

English, August (film)

English, August, made in 1994, is Indian film director Dev Benegal's first feature film. This film ignited the next generation of Indian cinema and is acknowledged as a landmark in contemporary Indian cinema...

(1994) which was widely accepted by urban audience and became its first hit, drawing an audience of 20 million .

This paved way for other directors to look at using English language as a viable medium, like Nagesh Kukunoor

Nagesh Kukunoor

Nagesh Kukunoor is an Indian filmmaker and screenwriter. He is known for movies such as Hyderabad Blues , Rockford , 3 Deewarein and Iqbal .-Early life:...

 who made Hyderabad Blues

Hyderabad Blues

Hyderabad Blues is a Bollywood movie directed by Nagesh Kukunoor. The film is about a NRI vacationing back home in Hyderabad, India and finding himself a foreigner in his own land.-Plot:...

(1998), Kaizad Gustad, Bombay Boys

Bombay Boys

Bombay Boys is an unorthodox comedy film written and directed by the Indian director Kaizad Gustad. It follows the adventures of three young men in modern-day Mumbai . The boys are of Indian origin, but were all raised in the West. Krishna Sahni is an aspiring actor from New York who wants to...

(1998) and more recently Being Cyrus

Being Cyrus

Being Cyrus is an English language Indian film directed by Homi Adajania and released in 2006. It is a psychological drama revolving around a dysfunctional Parsi family...

(1996) by Homi Adajania

Homi Adajania

Homi Adajania is an Indian film director. His directorial debut Being Cyrus was an off-beat English-Language psychological drama film. Touted as one of the brilliant emerging directors coming from India, Homi Adajania was also the co-author of Being Cyrus, which was his debut as a director. He has...

, and Rituporno Ghosh whose The Last Lear

The Last Lear

The Last Lear is an Indian film, in the English language, directed by Rituparno Ghosh. The film won the National Award of India for Best Feature Film in English in 2007. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Preity Zinta, Arjun Rampal, Divya Dutta, Shefali Shah and Jisshu Sengupta. Shefali Shah won the...

(2008), starring Amitabh Bachchan

Amitabh Bachchan

Amitabh Bachchan is an Indian film actor. He first gained popularity in the early 1970s as the "angry young man" of Hindi cinema, and has since appeared in over 180 Indian films in a career spanning more than four decades...

 as the lead, won the Best English Feature Award at National Film Award. Meanwhile, film directors of Indian descent, like Mira Nair

Mira Nair

Mira Nair is an Indian film director and producer based in New York. Her production company is Mirabai Films.She was educated at Delhi University and Harvard University. Her debut feature film, Salaam Bombay! , won the Golden Camera award at the Cannes Film Festival and also earned the nomination...

, Deepa Mehta

Deepa Mehta

Deepa Mehta, LLD is a Genie Award-winning Indian-born Canadian film director and screenwriter, most known for her Elements Trilogy, Fire , Earth , and Water , among which Earth was submitted by Indian government for Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film...

 and Gurinder Chadha

Gurinder Chadha

Gurinder Chadha , OBE, is a British film director of Indian origin. Most of her films explore the lives of Indians living in the United Kingdom. She is best known for the hit films Bhaji on the Beach , Bend It Like Beckham , Bride and Prejudice and Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging...

 continued to many English language films on Indian themes to international acclaimed, this opened up the genre further both creatively and commercially .

In 2000s, Aparna Sen

Aparna Sen

Aparna Sen is a critically acclaimed Bengali Indian filmmaker, script writer, and actress. She is the winner of three National Film Awards and eight international film festival awards.-Biography:...

 visited the genre again, and made two successive English features in Mr. and Mrs. Iyer

Mr. and Mrs. Iyer

Mr. and Mrs. Iyer is a 2002 Indian drama film written and directed by Aparna Sen and produced by N. Venkatesan. The film features Aparna Sen's daughter Konkona Sen Sharma as Meenakshi Iyer, a Tamil Iyer Brahmin who is a Hindu. Rahul Bose portrays the character of Raja Chowdhury, a Muslim wildlife...

(2002) and 15, Park Avenue

15, Park Avenue

15 Park Avenue is a 2005 National Film Award winning English-language Indian film directed by Aparna Sen.-Plot:30-something Mitali aka Meethi suffers from Schizophrenia and is taken care of by her much older, divorced sister Anjali aka Anu and an ageing mother...

(2005), which won the string of National Film Awards.

List of English-language Indian films

Hyderabad Blues (1998)
Hyderabad Blues 2 (2004)
Monsoon Wedding,
Mitr, My Friend (2002)
White Noise (2004)
Freaky Chakra
The Making of Mahatma
Flick Fire
Bombay Boys
Split Wide Open
Leela (2002)
Mongo Souffle (2002)
Stumble (2003)
Morning Raga (2005)
Bride and Prejudice
Sins (2005)
Being Cyrus (2006)
Water
Mixed doubles
Provoked
Parzania
Via Darjeeling
Massey Sahib
Election Moon
Carve Your Destiny (under production)