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Filmfare is an Indian English language-language fortnightly magazine published by Worldwide Media. Acknowledged as one of India's most popular entertainment magazines, it publishes pieces involving news, interviews, photos, videos, reviews, events, and style. The magazine also annually gives the Filmfare Awards, the Filmfare Awards South, the Filmfare Awards East, the Filmfare Marathi Awards, the Filmfare Awards Punjabi, the Filmfare Awards Bangla, the Filmfare OTT Awards, the Filmfare Short Film Awards and the Filmfare Style & Glamour Awards.
After the businessman Ramkrishna Dalmia (1893–1978) of Dalmia Group purchased Bennett, Coleman and Company Limited (BCCL) in 1946, J. C. Jain from Bharat Insurance Company was employed to help him in running the company in 1950. In this period, Jain conceived the idea of Filmfare at the actress Kamini Kaushal's house. The magazine was launched by the industrialist Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain alongside his wife Rama in Bombay on 7 March 1952. Its circulation started to decline in the early 1990s and to handle these problems, Filmfare started special monthly editions for Telugu cinema, Tamil cinema, and Malayalam cinema. In 2004, BCCL (who previously published the magazine) established a subsidiary, Worldwide Media, for publishing its future issues.
During his term-of-office, Jain started the publication of Filmfare as a fortnightly magazine on 7 March 1952 to "build awareness about filmmaking and films". It was launched by Sahu Shanti Prasad Jain and his wife Rama in Bombay, distributed by The Times of India newspaper, and promoted with the taglines, "Another name for 'Credibility and "The first serious effort in film journalism in India". It contains short biography of rising actors at the time, film reviews, and a number of columns, including "The Fortnight in Films" and "Filmfacts". Published two months after the 1st International Film Festival of India, Neepa Majumdar (in her 2012 book Global Neorealism: The Transnational History of a Film Style) wrote that the magazine "saw the festival as an opportunity for Indian film actors to be exposed to quality films" and established themselves as leading actors. In the first issue, a manifesto was declared:
It is from this dual standpoint of its industry and its patrons, whom comprise the vast audience of movie fans, that Filmfare is primarily designed. This magazine represents the first serious effort in film journalism in India. It is a movie magazine—with a difference. The difference lies in our realisation that the film as a composite art medium calls for serious study and constructive criticism and appreciation from the industry as also from the public.
In 1957, Filmfare published the "Self-portraits" series, where several well-known actors at the time, including Ashok Kumar, Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar, Meena Kumari, Nargis, Nutan and Raj Kapoor, were invited and accepted to talk about themselves and their experiences. The magazine faced controversy after the actress Sharmila Tagore did a shot with her photographer Dhiren Chawda with only wearing a two-piece Floral design bikini for its 19 August 1966 issue. The first time for an Indian celebrity to pose with only a bikini for a magazine cover, she revealed that it was her personal choice but later admitted she had "no idea" why she wanted to. In association with United Producers (a group formed by G. P. Sippy, Shakti Samanta and B. R. Chopra), Filmfare organised the United Producers-Filmfare Talent Contest (also known as the All India Talent Contest) in 1965.
In the 1970s, Rauf Ahmed worked as the editor of the magazine, replacing B. K. Karanjia who had filled the position for 18 years. Talking to Daily News and Analysis in 2015, Ahmed spoke of how the magazine nearly collapsed at the time as no gossip columns were written by its journalist. Following his quit, Bikram Singh (the actor K. N. Singh's brother) was hired for the position until the early of the next decade. Pritish Nandy replaced him in 1984; the first issue he edited was published in July that year, titled "Unquestionably No. 1", which features the actress Sridevi on the cover. The circulation of Filmfare dropped in the early 1990s, prompting the publisher to attach free consumer products (such as soaps or shampoo sachets) to the magazine. Additionally, special monthly editions with a few pages dedicated to Malayalam cinema, Tamil cinema and Telugu cinema were begun and, as reported by The Quint in 2019, become commercial successes. Khalid Mohamed was appointed as the editor in 1993.
[https://filmfaremiddleeast.com/ Official website Filmfare Middle East]
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