100 years of Bollywood: A beginner's guide The taboos Traditionally, the Indian censor board cut portrayals of sex, nudity, social unrest and violence from Bollywood films. The first film seriously to portray a gay relationship was Dunno Y Na Jaane Kyon, released in 2010, and on screen kisses still land a film with an adult rating. Director Baldev Raj Chopra was one of the first to break Bollywood's taboos of divorce and prostitution, as well as portraying rape for the first time in 1980 film Insaaf-ka-Tarazu. Bollywood films remain fairly conservative because they play to a wide group of people, who may all have different views of morality: while some customers won't mind seeing an on-screen kiss, others might. Social issues and violence also come under scrutiny: star Bollywood director Dibaka Banerjee was made to delete two scenes about inter-caste murder from his 2012 film Shanghai. However, the tide is changing. In Bollywood's centenary year the Indian Ministry of Information and Broadcasting is launching Cut-Uncut, a new film festival which will feature new, unedited version of films which were previously uncensored, including Bollywood classic Karma, which had the first on-screen kiss, in 1933 - until it was cut out. The gestures If you're starting your Bollywood journey with the classic films, there will be some repeated mystery gestures involved. If a person tugs on their ears, especially while apologising, it demonstrates repentance. A character waving their hand over somebody's, often a bride's, head, wards off evil and is an expression of how beautiful she is. On a similar note, to ward evil spirits away from them, attractive women put a blemish of kohl on their cheek to make them less beautiful. The classic films One hundred years of film is a lot, especially for an industry that can produce 1,200 films in a year. However, there are a few places to start. Masala films, like the curry, mean "a spicy mixture" of genres, so one film can combine comedy, drama, romance and action. Like the reasoning behind the lack of on-screen kissing, this is to appeal to as many different people as possible. 1975 film Sholay is the earliest example of masala film, as well as being considered one of the greatest Hindi films ever. A 205-minute-long caper, Sholay follows two petty thieves as they try to capture a bandit for an ex-policeman, with romance, gunfights and tragedy in between. Interestingly, the film was a flop at the box office, but became an overnight sensation after the release of its soundtrack, becoming the hit of the seventies. It remains one of the highest-grossing films in Indian cinema. Sholay was a watershed moment for scriptwriters too, bringing professionalism to this previously poorly paid trade. Mother India, released in 1957, is another classic. Like Sholay, it still ranks among the all-Indian box office hits for telling the story of Radha, a poverty-stricken single mother who raises her sons in a village as the ideal Indian woman. Although it was a remake of the director Mehboob Khan's earlier film Aurat, it was inspired by Mother India, a 1927 book written by Katherine Mayo which caused effigies to be burned due to her damning of Indian men. Despite this, Mother India triumphed in dealing with the representation of a self-sacrificing Hindu woman and the notion of the Mother country, which was pertinent 10 years after India's independence from British rule. Parallel cinema Aruond the middle of the century, Indian parallel cinema saw a move away from the traditional Bollywood film, focusing on life in newly-independent India and the problems faced by those who lived there. Critically-acclaimed new wave trilogies include Satyajit Ray's Pather Panchali, which depicted rural Indian life, and Meghe Dhaka Tara, which portrayed the struggles of refugees of the partition. Do Bigha Zameen, which is based on Vittorio De Sica's Bicycle Thieves, was the first Indian film to win Prix International at Cannes in 1954. Modern films Contemporary Bollywood films can be more accessible, with shorter run times and more English spoken. Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara is a 2011 coming-of-age film based in Spain, which can be easily understood without subtitles. Actress Sridevi has been compared to Meryl Streep after her performance as an Indian housewife adapting to Manhattan life in 2012 film English Vinglish. With thanks to Aakriti Kaushik, Amrit Walia, Hemant Gaba and Manish Nawani.