Punjabi cinema begins at Lahore, which was the centre of production before 1947. Heer Ranjha of 1932 is usually counted the first Punjabi feature and Sheila, also called Pind di Kudi, released in 1935, was the first Punjabi talkie. Sheila was shot in Calcutta and released in Lahore, which is how the industry worked before it had studios of its own.
Partition split the industry. Lahore's studios became the base of Pakistani cinema, which produced Punjabi films in Shahmukhi for a large domestic audience. Indian Punjabi cinema had to start again with no studios and no capital.
It survived on a small number of films a year, often religious or rural subjects, with occasional serious work: Nanak Naam Jahaz Hai in 1969 was a phenomenon, Marhi Da Deeva in 1989 from Gurdial Singh's novel, and Anhe Ghore Da Daan in 2011.
Since about 2010 the industry has expanded sharply on the back of the music business and the diaspora market, producing comedies and family films that earn well in Canada, Britain and Australia.
The commercial recovery and the art cinema have almost no contact with each other, and the second is much smaller than it was.
The Punjabi film industry was at Lahore before 1947 and the studios, the technicians and much of the talent stayed there. The Indian side began again from almost nothing.
Pakistani Punjabi cinema had a long commercial run and its Maula Jatt tradition of the 1970s is a genre with no Indian equivalent.
The Indian Punjabi industry now works out of Mohali and Chandigarh, is largely comedy and family drama, and depends heavily on the diaspora box office.
Box office and production records for the post-2010 industry.