Films were made to entertain mainly. Of course, some films catered to religious sentiments and some others to patriotic fervor. A rare few were also made to provide edge-of-the-seat thrills, the horror kind.
Filmmaking was never and is still not a social service. Big money is at stake in every film and, hence, the watchword for the maker is to provide universal appeal. The phrase meant that a film should appeal to all strata of society. In that, the main objective was to cater to not just the family and ladies audience, described as gentry, or, to use another word, the balcony class, but also the masses that thronged the cinema halls from the day a new film released, cheered, clapped and threw coins at the screen if they enjoyed a certain song or dialogue. This lot made the film a success or a failure.
While the masses filled the cinema halls on regular basis, with some even watching a film more than once, the gentry or the family audience usually took in a film during a night show or over the weekend. Masses mattered the most for they were compulsive film watchers.
