Bollywood Actress and Actors Updates
Bollywood Actress and Actors Updates
Bollywood Webs
Bollywood is the sobriquet for India's Hindi language film industry, based in the city of Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is more formally referred to as Hindi cinema. The term "Bollywood" is often used by non-Indians as a synecdoche to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; however, Bollywood proper is only a part of the larger Indian film industry, which includes other production centres producing films in many other Indian languages.
Bollywood is one of the largest film producers in India, representing 43% of the net box office revenue, while Tamil and Telugu cinema represent 36%, and the rest of the regional cinema constitutes 21% as of 2014. Bollywood is also one of the largest centers of film production in the world. Furthermore, Bollywood is one of the biggest film industries in the world in terms of the number of people employed and the number of films produced. According to Matusitz, J., & Payano, P., In 2011, over 3.5 billion tickets were sold across the globe which in comparison is 900,000 tickets more than Hollywood. Bollywood produced 252 films in 2014 out of a total of 1969 films produced in Indian cinema.
Etymology
The name "Bollywood" is a portmanteau derived from Bombay, India, and Hollywood, California, the center of the American film industry. Bollywood does not exist as a physical place. Some deplore the name, arguing that it makes the industry look like a poor cousin to Hollywood.
The naming scheme for "Bollywood" was inspired by "Tollywood", the name that was used to refer to the cinema of West Bengal. Dating back to 1932, "Tollywood" was the earliest Hollywood-inspired name, referring to the Bengali film industry based in Tollygunge, Calcutta, whose name is reminiscent of "Hollywood" and was the centre of the cinema of India at the time. It was this "chance juxtaposition of two pairs of rhyming syllables," Holly and Tolly, that led to the portmanteau name "Tollywood" being coined. The name "Tollywood" went on to be used as a nickname for the Bengali film industry by the popular Kolkata-based Junior Statesman youth magazine, establishing a precedent for other film industries to use similar-sounding names, eventually leading to the coining of "Bollywood". However, Tollywood is now used popularly to refer to the Telugu Film Industry in Telangana & Andhra Pradesh. The term "Bollywood" itself has origins in the 1970s, when India overtook America as the world's largest film producer. Credit for the term has been claimed by several different people, including the lyricist, filmmaker and scholar Amit Khanna, and the journalist Bevinda Collaco.
History
Raja Harishchandra, by Dadasaheb Phalke, is known as the first silent feature film made in India. By the 1930s, the industry was producing over 200 films per annum. The first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Irani's Alam Ara, was a major commercial success. There was clearly a huge market for talkies and musicals; Bollywood and all the regional film industries quickly switched to sound filming.
The 1930s and 1940s were tumultuous times: India was buffeted by the Great Depression, World War II, the Indian independence movement, and the violence of the Partition. Most Bollywood films were unabashedly escapist, but there were also a number of filmmakers who tackled tough social issues, or used the struggle for Indian independence as a backdrop for their plots. Some of the most critically acclaimed Hindi films of all time were produced during this period. Examples include the Guru Dutt films Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool and the Raj Kapoor films Awaara, Shree 420 and Dilip Kumar's Aan . These films expressed social themes mainly dealing with working-class urban life in India; Awaara presented the city as both a nightmare and a dream, while Pyaasa critiqued the unreality of city life. Some of the most famous epic films of Hindi cinema were also produced at the time, including Mehboob Khan's Mother India, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and K. Asif's Mughal-e-Azam . Madhumati, directed by Bimal Roy and written by Ritwik Ghatak, popularised the theme of reincarnation in Western popular culture. and Bimal Roy's Do Bigha Zamin . Their critical acclaim, as well as the latter's commercial success, paved the way for Indian neorealism and the Indian New Wave. Some of the internationally acclaimed Hindi filmmakers involved in the movement included Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihalani, Shyam Benegal and Vijaya Mehta. Guru Dutt, while overlooked in his own lifetime, had belatedly generated international recognition much later in the 1980s. Dutt is now regarded as one of the greatest Asian filmmakers of all time, alongside the more famous Indian Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray. The 2002 Sight & Sound critics' and directors' poll of greatest filmmakers ranked Dutt at No. 73 on the list. Some of his films are now included among the greatest films of all time, with Pyaasa being featured in Time magazine's "All-TIME" 100 best movies list, and with both Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool tied at No. 160 in the 2002 Sight & Sound critics' and directors' poll of all-time greatest films. Several other Hindi films from this era were also ranked in the Sight & Sound poll, including Raj Kapoor's Awaara, Vijay Bhatt's Baiju Bawra, Mehboob Khan's Mother India and K. Asif's Mughal-e-Azam all tied at No. 346 on the list.
Modern cinema
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, romance movies and action films starred actors like Shammi Kapoor, Jeetendra, Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar and Shashi Kapoor and actresses like Sharmila Tagore, Mumtaz, Saira Banu and Asha Parekh. In the mid-1970s, romantic confections made way for gritty, violent films about gangsters and bandits. Amitabh Bachchan, the star known for his "angry young man" roles, rode the crest of this trend with actors like Mithun Chakraborty, Naseeruddin Shah, Jackie Shroff, Sanjay Dutt, Anil Kapoor and Sunny Deol, which lasted into the early 1990s. Actresses from this era included Hema Malini, Jaya Bachchan, Raakhee, Shabana Azmi, Zeenat Aman, Parveen Babi, Rekha, Dimple Kapadia, Smita Patil, Jaya Prada and Padmini Kolhapure .
Some Hindi filmmakers such as Shyam Benegal continued to produce realistic Parallel Cinema throughout the 1970s, alongside Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihalani and Vijaya Mehta. Another important film from 1975 was Deewar, directed by Yash Chopra and written by Salim-Javed. A crime film pitting "a policeman against his brother, a gang leader based on real-life smuggler Haji Mastan", portrayed by Amitabh Bachchan; it was described as being "absolutely key to Indian cinema" by Danny Boyle. Actresses during this time included Raveena Tandon, Twinkle Khanna, Sonali Bendre, Sushmita Sen, Mahima Chaudhary and Shilpa Shetty. Furthermore, this decade marked the entry of new performers in arthouse and independent films, some of which succeeded commercially, the most influential example being Satya, directed by Ram Gopal Varma and written by Anurag Kashyap. The critical and commercial success of Satya led to the emergence of a distinct genre known as Mumbai noir, urban films reflecting social problems in the city of Mumbai. This led to a resurgence of Parallel Cinema by the end of the decade. Some of the largest production houses, among them Yash Raj Films and Dharma Productions were the producers of new modern films. The Hindi film industry has preferred films that appeal to all segments of the audience, and has resisted making films that target narrower audiences. It was believed that aiming for a broad spectrum would maximise box office receipts. However, filmmakers may be moving towards accepting some box-office segmentation, between films that appeal to rural Indians, and films that appeal to urban and international audiences.
Influences for Bollywood
Gokulsing and Dissanayake identify six major influences that have shaped the conventions of Indian popular cinema:
The ancient Indian epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana which have exerted a profound influence on the thought and imagination of Indian popular cinema, particularly in its narratives. Examples of this influence include the techniques of a side story, back-story and story within a story. Indian popular films often have plots which branch off into sub-plots; such narrative dispersals can clearly be seen in the 1993 films Khalnayak and Gardish.
The traditional folk theatre of India, which became popular from around the 10th century with the decline of Sanskrit theatre. These regional traditions include the Yatra of Bengal, the Ramlila of Uttar Pradesh, and the Terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu. In the words of the economist and Bollywood biographer Lord Meghnad Desai, The film incorporated an Indian-themed play based on the ancient Sanskrit drama Má¹›cchakatika and a Bollywood-style dance sequence with a song from the film China Gate. The critical and financial success of Moulin Rouge! renewed interest in the then-moribund Western musical genre, and subsequently films such as Chicago, The Producers, Rent, Dreamgirls, Hairspray, Sweeney Todd, Across the Universe, The Phantom of the Opera, Enchanted and Mamma Mia! were produced, fuelling a renaissance of the genre.
A. R. Rahman, an Indian film composer, wrote the music for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Bombay Dreams, and a musical version of Hum Aapke Hain Koun has played in London's West End. The Bollywood musical Lagaan was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and two other Bollywood films Devdas and Rang De Basanti were nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language. Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, which has won four Golden Globes and eight Academy Awards, was also directly inspired by Bollywood films, and is considered to be a "homage to Hindi commercial cinema". The theme of reincarnation was also popularised in Western popular culture through Bollywood films, with Madhumati inspiring the Hollywood film The Reincarnation of Peter Proud, which in turn inspired the Bollywood film Karz, which in turn influenced another Hollywood film Chances Are . The 1975 film Chhoti Si Baat is believed to have inspired Hitch, which in turn inspired the Bollywood film Partner.
The influence of Bollywood filmi music can also be seen in popular music elsewhere in the world. In 1978, technopop pioneers Haruomi Hosono and Ryuichi Sakamoto of the Yellow Magic Orchestra produced an electronic album Cochin Moon based on an experimental fusion between electronic music and Bollywood-inspired Indian music. Devo's 1988 hit song "Disco Dancer" was inspired by the song "I am a Disco Dancer" from the Bollywood film Disco Dancer . The 2002 song "Addictive", sung by Truth Hurts and produced by DJ Quik and Dr. Dre, was lifted from Lata Mangeshkar's "Thoda Resham Lagta Hai" from Jyoti . The Black Eyed Peas' Grammy Award winning 2005 song "Don't Phunk with My Heart" was inspired by two 1970s Bollywood songs: "Ye Mera Dil Yaar Ka Diwana" from Don and "Ae Nujawan Hai Sub" from Apradh . Both songs were originally composed by Kalyanji Anandji, sung by Asha Bhosle, and featured the dancer Helen. Also in 2005, the Kronos Quartet re-recorded several R. D. Burman compositions, with Asha Bhosle as the singer, into an album You've Stolen My Heart: Songs from R.D. Burman's Bollywood, which was nominated for "Best Contemporary World Music Album" at the 2006 Grammy Awards. Filmi music composed by A. R. Rahman has frequently been sampled by musicians elsewhere in the world, including the Singaporean artist Kelly Poon, the Uzbek artist Iroda Dilroz, the French rap group La Caution, the American artist Ciara, and the German band Löwenherz, among others. Many Asian Underground artists, particularly those among the overseas Indian diaspora, have also been inspired by Bollywood music.
Genre conventions
Bollywood films are mostly musicals and are expected to contain catchy music in the form of song-and-dance numbers woven into the script. A film's success often depends on the quality of such musical numbers. Indeed, a film's music is often released before the movie and helps increase the audience.
Indian audiences expect full value for their money, with a good entertainer generally referred to as paisa vasool, . Songs and dances, love triangles, comedy and dare-devil thrills are all mixed up in a three-hour extravaganza with an intermission. They are called Masala films, after the Hindi word for a spice mixture. Like masalas, these movies are a mixture of many things such as action, comedy, romance and so on. Most films have heroes who are able to fight off villains all by themselves.
Bollywood plots have tended to be melodramatic. They frequently employ formulaic ingredients such as star-crossed lovers and angry parents, love triangles, family ties, sacrifice, corrupt politicians, kidnappers, conniving villains, courtesans with hearts of gold, long-lost relatives and siblings separated by fate, dramatic reversals of fortune, and convenient coincidences.
There have always been Indian films with more artistic aims and more sophisticated stories, both inside and outside the Bollywood tradition . They often lost out at the box office to movies with more mass appeal. Bollywood conventions are changing, however. A large Indian diaspora in English-speaking countries, and increased Western influence at home, have nudged Bollywood films closer to Hollywood models.
Film critic Lata Khubchandani writes, "our earliest films ... had liberal doses of sex and kissing scenes in them. Strangely, it was after Independence the censor board came into being and so did all the strictures." Plots now tend to feature Westernised urbanites dating and dancing in clubs rather than centring on pre-arranged marriages. Though these changes can widely be seen in contemporary Bollywood, traditional conservative ways of Indian culture continue to exist in India outside the industry and an element of resistance by some to western-based influences.
Very few non-Indian actors are able to make a mark in Bollywood, though many have tried from time to time. There have been some exceptions, of which one recent example is the hit film Rang De Basanti, where the lead actress is Alice Patten, an Englishwoman. Kisna, Lagaan, and The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey also featured foreign actors. Of late, Emma Brown Garett, an Australian born actress, has starred in a few Indian films.
Bollywood can be very clannish, and the relatives of film-industry insiders have an edge in getting coveted roles in films or being part of a film's crew. However, industry connections are no guarantee of a long career: competition is fierce and if film industry scions do not succeed at the box office, their careers will falter. Some of the biggest stars, such as Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Madhuri Dixit, Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar have succeeded despite a lack of any show business connections. For film clans, see List of Hindi film clans.
Sound
Sound in Bollywood films was once rarely recorded on location . Therefore, the sound was usually created entirely in the studio, with the actors reciting their lines as their images appear on-screen in the studio in the process known as "looping in the sound" or ADR—with the foley and sound effects added later. This created several problems, since the sound in these films usually occurs a frame or two earlier or later than the mouth movements or gestures. However, in 2014 the Supreme Court of India ruled that this rule was in violation of the Indian constitutional guarantees granted under Article 14, 19 and Article 21 .
Bollywood song and dance
Bollywood film music is called filmi music . Songs from Bollywood movies are generally pre-recorded by professional playback singers, with the actors then lip synching the words to the song on-screen, often while dancing. While most actors, especially today, are excellent dancers, few are also singers. One notable exception was Kishore Kumar, who starred in several major films in the 1950s while also having a stellar career as a playback singer. K. L. Saigal, Suraiyya, and Noor Jehan were also known as both singers and actors. Some actors in the last thirty years have sung one or more songs themselves; for a list, see Singing actors and actresses in Indian cinema.
Songs are what make and break the movie; they determine if it is going to be a flop or a hit: "Few films without successful musical tracks, and even fewer without any songs and dances, succeed" those scenes have since then often been shot in Western Europe, particularly in Switzerland and Austria.
Renowned contemporary Bollywood dancers include Madhuri Dixit, Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sridevi, Meenakshi Seshadri, Malaika Arora Khan, Shahid Kapoor and Tiger Shroff. Older Bollywood dancers are people such as Helen, known for her cabaret numbers, Madhubala, Vyjanthimala, Padmini, Hema Malini, Mumtaz, Cuckoo Moray, Parveen Babi, Waheeda Rahman, Meena Kumari, and Shammi Kapoor.
For the last few decades Bollywood producers have been releasing the film's soundtrack, as tapes or CDs, before the main movie release, hoping that the music will pull audiences into the cinema later. Often the soundtrack is more popular than the movie. In the last few years some producers have also been releasing music videos, usually featuring a song from the film. However, some promotional videos feature a song which is not included in the movie.
Dialogues and lyrics
The film script or lines of dialogue and the song lyrics are often written by different people.
Dialogues are usually written in an unadorned Hindi that would be understood by the largest possible audience. Contemporary mainstream movies also make great use of English. According to Bollywood Audiences Editorial, "English has begun to challenge the ideological work done by Urdu." Some movie scripts are first written in Latin script. Characters may shift from one language to the other to express a certain atmosphere .
Cinematic language, whether in dialogues or lyrics, is often melodramatic and invokes God, family, mother, duty, and self-sacrifice liberally. Song lyrics are often about love. Bollywood song lyrics, especially in the old movies, frequently use the poetic vocabulary of court Urdu, with many Persian loanwords. Another source for love lyrics is the long Hindu tradition of poetry about the amours of Krishna, Radha, and the gopis, as referenced in films such as Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje and Lagaan.
Music directors often prefer working with certain lyricists, to the point that the lyricist and composer are seen as a team. This phenomenon is compared to the pairings of American composers and songwriters that created old-time Broadway musicals.
Finances
Bollywood films are multi-million dollar productions, with the most expensive productions costing up to 1 billion rupees . The latest Science fiction movie Ra.One was made at an immense budget of 1.35 billion, making it the most expensive movie ever produced in Bollywood. Sets, costumes, special effects, and cinematography were less than world-class up until the mid-to-late 1990s, although with some notable exceptions. As Western films and television gain wider distribution in India itself, there is an increasing pressure for Bollywood films to attain the same production levels, particularly in areas such as action and special effects. Recent Bollywood films have employed international technicians to improve in these areas, such as Krrish which has action choreographed by Hong Kong based Tony Ching. The increasing accessibility to professional action and special effects, coupled with rising film budgets, has seen an explosion in the action and sci-fi genres.
Sequences shot overseas have proved a real box office draw, so Mumbai film crews are increasingly filming in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, continental Europe and elsewhere. Nowadays, Indian producers are winning more and more funding for big-budget films shot within India as well, such as Lagaan, Devdas and other recent films.
Funding for Bollywood films often comes from private distributors and a few large studios. Indian banks and financial institutions were forbidden from lending money to movie studios. However, this ban has now been lifted. As finances are not regulated, some funding also comes from illegitimate sources, such as the Mumbai underworld. The Mumbai underworld has been known to be involved in the production of several films, and are notorious for patronising several prominent film personalities. On occasion, they have been known to use money and muscle power to get their way in cinematic deals. In January 2000, Mumbai mafia hitmen shot Rakesh Roshan, a film director and father of star Hrithik Roshan. In 2001, the Central Bureau of Investigation seized all prints of the movie Chori Chori Chupke Chupke after the movie was found to be funded by members of the Mumbai underworld.
Another problem facing Bollywood is widespread copyright infringement of its films. Often, bootleg DVD copies of movies are available before the prints are officially released in cinemas. Manufacturing of bootleg DVD, VCD, and VHS copies of the latest movie titles is a well established 'small scale industry' in parts of South Asia and South East Asia. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry estimates that the Bollywood industry loses $100 million annually in loss of revenue from unlicensed home videos and DVDs. Besides catering to the homegrown market, demand for these copies is large amongst some sections of the Indian diaspora, too. . Films are frequently broadcast without compensation by countless small cable TV companies in India and other parts of South Asia. Small convenience stores run by members of the Indian diaspora in the US and the UK regularly stock tapes and DVDs of dubious provenance, while consumer copying adds to the problem. The availability of illegal copies of movies on the Internet also contributes to the industry's losses.
Satellite TV, television and imported foreign films are making huge inroads into the domestic Indian entertainment market. In the past, most Bollywood films could make money; now fewer tend to do so. However, most Bollywood producers make money, recouping their investments from many sources of revenue, including selling ancillary rights. There are also increasing returns from theatres in Western countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, where Bollywood is slowly getting noticed. As more Indians migrate to these countries, they form a growing market for upscale Indian films.
For a comparison of Hollywood and Bollywood financial figures, see chart. It shows tickets sold in 2002 and total revenue estimates. Bollywood sold 3.6 billion tickets and had total revenues of US$1.3 billion, whereas Hollywood films sold 2.6 billion tickets and generated total revenues of US$51 billion.
Advertising
Many Indian artists used to make a living by hand-painting movie billboards and posters . This was because human labour was found to be cheaper than printing and distributing publicity material. Now, a majority of the huge and ubiquitous billboards in India's major cities are created with computer-printed vinyl. The old hand-painted posters, once regarded as ephemera, are becoming increasingly collectible as folk art.
Releasing the film music, or music videos, before the actual release of the film can also be considered a form of advertising. A popular tune is believed to help pull audiences into the theatres.
Bollywood publicists have begun to use the Internet as a venue for advertising. Most of the better-funded film releases now have their own websites, where browsers can view trailers, stills, and information about the story, cast, and crew.
Bollywood is also used to advertise other products. Product placement, as used in Hollywood, is widely practised in Bollywood.
Bollywood movie stars appear in print and television advertisements for other products, such as watches or soap . Advertisers say that a star endorsement boosts sales.
International shoots
With the increasing prominence of international setting such as Switzerland, London, Paris, New York, Singapore and so on, it does not entail that the people and cultures residing in these exotic settings are represented. Contrary to these spaces and geographies being filmed as they are, they are actually Indianized by adding Bollywood actors and Hindi speaking extras to them. While immersing in Bollywood films, viewers get to see their local experiences duplicated in different locations around the world.
Rao states that "Media representation can depict India's shifting relation with the world economy, but must retain its 'Indianness' in moments of dynamic hybridity",
Awards
The Filmfare Awards ceremony is one of the most prominent film events given for Hindi films in India. The Indian screen magazine Filmfare started the first Filmfare Awards in 1954, and awards were given to the best films of 1953. The ceremony was referred to as the Clare Awards after the magazine's editor. Modelled after the poll-based merit format of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, individuals may submit their votes in separate categories. A dual voting system was developed in 1956. The Filmfare awards are frequently accused of bias towards commercial success rather than artistic merit.
The National Film Awards were introduced in 1954. Since 1973, the Indian government has sponsored the National Film Awards, awarded by the government run Directorate of Film Festivals . The DFF screens not only Bollywood films, but films from all the other regional movie industries and independent/art films. These awards are handed out at an annual ceremony presided over by the President of India. Under this system, in contrast to the National Film Awards, which are decided by a panel appointed by Indian Government, the Filmfare Awards are voted for by both the public and a committee of experts.
Notable private awards ceremonies for Hindi films, held within India are:
Filmfare Awards – since 1954
Screen Awards – since 1995
Stardust Awards – since 2003
Notable private awards ceremonies for Hindi films, held overseas are:
International Indian Film Academy Awards – – since 2000
Zee Cine Awards- – since 1998
Most of these award ceremonies are lavishly staged spectacles, featuring singing, dancing, and numerous celebrities.
Film education
Film and Television Institute of India
Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute
Asian Academy of Film & Television
Popularity and appeal
Besides being popular among the India diaspora, such far off locations as Nigeria to Egypt to Senegal and to Russia generations of non-Indian fans have grown up with Bollywood during the years, bearing witness to the cross-cultural appeal of Indian movies. with Western actors now actively seeking roles in Bollywood movies.
Africa
Historically, Hindi films have been distributed to some parts of Africa, largely by Lebanese businessmen. Mother India, for example, continued to be played in Nigeria decades after its release. Indian movies have also gained ground so as to alter the style of Hausa fashions, songs have also been copied by Hausa singers and stories have influenced the writings of Nigerian novelists. Stickers of Indian films and stars decorate taxis and buses in Northern Nigeria, while posters of Indian films adorn the walls of tailor shops and mechanics' garages in the country. Unlike in Europe and North America where Indian films largely cater to the expatriate Indian market yearning to keep in touch with their homeland, in West Africa, as in many other parts of the world, such movies rose in popularity despite the lack of a significant Indian audience, where movies are about an alien culture, based on a religion wholly different, and, for the most part, a language that is unintelligible to the viewers. One such explanation for this lies in the similarities between the two cultures. Other similarities include wearing turbans; the presence of animals in markets; porters carrying large bundles, chewing sugar cane; youths riding Bajaj motor scooters; wedding celebrations, and so forth. With the strict Muslim culture, Indian movies were said to show "respect" toward women, where Hollywood movies were seen to have "no shame". In Indian movies women were modestly dressed, men and women rarely kiss, and there is no nudity, thus Indian movies are said to "have culture" that Hollywood films lack. The latter choice was a failure because "they don't base themselves on the problems of the people," where the former is based socialist values and on the reality of developing countries emerging from years of colonialism. Indian movies also allowed for a new youth culture to follow without such ideological baggage as "becoming western." The first ever movie to be shot in Mauritius was Souten starring Rajesh Khanna in 1983.
Several Bollywood personalities have avenued to the continent for both shooting movies and off-camera projects. The film Padmashree Laloo Prasad Yadav was one of many movies shot in South Africa. Dil Jo Bhi Kahey was shot almost entirely in Mauritius, which has a large ethnically Indian population.
Ominously, however, the popularity of old Bollywood versus a new, changing Bollywood seems to be diminishing the popularity on the continent. The changing style of Bollywood has begun to question such an acceptance. The new era features more sexually explicit and violent films. Nigerian viewers, for example, commented that older films of the 1950s and 1960s had culture to the newer, more westernised picturisations. The emergence of Nollywood, Africa's local movie industry has also contributed to the declining popularity of Bollywood films. A greater globalised world worked in tandem with the sexualisation of Indian films so as to become more like American films, thus negating the preferred values of an old Bollywood and diminishing Indian soft power.
Additionally, classic Bollywood actors like Kishore Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan have historically enjoyed popularity in Egypt and Somalia. In Ethiopia, Bollwood movies are shown alongside Hollywood productions in Piazza theatres, such as the Cinema Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. In the other countries of North Africa, Bollywood films are also broadcast, though local aesthetics tend much more toward expressive or auteur cinema than commercial fare.
Asia
South Asia
Bollywood films are widely watched in other South Asian countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Many Pakistanis watch Bollywood films, as they understand Hindi . Pakistan banned the legal import of Bollywood movies in 1965. However, trade in unlicensed DVDs and illegal cable broadcasts ensured the continued popularity of Bollywood releases in Pakistan. Exceptions were made for a few films, such as the 2006 colorised re-release of the classic Mughal-e-Azam or the 2006 film Taj Mahal. Early in 2008, the Pakistani government eased the ban and allowed the import of even more movies; 16 were screened in 2008. Continued easing followed in 2009 and 2010. The new policy is opposed by nationalists and representatives of Pakistan's small film industry but is embraced by cinema owners, who are making profits after years of low receipts.
Bollywood movies are so much popular in Nepal that, Bollywood movies earn more than Nepali movies. Actors like Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Shah Rukh Khan are most popular in Nepal and their movies sees the audience full pack all over the Cinema halls and also are so popular in Afghanistan due to the country's proximity to the Indian subcontinent and cultural perspectives present in the movies. A number of Bollywood movies were filmed inside Afghanistan while some dealt with the country, including Dharmatma, Kabul Express, Khuda Gawah and Escape From Taliban.
East Asia
Bollywood films are widely appreciated in East Asian countries such as China, Japan, and South Korea. Some Hindi movies had success in the China and South Korea, Japan in the 1940s and 1950s and are popular till today. The most popular Hindi films in that country were Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani, Awaara and Do Bigha Zamin . Raj Kapoor was a famous movie star in China, and the song "Awara Hoon" was popular in the country. Since then, Hindi films significantly declined in popularity in China, until the Academy Award nominated Lagaan became the first Indian film to have a nationwide release there in decades. The Chinese filmmaker He Ping was impressed by Lagaan, especially its soundtrack, and thus hired the film's music composer A. R. Rahman to score the soundtrack for his film Warriors of Heaven and Earth . Several older Hindi films have a cult following in Japan, particularly the films directed by Guru Dutt. Bollywood films are also popular in Southeast Asia
Middle East/North Africa
Hindi films have been popular in Arab countries, including Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf countries.
Imported Indian films are usually subtitled in Arabic upon the film's release. Since the early 2000s, Bollywood has progressed in Israel. Special channels dedicated to Indian films have been displayed on cable television. There are channels such as MBC Bollywood and Zee Aflam, which show Hindi movies and serials. In Egypt, Bollywood movies used to be massively popular in the 1970's and 1980's. In 1987 however, Bollywood films were restricted to only a handful of films by the Egyptian Government. Bollywood movies are regularly screened in Dubai cinemas because of the high demand. Recently in Turkey, Bollywood has been gaining popularity as Barfi! was the first Hindi film to have a wide theatrical release. Bollywood also has viewership in Central Asia.
Europe
The awareness of Hindi cinema is substantial in the United Kingdom, where they frequently enter the UK top ten. Many films, such as Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham have been set in London. Bollywood is also appreciated in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the Scandinavian countries. Various Bollywood movies are dubbed in German and shown on the German television channel RTL II on a regular basis.
Bollywood films are particularly popular in the former Soviet Union. Bollywood films have been dubbed into Russian, and shown in prominent theatres such as Mosfilm and Lenfilm.
Ashok Sharma, Indian Ambassador to Suriname, who has served three times in the Commonwealth of Independent States region during his diplomatic career said:
The film Mera Naam Joker, sought to cater to such an appeal and the popularity of Raj Kapoor in Russia, when it recruited Russian actress Kseniya Ryabinkina for the movie. In the contemporary era, Lucky: No Time for Love was shot entirely in Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet film distribution system, Hollywood occupied the void created in the Russian film market.
North America
Bollywood has experienced a marked growth in revenue in Canada and the United States, particularly popular amongst the South Asian communities in large cities, such as Toronto, Chicago, and New York City.
Australia is one of the countries where there is a large South Asian Diaspora. Bollywood is popular amongst non-Asians in the country as well. This was followed by Heyy Babyy Chak De! India and Singh Is Kinng which turned out to be box office successes. Australian actress Tania Zaetta, who co-starred in Salaam Namaste, among other Bollywood films, expressed her keenness to expand her career in Bollywood.
South America
Bollywood movies are not influential in many countries of South America, though Bollywood culture and dance is recognised. However, due to significant South Asian diasporic communities in Suriname and Guyana, Hindi-language movies are popular. In 2006, Dhoom 2 became the first Bollywood film to be shot in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
In January 2012, it was announced that UTV Motion Pictures would be releasing movies in Peru, starting with Guzaarish.
Plagiarism
Constrained by rushed production schedules and small budgets, some Bollywood writers and musicians have been known to resort to plagiarism. Ideas, plot lines, tunes or riffs have been copied from other Indian film industries or foreign films without acknowledgement of the original source. This has led to criticism towards the film industry.
Before the 1990s, this could be done with impunity. Copyright enforcement was lax in India and few actors or directors ever saw an official contract. The Hindi film industry was not widely known to non-Indian audiences, who would not even be aware that their material was being copied. Audiences may also not have been aware of the plagiarism since many audiences in India were unfamiliar with foreign films and music. Certain filmmakers see plagiarism in Bollywood as an integral part of globalisation where American and western cultures are firmly embedding themselves into Indian culture, which is manifested, amongst other mediums, in Bollywood films. American Studio Twentieth Century Fox brought the Mumbai-based B.R. Films to court over its forthcoming Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai, allegedly an illegal remake of its 1992 film My Cousin Vinny. B.R. Films eventually settled out of court by paying the studio at a cost of about $200,000, paving the way for the film's release. Some on the other hand do comply with copyright law, with Orion Pictures in 2008 securing the rights to remake the Hollywood film Wedding Crashers.
Central Board of Film Certification
Film City
List of Bollywood films
List of Hindi Animated Movies
Bibliography of Hindi cinema
List of cinema of the world
List of Hollywood-inspired nicknames
Hindi film distribution circuits
Color Era in Indian Cinema
References
Further reading
Alter, Stephen. Fantasies of a Bollywood Love-Thief: Inside the World of Indian Moviemaking.
Begum-Hossain, Momtaz. Bollywood Crafts: 20 Projects Inspired by Popular Indian Cinema, 2006. The Guild of Mastercraftsman Publications.
Bose, Mihir, Bollywood. A History, New Delhi, Roli Books, 2008.
Dwyer, Rachel. Bollywood's India: Hindi Cinema as a Guide to Contemporary India 295 pages
Ganti, Tejaswini. Bollywood, Routledge, New York and London, 2004.
Ganti, Tejaswini. Producing Bollywood: Inside the Contemporary Hindi Film Industry 424 pages; looks at how major changes in film production since the 1990s have been influenced by the liberal restructuring of India's state and economy.
Gibson, Bernard 'Bollywood'. Passing the Envelope, 1994.
Jolly, Gurbir, Zenia Wadhwani, and Deborah Barretto, eds. Once Upon a Time in Bollywood: The Global Swing in Hindi Cinema, TSAR Publications. 2007.
Joshi, Lalit Mohan. Bollywood: Popular Indian Cinema.
Kabir, Nasreen Munni. Bollywood, Channel 4 Books, 2001.
Mehta, Suketu. Maximum City, Knopf, 2004.
Mishra, Vijay. Bollywood Cinema: Temples of Desire.
Pendakur, Manjunath. Indian Popular Cinema: Industry, Ideology, and Consciousness.
Prasad, Madhava. Ideology of the Hindi Film: A Historical Construction, Oxford University Press, 2000.
Raheja, Dinesh and Kothari, Jitendra. Indian Cinema: The Bollywood Saga.
Raj, Aditya "Bollywood Cinema and Indian Diaspora" in Media Literacy: A Reader edited by Donaldo Macedo and Shirley Steinberg New York: Peter Lang
Rajadhyaksa, Ashish, "India: Filming the Nation", The Oxford History of World Cinema, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-811257-2.
Rajadhyaksha, Ashish and Willemen, Paul. Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema, Oxford University Press, revised and expanded, 1999.
Jha, Subhash and Bachchan, Amitabh. The essential guide to Bollywood.
Bollywood Webs
Bollywood is the sobriquet for India's Hindi language film industry, based in the city of Mumbai, Maharashtra. It is more formally referred to as Hindi cinema. The term "Bollywood" is often used by non-Indians as a synecdoche to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; however, Bollywood proper is only a part of the larger Indian film industry, which includes other production centres producing films in many other Indian languages.
Bollywood is one of the largest film producers in India, representing 43% of the net box office revenue, while Tamil and Telugu cinema represent 36%, and the rest of the regional cinema constitutes 21% as of 2014. Bollywood is also one of the largest centers of film production in the world. Furthermore, Bollywood is one of the biggest film industries in the world in terms of the number of people employed and the number of films produced. According to Matusitz, J., & Payano, P., In 2011, over 3.5 billion tickets were sold across the globe which in comparison is 900,000 tickets more than Hollywood. Bollywood produced 252 films in 2014 out of a total of 1969 films produced in Indian cinema.
Etymology
The name "Bollywood" is a portmanteau derived from Bombay, India, and Hollywood, California, the center of the American film industry. Bollywood does not exist as a physical place. Some deplore the name, arguing that it makes the industry look like a poor cousin to Hollywood.
The naming scheme for "Bollywood" was inspired by "Tollywood", the name that was used to refer to the cinema of West Bengal. Dating back to 1932, "Tollywood" was the earliest Hollywood-inspired name, referring to the Bengali film industry based in Tollygunge, Calcutta, whose name is reminiscent of "Hollywood" and was the centre of the cinema of India at the time. It was this "chance juxtaposition of two pairs of rhyming syllables," Holly and Tolly, that led to the portmanteau name "Tollywood" being coined. The name "Tollywood" went on to be used as a nickname for the Bengali film industry by the popular Kolkata-based Junior Statesman youth magazine, establishing a precedent for other film industries to use similar-sounding names, eventually leading to the coining of "Bollywood". However, Tollywood is now used popularly to refer to the Telugu Film Industry in Telangana & Andhra Pradesh. The term "Bollywood" itself has origins in the 1970s, when India overtook America as the world's largest film producer. Credit for the term has been claimed by several different people, including the lyricist, filmmaker and scholar Amit Khanna, and the journalist Bevinda Collaco.
History
Raja Harishchandra, by Dadasaheb Phalke, is known as the first silent feature film made in India. By the 1930s, the industry was producing over 200 films per annum. The first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Irani's Alam Ara, was a major commercial success. There was clearly a huge market for talkies and musicals; Bollywood and all the regional film industries quickly switched to sound filming.
The 1930s and 1940s were tumultuous times: India was buffeted by the Great Depression, World War II, the Indian independence movement, and the violence of the Partition. Most Bollywood films were unabashedly escapist, but there were also a number of filmmakers who tackled tough social issues, or used the struggle for Indian independence as a backdrop for their plots. Some of the most critically acclaimed Hindi films of all time were produced during this period. Examples include the Guru Dutt films Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool and the Raj Kapoor films Awaara, Shree 420 and Dilip Kumar's Aan . These films expressed social themes mainly dealing with working-class urban life in India; Awaara presented the city as both a nightmare and a dream, while Pyaasa critiqued the unreality of city life. Some of the most famous epic films of Hindi cinema were also produced at the time, including Mehboob Khan's Mother India, which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and K. Asif's Mughal-e-Azam . Madhumati, directed by Bimal Roy and written by Ritwik Ghatak, popularised the theme of reincarnation in Western popular culture. and Bimal Roy's Do Bigha Zamin . Their critical acclaim, as well as the latter's commercial success, paved the way for Indian neorealism and the Indian New Wave. Some of the internationally acclaimed Hindi filmmakers involved in the movement included Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihalani, Shyam Benegal and Vijaya Mehta. Guru Dutt, while overlooked in his own lifetime, had belatedly generated international recognition much later in the 1980s. Dutt is now regarded as one of the greatest Asian filmmakers of all time, alongside the more famous Indian Bengali filmmaker Satyajit Ray. The 2002 Sight & Sound critics' and directors' poll of greatest filmmakers ranked Dutt at No. 73 on the list. Some of his films are now included among the greatest films of all time, with Pyaasa being featured in Time magazine's "All-TIME" 100 best movies list, and with both Pyaasa and Kaagaz Ke Phool tied at No. 160 in the 2002 Sight & Sound critics' and directors' poll of all-time greatest films. Several other Hindi films from this era were also ranked in the Sight & Sound poll, including Raj Kapoor's Awaara, Vijay Bhatt's Baiju Bawra, Mehboob Khan's Mother India and K. Asif's Mughal-e-Azam all tied at No. 346 on the list.
Modern cinema
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, romance movies and action films starred actors like Shammi Kapoor, Jeetendra, Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar and Shashi Kapoor and actresses like Sharmila Tagore, Mumtaz, Saira Banu and Asha Parekh. In the mid-1970s, romantic confections made way for gritty, violent films about gangsters and bandits. Amitabh Bachchan, the star known for his "angry young man" roles, rode the crest of this trend with actors like Mithun Chakraborty, Naseeruddin Shah, Jackie Shroff, Sanjay Dutt, Anil Kapoor and Sunny Deol, which lasted into the early 1990s. Actresses from this era included Hema Malini, Jaya Bachchan, Raakhee, Shabana Azmi, Zeenat Aman, Parveen Babi, Rekha, Dimple Kapadia, Smita Patil, Jaya Prada and Padmini Kolhapure .
Some Hindi filmmakers such as Shyam Benegal continued to produce realistic Parallel Cinema throughout the 1970s, alongside Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihalani and Vijaya Mehta. Another important film from 1975 was Deewar, directed by Yash Chopra and written by Salim-Javed. A crime film pitting "a policeman against his brother, a gang leader based on real-life smuggler Haji Mastan", portrayed by Amitabh Bachchan; it was described as being "absolutely key to Indian cinema" by Danny Boyle. Actresses during this time included Raveena Tandon, Twinkle Khanna, Sonali Bendre, Sushmita Sen, Mahima Chaudhary and Shilpa Shetty. Furthermore, this decade marked the entry of new performers in arthouse and independent films, some of which succeeded commercially, the most influential example being Satya, directed by Ram Gopal Varma and written by Anurag Kashyap. The critical and commercial success of Satya led to the emergence of a distinct genre known as Mumbai noir, urban films reflecting social problems in the city of Mumbai. This led to a resurgence of Parallel Cinema by the end of the decade. Some of the largest production houses, among them Yash Raj Films and Dharma Productions were the producers of new modern films. The Hindi film industry has preferred films that appeal to all segments of the audience, and has resisted making films that target narrower audiences. It was believed that aiming for a broad spectrum would maximise box office receipts. However, filmmakers may be moving towards accepting some box-office segmentation, between films that appeal to rural Indians, and films that appeal to urban and international audiences.
Influences for Bollywood
Gokulsing and Dissanayake identify six major influences that have shaped the conventions of Indian popular cinema:
The ancient Indian epics of Mahabharata and Ramayana which have exerted a profound influence on the thought and imagination of Indian popular cinema, particularly in its narratives. Examples of this influence include the techniques of a side story, back-story and story within a story. Indian popular films often have plots which branch off into sub-plots; such narrative dispersals can clearly be seen in the 1993 films Khalnayak and Gardish.
The traditional folk theatre of India, which became popular from around the 10th century with the decline of Sanskrit theatre. These regional traditions include the Yatra of Bengal, the Ramlila of Uttar Pradesh, and the Terukkuttu of Tamil Nadu. In the words of the economist and Bollywood biographer Lord Meghnad Desai, The film incorporated an Indian-themed play based on the ancient Sanskrit drama Má¹›cchakatika and a Bollywood-style dance sequence with a song from the film China Gate. The critical and financial success of Moulin Rouge! renewed interest in the then-moribund Western musical genre, and subsequently films such as Chicago, The Producers, Rent, Dreamgirls, Hairspray, Sweeney Todd, Across the Universe, The Phantom of the Opera, Enchanted and Mamma Mia! were produced, fuelling a renaissance of the genre.
A. R. Rahman, an Indian film composer, wrote the music for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Bombay Dreams, and a musical version of Hum Aapke Hain Koun has played in London's West End. The Bollywood musical Lagaan was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and two other Bollywood films Devdas and Rang De Basanti were nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language. Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire, which has won four Golden Globes and eight Academy Awards, was also directly inspired by Bollywood films, and is considered to be a "homage to Hindi commercial cinema". The theme of reincarnation was also popularised in Western popular culture through Bollywood films, with Madhumati inspiring the Hollywood film The Reincarnation of Peter Proud, which in turn inspired the Bollywood film Karz, which in turn influenced another Hollywood film Chances Are . The 1975 film Chhoti Si Baat is believed to have inspired Hitch, which in turn inspired the Bollywood film Partner.
The influence of Bollywood filmi music can also be seen in popular music elsewhere in the world. In 1978, technopop pioneers Haruomi Hosono and Ryuichi Sakamoto of the Yellow Magic Orchestra produced an electronic album Cochin Moon based on an experimental fusion between electronic music and Bollywood-inspired Indian music. Devo's 1988 hit song "Disco Dancer" was inspired by the song "I am a Disco Dancer" from the Bollywood film Disco Dancer . The 2002 song "Addictive", sung by Truth Hurts and produced by DJ Quik and Dr. Dre, was lifted from Lata Mangeshkar's "Thoda Resham Lagta Hai" from Jyoti . The Black Eyed Peas' Grammy Award winning 2005 song "Don't Phunk with My Heart" was inspired by two 1970s Bollywood songs: "Ye Mera Dil Yaar Ka Diwana" from Don and "Ae Nujawan Hai Sub" from Apradh . Both songs were originally composed by Kalyanji Anandji, sung by Asha Bhosle, and featured the dancer Helen. Also in 2005, the Kronos Quartet re-recorded several R. D. Burman compositions, with Asha Bhosle as the singer, into an album You've Stolen My Heart: Songs from R.D. Burman's Bollywood, which was nominated for "Best Contemporary World Music Album" at the 2006 Grammy Awards. Filmi music composed by A. R. Rahman has frequently been sampled by musicians elsewhere in the world, including the Singaporean artist Kelly Poon, the Uzbek artist Iroda Dilroz, the French rap group La Caution, the American artist Ciara, and the German band Löwenherz, among others. Many Asian Underground artists, particularly those among the overseas Indian diaspora, have also been inspired by Bollywood music.
Genre conventions
Bollywood films are mostly musicals and are expected to contain catchy music in the form of song-and-dance numbers woven into the script. A film's success often depends on the quality of such musical numbers. Indeed, a film's music is often released before the movie and helps increase the audience.
Indian audiences expect full value for their money, with a good entertainer generally referred to as paisa vasool, . Songs and dances, love triangles, comedy and dare-devil thrills are all mixed up in a three-hour extravaganza with an intermission. They are called Masala films, after the Hindi word for a spice mixture. Like masalas, these movies are a mixture of many things such as action, comedy, romance and so on. Most films have heroes who are able to fight off villains all by themselves.
Bollywood plots have tended to be melodramatic. They frequently employ formulaic ingredients such as star-crossed lovers and angry parents, love triangles, family ties, sacrifice, corrupt politicians, kidnappers, conniving villains, courtesans with hearts of gold, long-lost relatives and siblings separated by fate, dramatic reversals of fortune, and convenient coincidences.
There have always been Indian films with more artistic aims and more sophisticated stories, both inside and outside the Bollywood tradition . They often lost out at the box office to movies with more mass appeal. Bollywood conventions are changing, however. A large Indian diaspora in English-speaking countries, and increased Western influence at home, have nudged Bollywood films closer to Hollywood models.
Film critic Lata Khubchandani writes, "our earliest films ... had liberal doses of sex and kissing scenes in them. Strangely, it was after Independence the censor board came into being and so did all the strictures." Plots now tend to feature Westernised urbanites dating and dancing in clubs rather than centring on pre-arranged marriages. Though these changes can widely be seen in contemporary Bollywood, traditional conservative ways of Indian culture continue to exist in India outside the industry and an element of resistance by some to western-based influences.
Very few non-Indian actors are able to make a mark in Bollywood, though many have tried from time to time. There have been some exceptions, of which one recent example is the hit film Rang De Basanti, where the lead actress is Alice Patten, an Englishwoman. Kisna, Lagaan, and The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey also featured foreign actors. Of late, Emma Brown Garett, an Australian born actress, has starred in a few Indian films.
Bollywood can be very clannish, and the relatives of film-industry insiders have an edge in getting coveted roles in films or being part of a film's crew. However, industry connections are no guarantee of a long career: competition is fierce and if film industry scions do not succeed at the box office, their careers will falter. Some of the biggest stars, such as Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Madhuri Dixit, Shah Rukh Khan and Akshay Kumar have succeeded despite a lack of any show business connections. For film clans, see List of Hindi film clans.
Sound
Sound in Bollywood films was once rarely recorded on location . Therefore, the sound was usually created entirely in the studio, with the actors reciting their lines as their images appear on-screen in the studio in the process known as "looping in the sound" or ADR—with the foley and sound effects added later. This created several problems, since the sound in these films usually occurs a frame or two earlier or later than the mouth movements or gestures. However, in 2014 the Supreme Court of India ruled that this rule was in violation of the Indian constitutional guarantees granted under Article 14, 19 and Article 21 .
Bollywood song and dance
Bollywood film music is called filmi music . Songs from Bollywood movies are generally pre-recorded by professional playback singers, with the actors then lip synching the words to the song on-screen, often while dancing. While most actors, especially today, are excellent dancers, few are also singers. One notable exception was Kishore Kumar, who starred in several major films in the 1950s while also having a stellar career as a playback singer. K. L. Saigal, Suraiyya, and Noor Jehan were also known as both singers and actors. Some actors in the last thirty years have sung one or more songs themselves; for a list, see Singing actors and actresses in Indian cinema.
Songs are what make and break the movie; they determine if it is going to be a flop or a hit: "Few films without successful musical tracks, and even fewer without any songs and dances, succeed" those scenes have since then often been shot in Western Europe, particularly in Switzerland and Austria.
Renowned contemporary Bollywood dancers include Madhuri Dixit, Hrithik Roshan, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Sridevi, Meenakshi Seshadri, Malaika Arora Khan, Shahid Kapoor and Tiger Shroff. Older Bollywood dancers are people such as Helen, known for her cabaret numbers, Madhubala, Vyjanthimala, Padmini, Hema Malini, Mumtaz, Cuckoo Moray, Parveen Babi, Waheeda Rahman, Meena Kumari, and Shammi Kapoor.
For the last few decades Bollywood producers have been releasing the film's soundtrack, as tapes or CDs, before the main movie release, hoping that the music will pull audiences into the cinema later. Often the soundtrack is more popular than the movie. In the last few years some producers have also been releasing music videos, usually featuring a song from the film. However, some promotional videos feature a song which is not included in the movie.
Dialogues and lyrics
The film script or lines of dialogue and the song lyrics are often written by different people.
Dialogues are usually written in an unadorned Hindi that would be understood by the largest possible audience. Contemporary mainstream movies also make great use of English. According to Bollywood Audiences Editorial, "English has begun to challenge the ideological work done by Urdu." Some movie scripts are first written in Latin script. Characters may shift from one language to the other to express a certain atmosphere .
Cinematic language, whether in dialogues or lyrics, is often melodramatic and invokes God, family, mother, duty, and self-sacrifice liberally. Song lyrics are often about love. Bollywood song lyrics, especially in the old movies, frequently use the poetic vocabulary of court Urdu, with many Persian loanwords. Another source for love lyrics is the long Hindu tradition of poetry about the amours of Krishna, Radha, and the gopis, as referenced in films such as Jhanak Jhanak Payal Baje and Lagaan.
Music directors often prefer working with certain lyricists, to the point that the lyricist and composer are seen as a team. This phenomenon is compared to the pairings of American composers and songwriters that created old-time Broadway musicals.
Finances
Bollywood films are multi-million dollar productions, with the most expensive productions costing up to 1 billion rupees . The latest Science fiction movie Ra.One was made at an immense budget of 1.35 billion, making it the most expensive movie ever produced in Bollywood. Sets, costumes, special effects, and cinematography were less than world-class up until the mid-to-late 1990s, although with some notable exceptions. As Western films and television gain wider distribution in India itself, there is an increasing pressure for Bollywood films to attain the same production levels, particularly in areas such as action and special effects. Recent Bollywood films have employed international technicians to improve in these areas, such as Krrish which has action choreographed by Hong Kong based Tony Ching. The increasing accessibility to professional action and special effects, coupled with rising film budgets, has seen an explosion in the action and sci-fi genres.
Sequences shot overseas have proved a real box office draw, so Mumbai film crews are increasingly filming in Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States, continental Europe and elsewhere. Nowadays, Indian producers are winning more and more funding for big-budget films shot within India as well, such as Lagaan, Devdas and other recent films.
Funding for Bollywood films often comes from private distributors and a few large studios. Indian banks and financial institutions were forbidden from lending money to movie studios. However, this ban has now been lifted. As finances are not regulated, some funding also comes from illegitimate sources, such as the Mumbai underworld. The Mumbai underworld has been known to be involved in the production of several films, and are notorious for patronising several prominent film personalities. On occasion, they have been known to use money and muscle power to get their way in cinematic deals. In January 2000, Mumbai mafia hitmen shot Rakesh Roshan, a film director and father of star Hrithik Roshan. In 2001, the Central Bureau of Investigation seized all prints of the movie Chori Chori Chupke Chupke after the movie was found to be funded by members of the Mumbai underworld.
Another problem facing Bollywood is widespread copyright infringement of its films. Often, bootleg DVD copies of movies are available before the prints are officially released in cinemas. Manufacturing of bootleg DVD, VCD, and VHS copies of the latest movie titles is a well established 'small scale industry' in parts of South Asia and South East Asia. The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry estimates that the Bollywood industry loses $100 million annually in loss of revenue from unlicensed home videos and DVDs. Besides catering to the homegrown market, demand for these copies is large amongst some sections of the Indian diaspora, too. . Films are frequently broadcast without compensation by countless small cable TV companies in India and other parts of South Asia. Small convenience stores run by members of the Indian diaspora in the US and the UK regularly stock tapes and DVDs of dubious provenance, while consumer copying adds to the problem. The availability of illegal copies of movies on the Internet also contributes to the industry's losses.
Satellite TV, television and imported foreign films are making huge inroads into the domestic Indian entertainment market. In the past, most Bollywood films could make money; now fewer tend to do so. However, most Bollywood producers make money, recouping their investments from many sources of revenue, including selling ancillary rights. There are also increasing returns from theatres in Western countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, where Bollywood is slowly getting noticed. As more Indians migrate to these countries, they form a growing market for upscale Indian films.
For a comparison of Hollywood and Bollywood financial figures, see chart. It shows tickets sold in 2002 and total revenue estimates. Bollywood sold 3.6 billion tickets and had total revenues of US$1.3 billion, whereas Hollywood films sold 2.6 billion tickets and generated total revenues of US$51 billion.
Advertising
Many Indian artists used to make a living by hand-painting movie billboards and posters . This was because human labour was found to be cheaper than printing and distributing publicity material. Now, a majority of the huge and ubiquitous billboards in India's major cities are created with computer-printed vinyl. The old hand-painted posters, once regarded as ephemera, are becoming increasingly collectible as folk art.
Releasing the film music, or music videos, before the actual release of the film can also be considered a form of advertising. A popular tune is believed to help pull audiences into the theatres.
Bollywood publicists have begun to use the Internet as a venue for advertising. Most of the better-funded film releases now have their own websites, where browsers can view trailers, stills, and information about the story, cast, and crew.
Bollywood is also used to advertise other products. Product placement, as used in Hollywood, is widely practised in Bollywood.
Bollywood movie stars appear in print and television advertisements for other products, such as watches or soap . Advertisers say that a star endorsement boosts sales.
International shoots
With the increasing prominence of international setting such as Switzerland, London, Paris, New York, Singapore and so on, it does not entail that the people and cultures residing in these exotic settings are represented. Contrary to these spaces and geographies being filmed as they are, they are actually Indianized by adding Bollywood actors and Hindi speaking extras to them. While immersing in Bollywood films, viewers get to see their local experiences duplicated in different locations around the world.
Rao states that "Media representation can depict India's shifting relation with the world economy, but must retain its 'Indianness' in moments of dynamic hybridity",
Awards
The Filmfare Awards ceremony is one of the most prominent film events given for Hindi films in India. The Indian screen magazine Filmfare started the first Filmfare Awards in 1954, and awards were given to the best films of 1953. The ceremony was referred to as the Clare Awards after the magazine's editor. Modelled after the poll-based merit format of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, individuals may submit their votes in separate categories. A dual voting system was developed in 1956. The Filmfare awards are frequently accused of bias towards commercial success rather than artistic merit.
The National Film Awards were introduced in 1954. Since 1973, the Indian government has sponsored the National Film Awards, awarded by the government run Directorate of Film Festivals . The DFF screens not only Bollywood films, but films from all the other regional movie industries and independent/art films. These awards are handed out at an annual ceremony presided over by the President of India. Under this system, in contrast to the National Film Awards, which are decided by a panel appointed by Indian Government, the Filmfare Awards are voted for by both the public and a committee of experts.
Notable private awards ceremonies for Hindi films, held within India are:
Filmfare Awards – since 1954
Screen Awards – since 1995
Stardust Awards – since 2003
Notable private awards ceremonies for Hindi films, held overseas are:
International Indian Film Academy Awards – – since 2000
Zee Cine Awards- – since 1998
Most of these award ceremonies are lavishly staged spectacles, featuring singing, dancing, and numerous celebrities.
Film education
Film and Television Institute of India
Satyajit Ray Film and Television Institute
Asian Academy of Film & Television
Popularity and appeal
Besides being popular among the India diaspora, such far off locations as Nigeria to Egypt to Senegal and to Russia generations of non-Indian fans have grown up with Bollywood during the years, bearing witness to the cross-cultural appeal of Indian movies. with Western actors now actively seeking roles in Bollywood movies.
Africa
Historically, Hindi films have been distributed to some parts of Africa, largely by Lebanese businessmen. Mother India, for example, continued to be played in Nigeria decades after its release. Indian movies have also gained ground so as to alter the style of Hausa fashions, songs have also been copied by Hausa singers and stories have influenced the writings of Nigerian novelists. Stickers of Indian films and stars decorate taxis and buses in Northern Nigeria, while posters of Indian films adorn the walls of tailor shops and mechanics' garages in the country. Unlike in Europe and North America where Indian films largely cater to the expatriate Indian market yearning to keep in touch with their homeland, in West Africa, as in many other parts of the world, such movies rose in popularity despite the lack of a significant Indian audience, where movies are about an alien culture, based on a religion wholly different, and, for the most part, a language that is unintelligible to the viewers. One such explanation for this lies in the similarities between the two cultures. Other similarities include wearing turbans; the presence of animals in markets; porters carrying large bundles, chewing sugar cane; youths riding Bajaj motor scooters; wedding celebrations, and so forth. With the strict Muslim culture, Indian movies were said to show "respect" toward women, where Hollywood movies were seen to have "no shame". In Indian movies women were modestly dressed, men and women rarely kiss, and there is no nudity, thus Indian movies are said to "have culture" that Hollywood films lack. The latter choice was a failure because "they don't base themselves on the problems of the people," where the former is based socialist values and on the reality of developing countries emerging from years of colonialism. Indian movies also allowed for a new youth culture to follow without such ideological baggage as "becoming western." The first ever movie to be shot in Mauritius was Souten starring Rajesh Khanna in 1983.
Several Bollywood personalities have avenued to the continent for both shooting movies and off-camera projects. The film Padmashree Laloo Prasad Yadav was one of many movies shot in South Africa. Dil Jo Bhi Kahey was shot almost entirely in Mauritius, which has a large ethnically Indian population.
Ominously, however, the popularity of old Bollywood versus a new, changing Bollywood seems to be diminishing the popularity on the continent. The changing style of Bollywood has begun to question such an acceptance. The new era features more sexually explicit and violent films. Nigerian viewers, for example, commented that older films of the 1950s and 1960s had culture to the newer, more westernised picturisations. The emergence of Nollywood, Africa's local movie industry has also contributed to the declining popularity of Bollywood films. A greater globalised world worked in tandem with the sexualisation of Indian films so as to become more like American films, thus negating the preferred values of an old Bollywood and diminishing Indian soft power.
Additionally, classic Bollywood actors like Kishore Kumar and Amitabh Bachchan have historically enjoyed popularity in Egypt and Somalia. In Ethiopia, Bollwood movies are shown alongside Hollywood productions in Piazza theatres, such as the Cinema Ethiopia in Addis Ababa. In the other countries of North Africa, Bollywood films are also broadcast, though local aesthetics tend much more toward expressive or auteur cinema than commercial fare.
Asia
South Asia
Bollywood films are widely watched in other South Asian countries, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
Many Pakistanis watch Bollywood films, as they understand Hindi . Pakistan banned the legal import of Bollywood movies in 1965. However, trade in unlicensed DVDs and illegal cable broadcasts ensured the continued popularity of Bollywood releases in Pakistan. Exceptions were made for a few films, such as the 2006 colorised re-release of the classic Mughal-e-Azam or the 2006 film Taj Mahal. Early in 2008, the Pakistani government eased the ban and allowed the import of even more movies; 16 were screened in 2008. Continued easing followed in 2009 and 2010. The new policy is opposed by nationalists and representatives of Pakistan's small film industry but is embraced by cinema owners, who are making profits after years of low receipts.
Bollywood movies are so much popular in Nepal that, Bollywood movies earn more than Nepali movies. Actors like Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar and Shah Rukh Khan are most popular in Nepal and their movies sees the audience full pack all over the Cinema halls and also are so popular in Afghanistan due to the country's proximity to the Indian subcontinent and cultural perspectives present in the movies. A number of Bollywood movies were filmed inside Afghanistan while some dealt with the country, including Dharmatma, Kabul Express, Khuda Gawah and Escape From Taliban.
East Asia
Bollywood films are widely appreciated in East Asian countries such as China, Japan, and South Korea. Some Hindi movies had success in the China and South Korea, Japan in the 1940s and 1950s and are popular till today. The most popular Hindi films in that country were Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani, Awaara and Do Bigha Zamin . Raj Kapoor was a famous movie star in China, and the song "Awara Hoon" was popular in the country. Since then, Hindi films significantly declined in popularity in China, until the Academy Award nominated Lagaan became the first Indian film to have a nationwide release there in decades. The Chinese filmmaker He Ping was impressed by Lagaan, especially its soundtrack, and thus hired the film's music composer A. R. Rahman to score the soundtrack for his film Warriors of Heaven and Earth . Several older Hindi films have a cult following in Japan, particularly the films directed by Guru Dutt. Bollywood films are also popular in Southeast Asia
Middle East/North Africa
Hindi films have been popular in Arab countries, including Palestine, Jordan, Egypt and the Gulf countries.
Imported Indian films are usually subtitled in Arabic upon the film's release. Since the early 2000s, Bollywood has progressed in Israel. Special channels dedicated to Indian films have been displayed on cable television. There are channels such as MBC Bollywood and Zee Aflam, which show Hindi movies and serials. In Egypt, Bollywood movies used to be massively popular in the 1970's and 1980's. In 1987 however, Bollywood films were restricted to only a handful of films by the Egyptian Government. Bollywood movies are regularly screened in Dubai cinemas because of the high demand. Recently in Turkey, Bollywood has been gaining popularity as Barfi! was the first Hindi film to have a wide theatrical release. Bollywood also has viewership in Central Asia.
Europe
The awareness of Hindi cinema is substantial in the United Kingdom, where they frequently enter the UK top ten. Many films, such as Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham have been set in London. Bollywood is also appreciated in France, Germany, the Netherlands, and the Scandinavian countries. Various Bollywood movies are dubbed in German and shown on the German television channel RTL II on a regular basis.
Bollywood films are particularly popular in the former Soviet Union. Bollywood films have been dubbed into Russian, and shown in prominent theatres such as Mosfilm and Lenfilm.
Ashok Sharma, Indian Ambassador to Suriname, who has served three times in the Commonwealth of Independent States region during his diplomatic career said:
The film Mera Naam Joker, sought to cater to such an appeal and the popularity of Raj Kapoor in Russia, when it recruited Russian actress Kseniya Ryabinkina for the movie. In the contemporary era, Lucky: No Time for Love was shot entirely in Russia. After the collapse of the Soviet film distribution system, Hollywood occupied the void created in the Russian film market.
North America
Bollywood has experienced a marked growth in revenue in Canada and the United States, particularly popular amongst the South Asian communities in large cities, such as Toronto, Chicago, and New York City.
Australia is one of the countries where there is a large South Asian Diaspora. Bollywood is popular amongst non-Asians in the country as well. This was followed by Heyy Babyy Chak De! India and Singh Is Kinng which turned out to be box office successes. Australian actress Tania Zaetta, who co-starred in Salaam Namaste, among other Bollywood films, expressed her keenness to expand her career in Bollywood.
South America
Bollywood movies are not influential in many countries of South America, though Bollywood culture and dance is recognised. However, due to significant South Asian diasporic communities in Suriname and Guyana, Hindi-language movies are popular. In 2006, Dhoom 2 became the first Bollywood film to be shot in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
In January 2012, it was announced that UTV Motion Pictures would be releasing movies in Peru, starting with Guzaarish.
Plagiarism
Constrained by rushed production schedules and small budgets, some Bollywood writers and musicians have been known to resort to plagiarism. Ideas, plot lines, tunes or riffs have been copied from other Indian film industries or foreign films without acknowledgement of the original source. This has led to criticism towards the film industry.
Before the 1990s, this could be done with impunity. Copyright enforcement was lax in India and few actors or directors ever saw an official contract. The Hindi film industry was not widely known to non-Indian audiences, who would not even be aware that their material was being copied. Audiences may also not have been aware of the plagiarism since many audiences in India were unfamiliar with foreign films and music. Certain filmmakers see plagiarism in Bollywood as an integral part of globalisation where American and western cultures are firmly embedding themselves into Indian culture, which is manifested, amongst other mediums, in Bollywood films. American Studio Twentieth Century Fox brought the Mumbai-based B.R. Films to court over its forthcoming Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai, allegedly an illegal remake of its 1992 film My Cousin Vinny. B.R. Films eventually settled out of court by paying the studio at a cost of about $200,000, paving the way for the film's release. Some on the other hand do comply with copyright law, with Orion Pictures in 2008 securing the rights to remake the Hollywood film Wedding Crashers.
Central Board of Film Certification
Film City
List of Bollywood films
List of Hindi Animated Movies
Bibliography of Hindi cinema
List of cinema of the world
List of Hollywood-inspired nicknames
Hindi film distribution circuits
Color Era in Indian Cinema
References
Further reading
Alter, Stephen. Fantasies of a Bollywood Love-Thief: Inside the World of Indian Moviemaking.
Begum-Hossain, Momtaz. Bollywood Crafts: 20 Projects Inspired by Popular Indian Cinema, 2006. The Guild of Mastercraftsman Publications.
Bose, Mihir, Bollywood. A History, New Delhi, Roli Books, 2008.
Dwyer, Rachel. Bollywood's India: Hindi Cinema as a Guide to Contemporary India 295 pages
Ganti, Tejaswini. Bollywood, Routledge, New York and London, 2004.
Ganti, Tejaswini. Producing Bollywood: Inside the Contemporary Hindi Film Industry 424 pages; looks at how major changes in film production since the 1990s have been influenced by the liberal restructuring of India's state and economy.
Gibson, Bernard 'Bollywood'. Passing the Envelope, 1994.
Jolly, Gurbir, Zenia Wadhwani, and Deborah Barretto, eds. Once Upon a Time in Bollywood: The Global Swing in Hindi Cinema, TSAR Publications. 2007.
Joshi, Lalit Mohan. Bollywood: Popular Indian Cinema.
Kabir, Nasreen Munni. Bollywood, Channel 4 Books, 2001.
Mehta, Suketu. Maximum City, Knopf, 2004.
Mishra, Vijay. Bollywood Cinema: Temples of Desire.
Pendakur, Manjunath. Indian Popular Cinema: Industry, Ideology, and Consciousness.
Prasad, Madhava. Ideology of the Hindi Film: A Historical Construction, Oxford University Press, 2000.
Raheja, Dinesh and Kothari, Jitendra. Indian Cinema: The Bollywood Saga.
Raj, Aditya "Bollywood Cinema and Indian Diaspora" in Media Literacy: A Reader edited by Donaldo Macedo and Shirley Steinberg New York: Peter Lang
Rajadhyaksa, Ashish, "India: Filming the Nation", The Oxford History of World Cinema, Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-811257-2.
Rajadhyaksha, Ashish and Willemen, Paul. Encyclopedia of Indian Cinema, Oxford University Press, revised and expanded, 1999.
Jha, Subhash and Bachchan, Amitabh. The essential guide to Bollywood.
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