Bollywood For Beginners

by Gloria Philips Expert Blogger A new comer to Bollywood? Appreciating its artistry is only a case of understanding India's unique method of filmmaking. Our primer explains the fundamentals:

What exactly is Bollywood?

Bollywood is really a term that means the Hindi-language film industry located in the Indian town of Mumbai, which was once called Bombay. Bombay   Hollywood = Bollywood. The word is considered to get been coined with a Western journalist within the 1970s. Many Indians take problem with the term since it implies that Bollywood is really a lesser offshoot of Hollywood, while in fact, India produces much more films annually that attract far greater audience numbers globally compared to the U.S. And, the Indian film market is over the age of Hollywood-by 1 year.

Are Indian films created by Bollywood?

No. Bollywood is simply one of numerous film industries in India. Imagine when the U.S. experienced a thriving Spanish-language film industry that gave Hollywood a run because of its money, or regional film industries in Chicago, Atlanta, and Seattle that rivaled L.A.'s. That's the way it is within India. The different Indian film industries are generally language- and site-specific. They include Kollywood, which describes Tamil-language films produced in the Kodambakkam district from the town of Chennai; Mollywood, that is Malayalam-language cinema from the condition of Kerala; and Tollywood, which describes both Telugu-language films from the condition of Andhra Pradesh and Bengali-language films produced in the Tollygunge neighborhood of Kolkata.

While Bollywood and India's other film industries primarily produce commercial movies, India also offers a powerful and respected art-film tradition, which is called "parallel cinema." The delineation between commercial and art film in India is stronger than within the U.S. However, that lines are starting to blur as Bollywood is delving into artier projects and Indian art films are shooting for broader appeal.

Are Bollywood films musicals?

Most Bollywood films include musical numbers. Today's movies usually have fewer musical numbers than older films. While 10 musical numbers inside a film wasn't unusual previously, 4 to 6 tend to be more typical today. And increasingly more Bollywood movies don't have musical numbers whatsoever.

It's important to understand that Bollywood films usually are not musicals within the American sense. Bollywood has more in normal with opera compared to Broadway. The primary purpose of musical numbers in Bollywood films (and operas) would be to express emotion. Broadway musical numbers, however, primarily drive the plot. While Broadway musical numbers are incorporated into the narrative, Bollywood musical numbers usually usually are not. Rather, they're metaphors, taken off the plot, that demonstrate the way a character feels, not exactly what the character is in fact doing.

Perform the actors sing the songs?

Rarely. The majority of film songs are sung by playback singers, that are famous in their own individual right.

The film and music industries in India are inextricably interlinked. Virtually all Indian pop music originates from movie soundtracks.

So why do numerous Bollywood actors have a similar surname? Could they be all related?

Nepotism is typical in Bollywood and several actors and filmmakers originate from family dynasties which have been within the movie business for generations. However, there are lots of celebrities with similar common surnames, particularly Khan and Kapoor, that are not related.

Why there's no sex in Bollywood movies?

Two reasons: social and artistic. Onscreen physical intimacy is frowned upon in India-even kissing is rather rare. But most importantly, Indian filmmakers are masters of the skill of seduction. There might not be any sex in Bollywood movies, however they sure are sexy. Actually, it's precisely because there's no sex that they're full of a great deal incredible tension, that is missing entirely from Hollywood movies nowadays. Within the words of film critic Roger Ebert, "it really is less erotic to snoggle for 1 hour than spend one minute wondering in case you are going to be snoggled." He was referring to Bollywood.

Sometimes Bollywood musical numbers act as an alternative for sex, depicting it not in almost any crass, overt way, but implicitly, even metaphorically. The characters tend to be so carried away with passion they suddenly show up in exotic locations all over the world-the pyramids of Egypt, the canals of Venice, the mountains of Switzerland-locations that have nothing related to the plot but have everything related to the limitlessness of fantasy.

Exactly why are Bollywood films such a long time?

To begin with, Indians are utilized to longer types of entertainment. Cricket matches go on for days. So do Indian weddings. A 3-hour movie isn't long whatsoever in contrast. Also, Indians are usually value-conscious. They expect a complete afternoon or evening of entertainment for the cost of a ticket.

But the main reason Bollywood films are long is artistic. Enough time commitment required from the audience heightens their emotional investment within the story. (This is also true of operas, which are generally for as long as well as more than Hindi films.) The result could be powerfully moving, for Americans familiar with shorter films.

Bollywood movies are becoming shorter, though, mostly since there are fewer musical numbers than there was once. While three along with a half hours used to be typical, three hours or less is currently the standard.

What's the greatest artistic distinction between Bollywood and Hollywood?

Inside a word: "masala." The idea of masala is essential to understanding Bollywood films. It's a culinary term this means "spicy mixture." Masala filmmaking combines several genre within the same movie, blending aspects of comedy, romance, action, and drama. The aim would be to attract as much people as is possible. This way there's something for everybody in each and every film-the grandparents, the mother and father, the teenagers, the small kids-because Indians often visit the movies being a family.

Hollywood filmmakers perform the opposite-they actually do super-narrow niche marketing to focus on the demographic groups they believe would be the most profitable (and after that ignore everybody else). One exception to this can be the 007 movies, that have been enormously successful for many years. There's action, obviously, romance, some campy comedy, or even a little melodrama when James feels bad about his closest friend betraying him or his latest lover dying within his arms.

That's not saying that most Bollywood films are masala. Many strictly fall under one genre or any other, but even so, there's commonly a dash of masala thrown in.

Do Bollywood actors operate in Hollywood?

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is definitely the first Indian actor to significantly crossover within the West. She appeared within the Mistress of Spices (2005) with Dylan McDermott, The Final Legion (2007) with Colin Firth and Ben Kingsley, and Pink Panther 2 (2009) with Steve Martin. She has additionally garnered more high-profile publicity within the West than every other Bollywood actor, having appeared around the Oprah Show, Late Show with David Letterman, and 1 hour.

Two Bollywood actors appeared within the Oscar-winning British film Slumdog Millionaire (that's right, it's a British film): Anil Kapoor, who played the sleazy game-show host, and Irrfan Khan, who played law enforcement interrogator. Kapoor has since appeared within the hit American television series 24, which stars actor Kiefer Sutherland. Kapoor played a Middle-Eastern leader within the show for just one season. Before Slumdog Millionaire, Khan appeared within the English-language films The Namesake (2006), A Mighty Heart (2007), as well as the Darjeeling Limited (2007).

Bollywood actress Mallika Sherawat will star opposite Avatar actor Laz Alonso within the upcoming Hollywood political comedy, Love, Barack. Sherawat can play a volunteer coordinator on Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign, who falls deeply in love with her counterpart on John McCain's campaign, played by Alonso. Sherawat can also be appearing in another upcoming Hollywood film, Hisss, together with Irrfan Khan.

Do Hollywood actors operate in Bollywood?

Sylvester Stallone and Denise Richards made cameo appearances within the Bollywood film Kambakkht Ishq during 2009.

British actor Sir Ben Kingsley-best-recognized for his Oscar-winning performance because the famous Indian independence leader in Gandhi (1982)-appeared within his first Bollywood film, Teen Patti, during 2010.

Western musicians are breaking into Bollywood, too. American rapper Snoop Dogg performed around the title a record of Singh is Kinng in 2008 and Australian pop star Kylie Minogue performed a song in Blue during 2009. Senegalese-American music star Akon is reportedly recording a song for your soundtrack from the upcoming Bollywood superhero action film Ra.One.

Does anyone outside India watch Bollywood movies?

Yes! Bollywood has fans around the globe. It's big in other areas of South Asia, obviously-Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka-along with the remainder of Asia, the center East, and Africa. Bollywood is beloved around australia, the house of director Baz Lurhmann (of Moulin Rouge fame) who's a Bollywood filmmaker in spirit! Bollywood movies are routinely within the box-office top 10 within the U.K. And Bollywood is very popular in Brazil (because of popular Indian-themed television show there, called Caminho das Indias.) Finally, Bollywood is big in Canada, especially in Toronto, that features a large Indian population. And Americans are finally beginning to catch onto what the remainder of world already knows-that Bollywood is fantastic!

Why don't more Americans like Bollywood movies?

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Created on Jul 13th 2019 01:58. Viewed 116 times.

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