Bollywood

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Hooray For Bollywood!

Fans of Hindi films know that "Bollywood" (a combination of the names of two cities, Bombay and Hollywood, both major motion picture hubs in different parts of the world) is the collective term to indicate the films of India and several other nations. It is a term that many film fans (both American and Hindi) do not care for. Some Americans see it as a bastardization of their beloved Hollywood, CA while Hindi film fans suggest that the term relegates their art as secondary to American cinema. In reality, comparing Bollywood movies to Hollywood movies is a bit akin to comparing the proverbial apples and oranges. Their both fruit, but that is where the similarities end.

Bolly vs. Holly

Bollywood Movies are nothing short of a unique experience when first viewed by someone who has only ever seen traditional American movies. To Americans, most Bolly titles seem to be musicals because nary a film is made without some big production number with singing and dancing a-plenty. Bollywood films have far more to offer than just music, however. Hindi audiences demand a lot for their movie dollar, and the movies contain a lot of drama, comedy, and action. Watching a Bolly film is a bit like watching the work of the Three Stooges, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Capra, and Gene Kelly all rolled into one giant film can. And the films are gigantic in their scope as well as their running time. While times of three hours or more are seldom seen in American movies (lengths like that are often reserved for Academy Award shoe-ins only), almost all of the films run at least that long.

Bollywood Plots

The stories of Bombay differ greatly from those of American cinema as well. Dialogue (and Hindi scripts are often called dialogues) is typically cheesy by American standards, yet highly poetic at the same time. In this way, it is reminiscent of the work of Shakespeare - written in poetic style and dealing with themes which are larger than the characters in the story. It is not uncommon to see a Bollywood actor invoke God (or any of various Hindi gods), be tempted by the Devil, or speak of love in the most melodramatic of terms. While many Americans won't buy into it (after all we like our crap served up on a silver platter - it has names like White Chicks, The Dukes of Hazard, and Hope Floats), Hindis eat it up. For their culture, movies are a total escape from the real world. While many Americans demand realism from their films (and seldom get it, although they think they do), Bombay audiences want their movies to be as far removed from life as possible.

Blockbuster: The Hindi Way

Americans like to think they have the market cornered on movies. After all, it nearly takes an act of God (or Quentin Tarantino) to get a foreign film released here; yet American films are exported all over the globe. Bollywood, however, leads the world both in terms of the number of movies made each year and the number of tickets sold. Far less is spent to make these movies, and the tickets cost less in comparison, but far more are sold. According to the MPAA, in the year 2002, Bombay produced 1,013 movies compared to Hollywood's 739. 3.6 billion tickets were sold for Bollywood's movies compared to 2.6 billion in Hollywood. That's right, Bollywood sold a billion more tickets than Hollywood. Yet American movie producers took in a staggering $51 billion that year while the Bombay moviemakers raked in only $1.3 billion. When comparing the average $1.5 million cost of producing a Hindi feature to America's $47 million average, it seems like the math is wrong somewhere.

It's Here To Stay

If you've never heard of Bollywood before, fear not. You will. Movies, Bollywood Actresses, and much more from India are enjoying a surge of popularity in America. The phenomenon is not quite at the place where Anime Movies were ten years ago, but trends seem to show that they're getting there. Give it another ten years, and you'll probably see entire sections of video stores devoted to Hindi movies, much as some currently have complete anime and even Hentai Movies sections.


 


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