Welcome to Bollywood

Bollywood, commonly known as Hindi (Indian) cinema captures a wide array of audiences varying from the masses to one of the most affluent people in the world. Bollywood is one of the biggest film producers in India thus making it one of the largest centers of film production in the world. Initially, the Bollywood movies studied issues of the caste system and the Indian culture. Bollywood actually grew in the 1990s by releasing over 200 movies in one year (1991). This industry captured international audiences (Eastern Europe) with the release of Raj Kapoor’s movies in the 1950s but in 1991, ‘Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge’ (lover will take his bride) made its presence in the western world. As the cinema grew, magazine publications such as Stardust and Filmfare also became popular.

On an average of one thousand movies come out every year in different languages, out of which six hundred are in Hindi (national language in India which is also understood in Pakistan) and Telugu (one of the Indian dialects). Besides being popular in the Indian Diaspora, Bollywood has also made a mark in far off locations such as Egypt (Amitabh Bachchan is very popular here), Senegal and Russia (Raj Kumar’s movies are very prominent here). In Asia alone, Bollywood is mega popular in countries such as Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

The plots of most of these movies usually revolve around a standard story line with minor variations. They are often melodramatic with love triangles, angry parents, kidnappers, political corruptions all combined with romance and comedy. The cast and crew are picked from beauty pageants, modeling agencies, sons and daughters of previous actors, however, like Hollywood, very few make it to the top. The life of the actors is usually very temporary. The popularity of the stars rise and fall based on the demand they have or how they have performed in their previous movies making their stardom very fickle. But there have been a handful of actors that stuck through the controversies and the ups and downs. Sharukh khan also known as ‘King Khan’ and Amitabh Bachchan (‘Big B’) are one of these actors.

Bollywood movies are also called mini musicals as a typical Hindi movie would have at least 2 or more songs. The songs play a vital role because they are the ones that make the movie popular as people generally associate the movies with the songs.

Songs from the movie are often prerecorded by professional playback singers with the actors lip-singing to the song on screen. The dancing, costumes and setting of these songs in these movies are usually the highlights of the movie. Understanding the dance sequences is as important as the songs. Dancing has adapted to modern times, the older movies had dancing that mirrored the classical dance techniques. Now, with the prominent western influence in India, the dances have incorporated the western hip and pop moves. The song and dance sequences are often unrealistic since the location, costumes and time changes in the matter of a few versus.

Today, Bollywood has become more popular with the release of Slumdog Millionaire. Although directed by a foreigner (Danny Boyle), the setting is in Bombay (Mumbai), India, with an Indian cast and crew and ending with a song and dance sequence. Although the movie gained a negative reception in India, it placed music directors such as A.R. Rehman on the map.