Hollywood is not the film capital of the world but its our very own Bollywood. Yes, you hear that right! The film capital of the world is not in the US, Its right here in India. Its amchi Mumbai! Bollywood refers to the Indian film industry which is unquestionably the largest in the world, called after Bombay now-a-days more popularly and officially called Mumbai, though Mollywood or the Marathi film industry is not that big a hit. All The Same, when I say Bollywood, I refer to the whole of Indian film industry, Bollywood in good order is referred to as Hindi cinema though.
We the 'public' of India are in absolute love with our films, even though most of them play along the same ‘ghisa-pita’ format called 'masala', you know, the collection of spices that we use to prepare curry, the same recepie holds good to make films here. While plenty of thought stimulating 'artistic' Indian films are appreciated world wide, masala films are, for the most part, looked at with disdain and you know the reason why. Regular, standardized and cold characters, over-the-top acting, calculated editing, unconvincing stories and actors and actresses who start singing songs every once in a while are just the beginning of a prolonged list of the most unusual characteristics that you have to digest if you wish to savour Hindi films which are more than three hours long and unlike their hollywood counterparts, include an interval, thereby giving the film frenzy public a little time to quickly grab some pop-corn and cold drink. Our films comprise of scores of songs and dances sporting a hundred or so choreographed professional dancers, top stars who drive the people crazy, a storyline in-between the songs of 'ladka meets ladki' and the best part if it, it takes place without any smooching or sexual tangency, lots of dhishum-dhishum, no bloodshed though, and a 'happy ending' everytime. According to veteran film director Yash Chopra, the secret to the universal charm of our so called masala films is that they are 'wholesome'. The Government of India has given him four national awards in the category of 'Best Film for Providing Popular and Wholesome Entertainment'. He does not allow smooching in his movies. He says, If a boy loves a girl in India, they feel shy of smooching in public. In most indian films, if two lovers want to foil a wedding arranged by the parents, they can't just run away, they have to win over the hearts of their parents who are against their relationship. In 'Veer-Zaara', which happens to be one of his blockbuster films, Shahrukh Khan the hero and Preity Zinta the heroine never even touch each other, except in a fantasy song sequence. That's the magic of Bollywood. Needless to say, its the face of Indian cinema.
The Bollywood masala films get their storyline from societal subjects like communalism, ethnicity and caste. Many films also come up to the outcomes of modernization and urbanization on the household affairs, relationships and the style of living. As you would expect from any rich and exuberant culture, masala films reflect India's societal and political surroundings. This does not belittle their charm or fill them with complacency, but it means that they have an amazingly straight and deep flow into the lives of their audiences that foreigners may find tough to experience and understand. On the opencast it may be Jai, Veeru, Gabbar and Basanti, but the unwritten implied message is more likely to be love, brotherhood, social justice and all good things. In this state of affairs, it's not surprising that masala films are one of the most influential forces that have shaped Indian thoughts of patriotism and nationhood.
A study tells, round about fourteen million Indians watch films in cinema halls on a day-to-day basis which is about 1.4% of the 1 billion strong Indian population. The monetary value we pay for a film ticket is equal or tantamount to the standard remuneration of an Indian for a day, could be anything between US $ 1-3, to watch any of the near 1000 feature films churned out by our gigantic film industry every twelve months, which is more than double the number of films produced in the Hollywood. It was during the 1970s, when India surpassed the US as the largest film producer of the world. Still the Americans say, Bollywood is a poor cousin to Hollywood however, the fact is that Bollywood is the 'mota-bhai', a commonly used term in Hindi films meaning elder brother in Gujarati language.
Although Hollywood films have been inching into India for quite a while now, only the blockbuster Titanic was able to make it to our top five chart against a total of hundred and fifty films from Hollywood which released here that particular year. Nonetheless, our films have become more or less a worldwide obsession. The overseas audience knows Amitabh Bachchan, Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and so on. Amitabh Bachchan was ranked the 'Greatest Star of Stage or Screen' in a BBC online poll in the year 1999, winning out with huge difference over Charlie Chaplin, Sir Laurence Olivier, Robert De Nero, Marylin Monroe and many more.
Now-a-days Bollywood films are screened in US, Canadian and British cinema theaters more frequently than ever. These theaters have become a centre of attraction for the South Asian communities around the globe. Though isolated by a great distance from family and nation, South Asians have received Bollywood films as a great way of remaining in contact with their culture and their fella South Asians. Our films are also seen in Russia, China, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.
The most important film production center of Bollywood is known as 'Film City' a 500 acre wonderland of fake houses, poor impoverished villages, small towns, schools, police stations, hospitals and much more where many of the big-budget Bollywood films are made. The very first Indian feature film 'Raja Harishchandra' was produced here in Mumbai by Dadasaheb Phalke, the father of Indian Cinema. Since that time Mumbai has remained the centre of Indian Film Industry for a period of almost hundred years. To render facilities and grants to this huge and profitable industry the Maharashtra State Government has established this Film City at Goregaon, in the northern suburban areas of Mumbai. Thanks to Film City, Bollywood has flourished to such an extent that today there are more than 300 cinema theatres in Mumbai alone.
The actors and actresses of Bollywood are the demigods of Modern India. They are highly paid, considering the high budget of the Hindi films. The lead actor in a film oftentimes takes as much as 40% of the US $2 million budget for the typical masala film. Some Actors are in such high demand that they work on ten films at a time while the poor producers face date problems. Pictures of Bollywood actors and actresses embellish shops and homes throughout the country. Stars like Amitabh Bachchan, and Shahrukh Khan receive more than a US $ 2 million to do a single film. Akshay Kumar and superstar Rajnikant are the highest paid Indian actors charging as much as Rs. 20 crore to do a single film. That amounts to more than US $ 4 million. Now that's some income!
In India we have sixteen government recognized languages and a total of twenty-four languages each spoken by more than a million strong population thereby makeing our film industry fragmented, kind of black-and-white and segmented. While Mumbai or Bollywood leads the country in film production, its distinctiveness lies with Hindi films. There is a full-blown film industry in the south of India as well with films being made in languages like Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada. We have some of the big banners, biggest of the big budgets and mega stars like Rajnikant, Kamal Hasan, Mammootty, Chiranjeevi and many others in this industry. It boasts of world class technology and infrastructure at its disposal and also has its share of international audience. The Ramoji Film City of Hyderabad extended over 1666 acres of land is the world’s largest integrated film studio complex and the pride of the South Indian film industry. Ramoji offers comprehensive pre-production, production and post-production resources that match the international standards. Then we have the Bhojpuri film industry which has seen accelerated growth and good profitability in the recent past. Bhojpuri cinema has drawn in big time film makers like Subhash Ghai, Rajshri, Nitin Manmohan and Tinu Verma. Actors like Amitabh Bachchan, Govinda, Juhi Chawla and many others have commitments in this industry. Most Bhojpuri films are produced in small budgets, usually Rs 20-30 lakh, and they fetch Rs 1-2 crore. Many a Bhojpuri films gross 10 times their production costs. A good film can even realize a net income of Rs 10-12 crore. Even blockbuster Hollywood films are being dubbed in bhojpuri language. Coming to Eastern India, Kolkata, at one time Calcutta is the Bengali film capital. There are two major filmmaking hubs in the Bengali language, one in Kolkata and the other in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The story of cinema in Bengal dates back to the 1890s, when the first 'bioscopes' were shown in cinema halls in Calcutta. Similarly, there is a budding film industry in almost every Indian state. Neighbouring Pakistan's Lahore addresses itself as Lollywood which is also a prominent film making hub.
Allowing for three to four hours of escape and wholesome entertainment is the main objective of a Bollywood film or any commercial Indian film for that matter and it is sure enough a recipe cooked well-off. Our films are growing more and more popular the world over. Whenever you have the time, do watch for them in cinema halls and video libraries near you for they are really too much!