Bollywood is a Hindu film industry situated in Bombay. It is interesting to find out that this name was derived from the city of Mumbay which was referred to as Bombay and Hollywood (Ranade 27). According to the information given by Branston Gill in his book Globally Popular Cinema, Cinema and Cultural Modernity, the author emphasizes that this industry was among the largest in the world in 1970 (108).
As a matter of fact, it turns out that Bollywood industry does not include all the films produced in India. It deals with and contributes only 20% of the films produced in the country. Bollyhood does not specialize in production of film of one genre; there are a large variety of genres, and the movies, which are produced in this film industry, have a set of standards in terms of quality.
There are some specific features that unite all the movies created there. Thus, every film produced by Bollywood uses music and combines a little bit of every genre, that is why it seems that everything different from this is not a Bollywood movie (Dil to 57).
India is not a country that speaks one language; there are different languages spoken by people living in different geographical area, there is also a difference in religion, however, most of Bollywood films are in Hindi language, and at the time, the film industry was coming up, Hindu was not among the common languages in India (Gill 116).
Hindi was the opted because of its familiarity with the traders; it was known and understood by many because of its similarity in dialect with the other languages. The industry became more popular nationally, after Hindi language was nationalized.
The industry grew to become among the worldâs famous industry, and currently, India has close to 12000 theatres; these theatres include small rooms in the neighborhood and the most complex film houses used for screening films (Gill 149).
These theatres have the same arrangement as other theatres, although, in India, viewers get their snacks during a break which lasts between 15-30 minutes; this is the time they munch something as they tell stories on what they have seen. This is opposed to US where people buy snacks and get with them inside the theatres (Dil to 201).
This film industry has clients from India with close to 20 million people visiting theatres to watch films; people visit these theatres at their convenient times of the day, and this means that the theatres are always busy throughout the day.
Films from Bollywood are not only sold in India, but also abroad; there are millions of Indians living abroad and these people still affiliate themselves to their Indian culture and they enjoy films from Bollywood which are rich in Indian culture (Cooke 104).
Indian culture is influential for those who have watched Indian films, and this makes people from other countries keep on watching films from Bollywood. This gives Bollywood a market for its films; an example of such markets includes theatres from America and British countries.
The South Asian communities living around the world also focus on these theatres for entertainment; these communities also consider the films as something that connects them back with their home culture and their people back at home.
Bollywood films are made in India; however, the locations used in shooting these films are found elsewhere. The filmmakers travel outside seeking shooting locations; these locations have been found in countries like South Africa, Australia and Switzerland among others.
Durban is a location in South Africa that has been considered as Bollywood II; this is because Bollywood filmmakers frequent it for shooting their films (Dil to 213). As Bollywood shoots its films outside India, it gains popularity with its way of doing things; some of its films such as Aparajito have a western audience.
Despite its interactions with different people and culture around the world, this industry chooses to remain independent in its screenings and film schools; this is because it is under a category that is different from the other film industries.
The Indian things such as food, spirituality and music among others are becoming popular among Indians living away from their homeland together with non-Indians living in India. This has popularized Bollywood films outside India making Bollywood a great exporter of films to about 95 countries in the world, with the majority importers of these films being Canada, UK, and US.
Bollywood films have aesthetics of their own; their aesthetics dates back during the time when India was still under the control of the British. During this era, there were themes about Indian freedom which could not be included in films. After India got independent, censorship became more strong in the film industry and hence the change in style.
During this time, sex was forbidden in all aspects; any physical contact which suggested sexual relations such as kissing were forbidden (Cooke 103). This was replaced by body language, which included bumping of shoulders and keeping faces close to each other but not touching, there was also the replacement of sexuality with dialogue.
This became a norm among the Indians; however, this was replaced by songs, which took over love expressions. Therefore, Bollywood aesthetics are characterized by songs and dances, corny dialogues and overacting moves, however, there are a few exceptions where films show actors and actresses kissing.
Censorship also influenced some of the unique genres found in Bollywood; during the partitioning of India and Pakistan, India was not referred to in any film and its enemies were not called by their true names (Ganti 356). This led to the development of cruelly ruling, which was executed by the evil landlords; towns and families were broken.
Later, the government of India came up with simple ideas of censorship of films and according to government, people would subscribe to the idea without a second thought (Dwyer 79). The government was harsh to the Bollywood industry; it declared the Bollywood style not to the level of Indians claiming that Indians valued art films and not musical films. Bollywood had no choice but to adhere to the governmentâs ideals.
According to unfamiliar viewers, music is one of the characteristics of Bollywood films; this has made Bollywood films to take music as one of its requirement just as costumes.
At the time, when music became popular in Bollywood films, the Indian classics were not popular; also, at this time, the classical tradition of India did not teach people to be composers, they were taught to be performers and teachers of music (Dwyer 205).
However, films were later allowed to play music, which led to the growth of film songs; the viewers were lucky to watch their famous actors and listen to music from their favorite artist. The songs used in these films use styles from Hollywood musicals, soundtracks as well as the themes, and together with dances integrated into a good performance (Ranade 52).
Apart from superstar actors, there were also superstar singers who made the majority of the films to be popular for a long time. Singing and dancing in these films is accompanied by Indian instruments such as bansuri, harmonium, dholak and Jal Tarang among others (Ganti 362).
Bollywood film industry experienced more growth with its own stars, music directors, musicians and type of music. The Bollywood studios had business managers who made sure that the studios produced more films and overall profit was large enough for the business to sustain itself (Cooke 147).
The directors are the ones responsible for the new development of styles in the industry; the rich style considered as masala, because of its mix now characterizes Bollywood films. Each Bollywood film had most of these features; melodrama, sexual feelings, action, mythology, songs and dances among others (Dwyer 158).
Dancing and singing is done with clothing and costumes; these are meant to influence the feelings in the film. The directors have a task of choosing the right costume considering the mood of the film, theme of songs and dance. This brings in costume design as a profession required for the success of Bollywood industry.
The industry has unique genres, which gives directors much room for creativity; this offers the audience pleasure to the viewers as they watch the films living them glued to the screen. These films have one style for their stories with most stories revolving around a boy and a girl struggling for their love for lack of parents and family approval (Bose 109).
The main story has subplots related to it, which are allowed to develop as the story develops. Apart from love stories, there are also other structure adapted which include violent and comedic films mixed with singing and dancing (Ranade 96).
Bollywood films are also characterized by the romantic number, with the hero and heroine playing in the garden; the films do not separate romance from play because this is how the hero and his heroine express their love for each other. This is shown when the hero and his heroine dance around trees, and it can also be shown by changes in clothing and use of exotic foreign locales (Dwyer 190).
The use of these songs and dances make Bollywood films more unique whereby the audience is left to enjoy the film with little thoughts and imaginations; every scene is narrated and themes related to love and sexuality and are brought out using songs and dances.
It is evident that Bollywood industry has grown since the colonial era, with the change in the way the industry handles its affairs changing over the years. The aesthetics being displayed by the Bollywood films being influenced by rules on sexuality imposed on Indians during the colonial era.
The dancing and singing has grown to be part of Bollywood films, and it is used as for expression (Ranade 103). The industry has also gained popularity through the Indian food, spirituality and music; this has widened Bollywood market both in Asian countries and European countries as well as some African countries.
Works Cited
Bose, Mihir. Bollywood: A History. Stroud, Gloucestershire. Oxford: Tempus Pub, 2006. Print.
Cooke, Mervyn. A History of Film Music. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Print.
Dil to, Pagal Hai. Dir. Yash Chopra. Mumbai: Yash Raj Films, 1997. Print.
Dwyer, Rachel. 100 Bollywood Films. London: British Film Institute, 2005. Print.
Dwyer, Rachel and Divia, Patel. Cinema India: The Visual Culture of Hindi Film. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2002. Print.
Ganti, Tejaswini. Bollywood: A Guidebook to Popular Hindi Cinema. New York: Routledge, 2004. Print.
Gill, Branston. Globally Popular Cinema, Cinema and Cultural Modernity. Buckingham: Open University Press, 2000. Print.
Ranade, Ashok Da. Hindi Film Song: Music beyond Boundaries. New Delhi: Promilla & Co. and Bibliophile South Asia, 2006. Print.