Bollywood is Hollywood on other side of world
No, there is no typo. Bollywood is India’s growing film industry, based in Bombay.
“Bollywood makes more than 800 films a year, whereas Hollywood makes only 200,” said Pallavi Rastogi, an English professor at Utah State University during her lecture Wednesday at the Haight Alumni Center. “In the UK, Indian films are already very popular and are shown on giant multiplexes.”
She said she didn’t think it would be long before that same thing happened in the United States.
“Then my friend told me that now in L.A. they have a theater only for Bollywood films,” Rastogi said.
There are movie idols in India – just the same as there are in the United States.
“There are superstars in Indian films just like America’s Brad Pitt and would be mobbed if on the street,” she said. “You can imagine the type of fan following these stars would have in a country much larger than the U.S.”
The lecture Wednesday was part of a speaker series to promote arts and humanities, Marina Hall, an English professor told the audience.
Rastogi said Bollywood mainly represents the Hindi population in India, but is enjoyed by other Indian citizens as well.
“It is an escape from the realities of life,” she said. “It is democratic in how it allows audiences from all classes and castes to participate and enjoy.”
The film featured in Rastogi’s lecture was called “Devdas”. It was produced in 2002, and was the most expensive film to ever be made in Bollywood. Devdas followed what Rastogi calls the “formula genre.”
“This formula is most unique in Bollywood and the most popular,” she said. “It is almost always something like boy meets girl … they fall in love … parents oppose marriage … girl marries someone else … and boy turns to alcohol.”
Rastogi also explored song and dance sequences presented in many Bollywood films.
“I would say that 99.9 percent of the films have song and dance sequences,” she said. “These sequences have a suggestive way of expressing sexual desire. Openly speaking of sexuality is taboo in India. Indian films articulate sexual messages that are embedded in the dance custom.”
Rastogi said movies in India are not just watched for entertainment, but are “active agents in the way Indian society imagines itself.”
Priya Pande, a graduate student, reminded the audience that not all films in India come from Bollywood.
“There is also India’s southern film industry and India also has art cinema and other genres of film,” Pande said.
Next month’s speaker is Jeanie Banks Thomas with her new book ‘Naked Barbies, Warrior Joes, and Other Forms of Visible Gender.’
-gspaul@cc.usu.edu