Indian Film Industry

Contemporary World CinemaSpring 2011

Indian Film Industry• Produces more films than Hollywood

(1100 vs 500 /yr.)

• Cheapest tickets in the world

• 4 billion attendance / year

• 30 different languages:

– Hindi: Bollywood (Bombay-Mumbai)

– Bengali: Tollywood and Dhaliwood (Calcutta)

– Tamil: Kollywood (Madurai)

– Telugi: (Hyderabad)-#2 to Bollywood

– Marathi: (Mumbai)

– Malayalam (Southwest tip)

– Kannada (Southwest)

– Punjab (Amritsar)

Indian Film Industry

Government-based censorship board:

“The Constitution of India guarantees freedom of expression but places certain restrictions on content, with a view towards maintaining communal and religious harmony, given the history of communal tension in the nation.”

Reflects conservative nature of national psyche

VeerZaara clip

Censorship

According to the Supreme Court of India [1]:

“ Film censorship becomes necessary because a film motivates thought and action and assures a high degree of attention and retention as compared to the printed word. The combination of act and speech, sight and sound in semi darkness of the theatre with elimination of all distracting ideas will have a strong impact on the minds of the viewers and can affect emotions. Therefore, it has as much potential for evil as it has for good and has an equal potential to instill or cultivate violent or good behaviour. It cannot be equated with other modes of communication. Censorship by prior restraint is, therefore, not only desirable but also necessary.”

Three Cinemas of India

1. Bollywood

2. “Parallel cinema”--serious, realistic alternative films (Mumbai noir)

3. Expatriate:

- Deepa Mehta

- Mira Nair

Bollywood (Hindi)• Largest segment of industry

• Big musical productions (3 hrs) with traditional dances

• Highly melodramatic stories

• Traditionally, no kissing or forbidden topics (censors)

• Key influence on pop culture throughout Asian subcontinent

• Becoming more “Western”

• Some controversial topics

• Sentimental, formulaic, melodramatic

• Songs, legends, values of local culture

Globalization of Bollywood• Government reforms in 1991 accelerated

globalization

• Foreign brands, satellite TV, visions of Western lifestyles, rise of middle class

• Confusion and anxiety about traditional Indian values, the institution of the extended family, Indian identity

• Women viewed as “traditional symbols of the nation” and “Mother India”

• “The Hindu’s woman’s purity has symbolized Indian identity and resistance to the West.”

Source: Chaudhuri, Shohini. Contemporary World Cinema. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005.

Globalization of Bollywood• “Bollywood has traditionally played a culturally

unifying role, constructing a pan-Indian ethos and appeal seemingly able to unite every element of life in a land otherwise divided by differences of language, religion, class and caste.”

Source: Chaudhuri, Shohini. Contemporary World Cinema. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005.

Globalization of Bollywood• “…today’s films endorse global consumerism.

Temples are among recurrent settings, but so are shopping malls—temples of consumerism—providing reassurance to monied NRI [non-resident-Indians] that their pursuit of wealth and material comforts is in keeping with Indian traditions. After all, Hindus worship a god of business success—Ganesh—and a goddess of wealth—Lakshmi.”

Source: Chaudhuri, Shohini. Contemporary World Cinema. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2005.