How many of you have ever seen a Bollywood movie? or know what Bollywood is??
Let me tell you a about bollywood…
Bollywood is the hindi language film industry established in Mumbai, India. It has been around since 1899. In 1913, the first full length feature film was produced and did not have any sound in it. It was just a series of pictures put together and rendered fast to create the effect of a video. In 1931, the first movie with sound was released. 6 years later in 1937 first colored movie was released. This is how bollywood began its life. The term .. “Bollywood” .. was coined from a combination of “Bombay” – the old name of Mumbai and Hollywood – which represents the “film industry”. Bollywood today is the world’s biggest film industry in terms of ticket sales and number of full length movies released in a year. Bollywood produces approximately 1000 movies every year. which calculates to 2 – 3 films produced daily. Bollywood films sell more than 3.6 billion tickets worldwide every year.
Now, how is bollywood different than film industries in any other countries? Let me tell you –
There are three major differentiating factors where Bollywood stands out:
The first is music – and that includes songs and Dance:
Bollywood is well known for including songs in the movie. Songs are used as a bridge between two situations in the movie and move the story forward. The songs are sung by professional singers and lip-synced by actors. Majority of the songs in a movie have dances choreographed to it. A movie in Bollywood is known more by its songs and dance steps than by its story or cast. If you ask me about any bollywood movie right now, first thing I will think about is a song. If I cannot think of a song. I probably don’t know the movie. That’s how significant music is in a Bollywood movie.
Second is Multi-Dimensional Genres:
Bollywood is also very well known for multi-dimensional genres packed in one film. In any typical Indian movie you will find elements of action, drama, thrill, romance and music. if the same story were to be told in a Hollywood movie, you would have to watch 5 different movies.
Bollywood movies are often criticized for their length. The average length of a movie is 2.5 - 3 hours. But if you want to pack all these genres in one movie it better be that long.
Let me give you an example of a Typical Bollywood movie and it will tell you how it have multidimensional façades:
Movie begins with the lead actor’s childhood, where the villain kills/destroys/troubles his parents making him orphan/poor/homeless and child-hero swears to seek revenge someday. The movie shifts to a couple decades later when Hero is shown as a grown up and handsome adult. And any guesses how this journey of 2 decades is shown in 2 minutes … you are right .. through a song!
The hero then sees a girl and falls in love with her at first sight. Girl after some attitude-show will also start loving a guy. That’s where their romance comes in, they become poets and singers and extremely good dancers as well. One fine day the hero encounters villain and recollects all his past and starts looking at an opportunity to get back. Villain then abducts hero’s girl and makes several attempts to kill him. Now in a Bollywood movie, usually the hero cannot die. No matter how many times anyone shoots him, he is just too stubborn to die. In the end after lot of fighting and melodramatic dialogues hero fights with villain, kills him and rescues his girl.
In my given example of a movie there are multiple genres embedded into it. Like romance of hero-heroine, action between hero-villain and melo-dramatic dialogue which also brings me to the next speciality of bollywood movies and that is dialogue!
3. Dialogue:
I don't know how the concept of “dialogues” started in bollywood, but whenever they started it has turned out to be very dramatic over the years. Throughout the whole movie, you will rarely find any dialogues which actor or actresses says in a short and straightforward manner. Some dialogues from famous movies are often the face of the movie like it’s songs and dances.
Some of the examples of the dialogues are as follows: For making your understand the dramatic effects I am translating the dialogues word by word from hindi to english.
In a situation where hero wants to kill a villain, hollywood dialogue is simple and clear:” I am going to find you and then I am going to kill you” but in bollywood hero has to make his voice weird, get really mad and say something like “You Filthy Dog, I will make sure I drink your blood.
Or hero taunting villain “if you have every drunk your mother’s milk then don’t hide and come right in front of me”
A typical dramatic bollywood movie have a dialogue specifically reserved for mothers after hearing a sad news. She has to scream “NOOoooo.... Why didn't I die before hearing this news.....” or “why did I not become deaf before hearing this” or “get lost from here else you will see my dead body soon” and so on...
You see I have myself become so dramatic talking about Bollywood movies.
So to cut the long story short, Bollywood has always delivered interesting movies, melodious music, refreshing dances and wholesome entertainment for its viewers. A Bollywood movie cannot be categorized in one Genre like action movie or romantic comedy. It can fall only into one category - musical melodrama. Bollywood movies always appeal to the sentimental side of the human nature. In a stressed life, when I want an escape from reality and have fun, a bollywood movie is my gate pass.
Let me tell you a about bollywood…
Bollywood is the hindi language film industry established in Mumbai, India. It has been around since 1899. In 1913, the first full length feature film was produced and did not have any sound in it. It was just a series of pictures put together and rendered fast to create the effect of a video. In 1931, the first movie with sound was released. 6 years later in 1937 first colored movie was released. This is how bollywood began its life. The term .. “Bollywood” .. was coined from a combination of “Bombay” – the old name of Mumbai and Hollywood – which represents the “film industry”. Bollywood today is the world’s biggest film industry in terms of ticket sales and number of full length movies released in a year. Bollywood produces approximately 1000 movies every year. which calculates to 2 – 3 films produced daily. Bollywood films sell more than 3.6 billion tickets worldwide every year.
Now, how is bollywood different than film industries in any other countries? Let me tell you –
There are three major differentiating factors where Bollywood stands out:
The first is music – and that includes songs and Dance:
Bollywood is well known for including songs in the movie. Songs are used as a bridge between two situations in the movie and move the story forward. The songs are sung by professional singers and lip-synced by actors. Majority of the songs in a movie have dances choreographed to it. A movie in Bollywood is known more by its songs and dance steps than by its story or cast. If you ask me about any bollywood movie right now, first thing I will think about is a song. If I cannot think of a song. I probably don’t know the movie. That’s how significant music is in a Bollywood movie.
Second is Multi-Dimensional Genres:
Bollywood is also very well known for multi-dimensional genres packed in one film. In any typical Indian movie you will find elements of action, drama, thrill, romance and music. if the same story were to be told in a Hollywood movie, you would have to watch 5 different movies.
Bollywood movies are often criticized for their length. The average length of a movie is 2.5 - 3 hours. But if you want to pack all these genres in one movie it better be that long.
Let me give you an example of a Typical Bollywood movie and it will tell you how it have multidimensional façades:
Movie begins with the lead actor’s childhood, where the villain kills/destroys/troubles his parents making him orphan/poor/homeless and child-hero swears to seek revenge someday. The movie shifts to a couple decades later when Hero is shown as a grown up and handsome adult. And any guesses how this journey of 2 decades is shown in 2 minutes … you are right .. through a song!
The hero then sees a girl and falls in love with her at first sight. Girl after some attitude-show will also start loving a guy. That’s where their romance comes in, they become poets and singers and extremely good dancers as well. One fine day the hero encounters villain and recollects all his past and starts looking at an opportunity to get back. Villain then abducts hero’s girl and makes several attempts to kill him. Now in a Bollywood movie, usually the hero cannot die. No matter how many times anyone shoots him, he is just too stubborn to die. In the end after lot of fighting and melodramatic dialogues hero fights with villain, kills him and rescues his girl.
In my given example of a movie there are multiple genres embedded into it. Like romance of hero-heroine, action between hero-villain and melo-dramatic dialogue which also brings me to the next speciality of bollywood movies and that is dialogue!
3. Dialogue:
I don't know how the concept of “dialogues” started in bollywood, but whenever they started it has turned out to be very dramatic over the years. Throughout the whole movie, you will rarely find any dialogues which actor or actresses says in a short and straightforward manner. Some dialogues from famous movies are often the face of the movie like it’s songs and dances.
Some of the examples of the dialogues are as follows: For making your understand the dramatic effects I am translating the dialogues word by word from hindi to english.
In a situation where hero wants to kill a villain, hollywood dialogue is simple and clear:” I am going to find you and then I am going to kill you” but in bollywood hero has to make his voice weird, get really mad and say something like “You Filthy Dog, I will make sure I drink your blood.
Or hero taunting villain “if you have every drunk your mother’s milk then don’t hide and come right in front of me”
A typical dramatic bollywood movie have a dialogue specifically reserved for mothers after hearing a sad news. She has to scream “NOOoooo.... Why didn't I die before hearing this news.....” or “why did I not become deaf before hearing this” or “get lost from here else you will see my dead body soon” and so on...
You see I have myself become so dramatic talking about Bollywood movies.
So to cut the long story short, Bollywood has always delivered interesting movies, melodious music, refreshing dances and wholesome entertainment for its viewers. A Bollywood movie cannot be categorized in one Genre like action movie or romantic comedy. It can fall only into one category - musical melodrama. Bollywood movies always appeal to the sentimental side of the human nature. In a stressed life, when I want an escape from reality and have fun, a bollywood movie is my gate pass.
