Bollywood

The films it produces are mostly in Hindi. They are generally lively, energetic musicals. Bollywood films often have their own sense of internal logic and can be as surreal as any musical produced by American or European studios. The music is generally pre-recorded, sung by a core group of singers, with actors miming the words (known as playback singing). Generally, professional playback singers provide the voices but of late there's a trend of the actors singing for themselves, like Aamir Khan in Ghulam, or Amitabh Bachchan in Baghban and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. Bollywood films are often engaging spectacles that tell timeless stories of love and turmoil.

Bollywood films often feature fair skinned Indians, often from the northern, Hindi speaking, regions of India, especially in leading or heroic roles. Models and beauty queens continuously replenish the pool of youthful talent. The dancing often involves very strong and quick body movements, and large groups of dancers. The dancing in older films is often Indian in style, modeled on folk dancing or the seductive lures of nautch girls. In modern films, Indian dance elements blend -- sometimes harmoniously, sometimes not -- with the influence of MTV.

Film-makers have long borrowed freely from Western sources, often without attribution or licensing fees. Popular Western movies have been adapted to Indian tastes, and Western tunes have been given Hindi lyrics. Rushed production schedules and low budgets encouraged such plagiarism -- which could continue with impunity as long as the Western movie and recording industries ignored the very existence of Bollywood. Now that Bollywood movies are more available in Europe and North America, this blatant plagiarism has somewhat diminished. For example, in the recent film Kal Ho Naa Ho (2003), the producers paid a license fee to the estate of Roy Orbison to use the melody of his song "Pretty Woman"

Currently due to increased visibility and increasingly large audiences, some Bollywood films can have fairly large budgets, allowing them to use famous film sets such as Hatfield House and Blenheim Palace in the United Kingdom. In modern Bollywood films, location shooting is quite important and grand scenery is prized. However, funding for Bollywood films remains hit-and-miss. There are no large studios which fund films, and until recently, Indian banks were forbidden from lending money to finance film productions. Thus funding often comes from private distributors, and sometimes from illegitimate sources. For example, in 2001 the Central Bureau of Investigation, India's national police agency, seized all prints of the film Chori Chori Chupke Chupke after the movie was found to be funded by members of the Mumbai underworld.

Another problem facing Bollywood is piracy of its films. Often pirated DVDs arrive before the print for the picture.

Noted playback singers in Bollywood films

• Abhijeet
• Asha Bhosle
• Kishore Kumar
• Lata Mangeshkar
• Mukesh
• Udit Narayan
• Sonu Nigam
• Mohammed Rafi

Popular music directors (composers and arrangers)

• Naushad
• S.D. Burman
• R.D. Burman
• A.R. Rahman
• Illyaraja

Well known actors and actresses (in alphabetic order by last name, if given)

• Shabana Azmi
• Abhishek Bachchan
• Amitabh Bachchan
• Bipasha Basu
• Mahima Choudhary
• Ajay Devgan
• Sunny Deol
• Madhuri Dixit
• Guru Dutt
• Sanjay Dutt
• Govinda
• Kajol
• Anil Kapoor
• Raj Kapoor
• Kareena Kapoor
• Karisma Kapoor
• Aamir Khan
• Shahrukh Khan
• Salman Khan
• Manisha Koirala
• Akshay Khana
• Rajesh Khanna
• Meena Kumari
• Kishore Kumar
• Dilip Kumar
• Hema Malini
• Urmila Matondkar
• Rani Muhkerjee
• Nargis
• Nutan
• Vivek Oberoi
• Aishwariya Rai
• Rekha
• Hrithik Roshan
• Naseeruddin Shah
• Jackie Shroff
• Tabu
• Preity Zinta

Well known directors (in alphabetic order by last name)

Directors

• Shyam Benegal
• Guru Dutt - Aar Paar, Pyaasa, Kaagaz Ke Phool, Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam
• Subhash Ghai
• Raj Kapoor - Awaara, Sangam, Shri 420, Mera Naam Joker
• Shekhar Kapoor - Masoom, Mr. India, Bandit Queen
• Mira Nair - Salaam Bombay, Kama Sutra, Monsoon Wedding
• Mani Ratnam - Anjali, Roja, Bombay, Dil Se
• Shakti Samanta - Aradhana, Anuraag
• Ram Gopal Varma - Rangeela, Satya, Company
• Satyajit Ray - Oscar for lifetime achievement, Pather Panchali

Popular Bollywood Films (in reverse chronological order)

• Koi... Mil Gaya (2003): A mentally disabled young man (Hrithik Roshan) finds strength and friendship from a visitor out of this world.

• Devdas (2002): Based on a classic Bengali novel about Devdas(Shahrukh Khan), a young man caught between two woman. One whom he could never love, Chandramukhi (Madhuri Dixit), a prostitute, and one whom he could never stop loving, his childhood friend Paro (Aishwariya Rai).

• Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham (2001): Family drama starring Amitabh Bachchan as the family patriarch who disowns his son (Shah Rukh Khan) for marrying a girl (Kajol) from a poor neighborhood, and how his brother (Hrithik Roshan) attempts to bring the family together again.

• Dil Chahta Hai (2001): The film is about three distinct characters, Akash (Aamir Khan), Sameer (Saif Ali Khan) and Siddharth (Akshaye Khanna), their individual relationships and the effect that these relationships have on them.

• Laagan (2001): Indian villagers struggle to defeat a cruel British District Officer and free themselves from land tax by organizing a cricket team and taking on the British.

• Taal (1999): This is the story of Mansi (Aishwarya Rai) a country girl who leads a simple life with her folk-singing dad in remote Himachal Pradesh, until Manav (Akshaye Khanna) comes along. A wealthy businessman, he has come to buy the land where they live, but he returns to the city with his eyes sparkling for Mansi. However, the inevitable family obstacles get in the way, and when Mansi meets street-smart music composer Vikrant (Anil Kapoor) we have a full-blown love triangle on our hands.

• Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999): The half-Indian, half-Italian Sameer (Salman Khan) comes to India to learn classical music from Darbar (Vikram Gokhale) and falls for Darbar's daughter, Nandini (Aishwarya Rai).

• Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998): The story of two best friends, Rahul (Shahrukh Khan) and Anjali (Kajol), wose entire relationship changes when Tina (Rani Mukherjee) comes into their lives.

• Dil To Pagal Hai (1997):

• Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge(1995): Raj (Shahrukh Khan) and Simran (Kajol) unexpectedly fall in love on a trip across Europe. However, Raj must win over the hearts' of Simran's family members if he is to win Simran's hand in marriage.

• Hum Aapke Hain Koun: Enormously popular family romance. Prem (Salman Khan) falls in love with Nisha (Madhuri Dixit) when Prem's brother marries Nisha's sister. Lavish wedding festivities, with much singing and dancing.

• Maine Pyar Kiya (1989): Rich boy Prem (Salman Khan) falls for poor girl Suman (Bhagyashree).

• Sholay (1975): The film narrates the story of an ex-cop Thakur Baldev Singh (Sanjeev Kumar) who hires two jail birds (Amitabh Bachchan and Dharmendra) to eradicate a town and neighbouring villages of the menace of Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan) and his band of dreaded dacoits. Based on American sphagetti westerns, it became the most successful film in Indian flim history.

• Jai Santoshi Maa (1975). A good woman is abandoned by her husband and mis-treated by his malicious sisters-in-law, but her devotion to the goddess Santoshi Maa solves all. This B-movie mythological was an unexpected success and elevated a regional deity (Santoshi Maa) to wider fame.

• Teesril Manzil (1966): When Rupa falls from the third-floor window of her hotel the verdict is recorded as suicide, but her sister Sunita (Asha Parekh) smells a rat and travels to Mussoorie to find out more. On the train going up she encounters boisterous drummer Rocky (Shammi Kapoor) - unaware that he was Rupa's lover, and despite the fact that they argue constantly, she falls for him. So, is Rocky the killer? ...

• Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam (1962).

• Mughal-e-Azam (1960).

• Mother India (1957).

• Awara (1951).

See also

• Hollywood
• Kollywood
• Tollywood
• Mollywood

External links

• Hindi Movies
• Hindi Songs
• Planet Bollywood.com
• IndiaFM.com

Referenced By