Bollywood: Selling Indian Movies in the West
BOLLYWOOD
Selling Indian Movies in the West
INTRODUCTION
India’s most prominent movie industry is known by the name of Bollywood. It recently became the largest movie industry in the world (Jones, Arora, Mishra and Lefort, 2005; Srinivas, 2002). The name Bollywood is a reference to Hollywood, in which the “B” stands for Bombai, the city in which Bollywood originated. Bollywood is making thousands of movies every year with one of the world’s largest audiences. Bollywood has always exported their movies to the exSoviet Union, the Middle East, parts of Africa, South-East Asia, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and wherever there are Indian immigrants in for instance North America, Australia, Hong Kong and the U.K. (Srinivas, 2002). However, in addition to selling tons of movies to Indian people all over the world, Bollywood is now attempting to show its movies to all the other people all over the world. Nico Rogosky, account executive for Pentagram Asian films North America, was asked by Bollywood producer Anjali Kumar to market and distribute two new Bollywood movies. However, it is debatable if Bollywood movies will become a success in Western countries.
BOLLYWOOD: AN ALAYSIS
One of the things we have to take into account is that there are various culture specific elements to Bollywood movies that may have implications for their potential success in Western countries. It is in our best interest to find out what these cultural elements are and how they might influence the adaptation of Bollywood movies in the West. One of the most typical characteristics of Bollywood movies is the role of music in all the movies. Hindi movie songs are commonly discussed as an independent tradition of popular music that has little to do with movies (Morcom, 2001). However, movie songs help sell new movies and contribute to the formation of India’s national identity (Hoffheimer, 2006). Even though Indian and Western music are usually thought of as completely different,
Selling Indian Movies in the West
INTRODUCTION
India’s most prominent movie industry is known by the name of Bollywood. It recently became the largest movie industry in the world (Jones, Arora, Mishra and Lefort, 2005; Srinivas, 2002). The name Bollywood is a reference to Hollywood, in which the “B” stands for Bombai, the city in which Bollywood originated. Bollywood is making thousands of movies every year with one of the world’s largest audiences. Bollywood has always exported their movies to the exSoviet Union, the Middle East, parts of Africa, South-East Asia, the Mediterranean, the Caribbean and wherever there are Indian immigrants in for instance North America, Australia, Hong Kong and the U.K. (Srinivas, 2002). However, in addition to selling tons of movies to Indian people all over the world, Bollywood is now attempting to show its movies to all the other people all over the world. Nico Rogosky, account executive for Pentagram Asian films North America, was asked by Bollywood producer Anjali Kumar to market and distribute two new Bollywood movies. However, it is debatable if Bollywood movies will become a success in Western countries.
BOLLYWOOD: AN ALAYSIS
One of the things we have to take into account is that there are various culture specific elements to Bollywood movies that may have implications for their potential success in Western countries. It is in our best interest to find out what these cultural elements are and how they might influence the adaptation of Bollywood movies in the West. One of the most typical characteristics of Bollywood movies is the role of music in all the movies. Hindi movie songs are commonly discussed as an independent tradition of popular music that has little to do with movies (Morcom, 2001). However, movie songs help sell new movies and contribute to the formation of India’s national identity (Hoffheimer, 2006). Even though Indian and Western music are usually thought of as completely different,