Why bollywood

Dhar had a similar experience on Uri. The army involvement continues after the film is made. First, they have to okay the script, so it has become a process.

Bhuj signalled what could be a new trend, linking patriotism in the armed forces to Hindu religiosity. Sonakshi Sinha references a series of gods to motivate the villagers to help rebuild the destroyed airbase.

The most satisfying title in the last two decades remains Lakshya , with its muted performances, its bildungsroman structure, and the relatively un-jingoistic treatment of what was then a fresh conflict it says something about public taste, though, that Lakshya was a modest hit, whereas Shershaah —another film about a likeable young man in the war, less intelligently written, more transparent in its patriotic overtures—has smashed records on Amazon Prime.

Only two films in recent memory have managed a critical portrait of army personnel. Bhardwaj also directed one of the more interesting war films in recent times. A muddy battlefield is the setting for a love scene.

A silent film star in Burma sings about Hitler. The Indian National Army—then attacking our borders—is the hero. The war film has a bright immediate future in Bollywood. Hopefully, we are at an inflection point for the genre, where war becomes the jumping-off point for a variety of stories and approaches, not just biopics.

And, from time to time, perhaps we should ask ourselves why the genre is seeing a surge, why war is being sold to us so enthusiastically, and who benefits from it. Big Story Opinion Talking Point. Cook Drink Discover. Trends Shop Beauty. Environment Innovation.

Wellness Fitness. Raising Parents It's Complicated Pets. Why Bollywood loves a good war The Hindi war film is seeing a resurgence.

Yet, these films, made with the involvement of the military, are largely uncritical and jingoistic. Abhijit Banerjee's cheat sheet for the kitchen. Meet the Tamil Nadu Weatherman. In Bollywood films, however, the spoken language is generally a mix of Hindi and Urdu. Even films that are set in the UK and America will still predominantly in Hindi, with occasional phrases in English.

With India being such a vast country with so many varying dialects, some films can perhaps be set in other languages. In a film like Peepli Live, the dialect is Awadhi.

Despite this, the audience are still able to understand and relate to the characters. In a documentary by Sanjeev Bhaskar, Vidhu Vinod Chopra mentions how there are songs at every occasion in Indian culture — even sad songs or celebratory ones.

But in Hollywood, unless a movie is of the musical genre like Chicago or Grease , songs are not prominent feature in films. In Bollywood, the regular musical numbers are also for the local public, who will spend money to buy a ticket to a theatre hall.

Filmmakers want them to be entertained so that they keep coming back. Hindi cinema is a huge fraternity. It is estimated that 1, Hindi films are produced annually while Hollywood only produces With Bollywood films being such an inherent part of the daily culture and life in India, the industry continues to grow more and more each year. Clearly, Bollywood is worth big bucks!

It is because Hollywood films are often produced by major studios like 20th Century Fox or Warner Bros. In Bollywood, movies are usually backed by individual producers or production houses like Dharma Productions or Yash Raj Films. Many producers and directors work with the same group of superstar actors again and again.

For this reason, it is difficult for independent films or different genre films to get a look in. That said, in recent years, more low budget films are gaining popularity and giving the big masala commercial films a run for their money.

In any Sci-Fi venture like Star Wars , the special effects are mastered with a great deal of time and planning. Yet there are so many misconceptions about the industry in the minds of even hardcore cinephiles that before describing what is Bollywood, it becomes an imperative to describe what is not Bollywood. Claims are often made that Bollywood is the biggest filmmaking industry in the world, which is incorrect.

Even in India, Bollywood is not the biggest industry in terms of output. Last year, more films were produced in Tamil and Telugu than in Hindi To understand the true scale of this dominance, it is useful to look at the past and present of Mumbai. However, the reach of theater was limited in India in that era, and still is. The limited mobility of the performers — and their acts with them — ensured theater was never a mass phenomenon.

Literature was handicapped in trying to penetrate the populace too; the high rate of illiteracy combined with segmentation of the few literates into different languages meant it was hard for a book or novel to serve as a binding fabric.

Thus, cinema — not bound by the constraints of mobility or literacy — reached and satisfied the Indian public in a way no prior medium had. From that time to today, cinema has been the most popular platform of mass media in the country.