8000 kilometers away from India
When Shah Rukh Khan came to France for Veer-Zaara, in 2006, there were 2000 people inside the Virgin Megastor on the Champs Elysées waiting for him. And 2000 more waiting outside. The watchmen had to close the door of the store, because the crowd was so eager to see their beloved star that it became dangerous. Women were fainting and girls crying. At the same time, Tom Cruise was in Paris for M.I III, and he had twice less people standing for him. It might sound very usual for you, but it was a real event for France. Or at least, for me. Shah Rukh Khan is nobody for French people. To my friends, he’s still « the Indian actor you like in Devdas… What’s his name again ? Can’t pronounce it ».
I was surprised and amazed. And more or less angry, actually. I realized I wasn’t the only one in my country to know Shah Rukh Khan. There were 4000 mad people shouting his name. They didn’t even allow him to speak. Not that I wanted to behave like them. To me, Shah Rukh Khan is mostly the first “person” who introduced me to Indian cinema. And I am very grateful, that’s all. But seeing this crowd made me unconfortable. Which is strange because I had been working for three years to promote Indian cinema in
And then, I realized: 4000 people over 60 million inhabitants is not that much. Spider-Man III attracted more than 7 million people whereas Devdas, the most successful Bollywood movie here, barely had 500.000. I was relieved. There was still work to do, I was still part of a clan, I still had this special thing who defined me: I’m a French journalist who have this passion for Indian cinema. Every kind of Indian cinema. And who wants to be one of those who helps it being recognized in a country which still ignores it.
It’s a difficult job. Maybe impossible, for the time being. To simplify things, there are four different types of audiences for Indian cinema in France: those who love Bollywood, Shah Rukh and Aishwarya, have posters of them in their room, listen to hindi music and ignore any kind of Indian art cinema ; those who thought that Indian cinema was born and died with Satyajit Ray; those who despise Indian cinema, which they reduce to Bollywood, a “third-world” cinema (as though these kind of movies could exist) and describe it as colourful and exotic, but mainly stupid; and those (the majority) who simply never thought that India could make films. People who get really interested in every kind of cinema
That’s how it works here.
And as
It’s an horrible issue, because it questionates my passion for Indian cinema too: do I like it because it’s different from what I’m used to watch? Why do I prefer Devdas to The Namesake whereas all my friends in
I’ve just realized I didn’t even introduce myself. So hello, I’m French, which I’m sure you’ve guessed and also explains my bad English. It’s my first post here and I’m very glad to be part of PFC’s clan. Which by the way was introduced to me by Anurag Kashyap, to whom I wish all the good luck with No Smoking. Not that he needs it: I’m already sure from what I’ve seen that it’s an amazing movie.
Ophélie
Ps: don’t think because I’ve only quoted Devdas that it is the only Indian movie I’ve seen! It was just a good example for that post. And also, it IS the movie through which I discovered Indian cinema. Good or bad, does it matter?
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
Ophelie!!!!
Welcome to PFC!!!
I love this post. I am a member of a similar clan here in the US, and my love of Bollywood started with watching Devdas and my beloved SRK. While many of my Indian friends love to tease me about this, fact is that to someone who isn’t Indian, the beauty and grandness and spectacle of that film along with the beauty of SRK and Ash is unmatched in Hollywood. The film may seem like drivel to a South Asian, but to me it was the film that opened the door to a love of all Indian film, Bollywood and beyond.
I can’t wait to see what you will write on next!
Lovely thoughts there! And welcome to PFC!!!
Nice to hear from you ophelie..and really some of Korean also China is making phenomenal cinema..hope India will too..:)>-
Oph
hey Oph
hi Pankaj, you’re right about Devdas and it doesn’t have anything to do with the quality of the movie. I think we should see here in France movies like “Metro”, “Black Friday” or “Mr and Mrs Iyer” to understand that Indian cinema is not Bollywood. And you’re right too about music: Indian music is not only about Ravi Shankar. But the problem in the West is that India has always been confused with exotism. I’ll try to continue this debate on my next post!
Thank you all for your comments. And atray, I also thinks China, Korea, Thailand, etc… make a phenomenal cinema. But India is too.
it’s not only… majority of British/American Indian audience hold those same opinions. They would rather watch a Devdas than a Black Friday cos, erm, the former is a bit of colorful and extravagance, which other cinema does not offer.
but they would be the first people to ridicule song and dance routines..
Well written Oph
Welcome, Oph
Welcome to PFC Ophelie. Have you seen SICKO?
I wanna move to France & have the govt send me a beautiful french girl to do my laundry.
Can you help me?
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Last Film – SICKO (9/10)
Music – www.pandora.com
sorry, in France you have to do your laundry by yourself. but you still can come to Paris and fall in love with a beautiful French girl (yeah, I know, I’ve seen too many Bollywood movies…)
Hi Ophelie
Welcome to PFC…Nice writeup…
Hmmmm
I have heard that PARIS is one Dirty City. It seems to be the best kept secret of the world. Is that true?
*************
Last Film – SICKO (9/10)
Music – www.pandora.com
hey ophelie ,surprise..surprise..
like in “CABARET”.. welkom
when did this happen, would like to see more of you..
yeah..we can debate it endlessly but one can not deny the “Devdas effect” which is akin to how “raise the red lantern” and “farewell my concubine” brought china to world’s attention..
Devdas indeed was the film that woke up europe to bollywood, Dil se did that to UK, and US..
we are just riding the wave
hey anurag, would you like being the one who’d wake up Europe to Indian artistic cinema?
well i am trying, but i believe or i would like to believe i am commercial too.. not bollywood, not very artistic either.. i would like the world to wake up to new indian cinema, which believe me is happening.. we are the next in line after Korea.. we have woken up.. now it’s time for us to wake up others to look at us..
sorry… by artistic, i was only trying to define a cinema which is clearly not Bollywood. but “new indian cinema” is an expression I like. I’m sure India is the next one in line. You’ll just have to keep on the good work!
oh there is a lot already made, to name a few.. shivaji’s FROZEN, navdeep’s MANORAMA, shashank’s QUICK GUN MURUGAN, lot more i know nothing about but have heard from others and a whole lot of them waiting in the wings.. it will be a flood of them by next year, wait and see
brilliant start on PFC ophelie.. welcome aboard
Hi…It’s nice to read your article on PFC….wait and see… for the changes are happening …more to happen in Indian cinema within few years…
Hey Ophelie…welcome. n i do hope those 500 people are not those nri’s who are missing their karwa chautha n raksha bandan n so they go out n make barish,barsaat,dosti n god knows what all movies a big hit outside india.
Actually, they were not NRI’s… Mostly French people of Arabic or African origin… But a lot of “French people of French origin” like me too!! (even though my excuse was that I was covering the event for a newspaper…). Actually, people of Indian origin in France are mostly Tamil. And even if we also have our Ganesh festival in Paris (yes, we do), the NRI community here is really small compared to England’s or United States’
I echo T!’s comments about the “tribe” situation in the US, though it seems to be getting less and less a small thing by the minute.
Your categorization of the types of audiences for Indian cinema is very interesting. Isn’t it unfortunate that there isn’t more overlap between 1 and 2? I feel that many of my Indian-film-watching friends do have elements of both 1 and 2, and I’m trying to broaden out so I can get a better perspective on Hindi films overall (I started with Bollywood and am just getting to know some of parallel cinema) (and that’s just with Hindi films! I know zero about the other language cinemas).
Thanks for your thoughtful piece.
Hey Oph
My blog ad was wrong in the earlier post