Bollywood : A right word for Indian Hindi cineworld ?
Indian hindi cinema has been given word Bollywood and it’s accepted that Amit Khanna of Plus channel had used this word first time some 25 years ago.
Amitabh Bachchan does not like this word and thinks this word is just there to ridicule the hindi cine world and Salman Khan has also joined this team of people who don’t like the word “bollywood“.
Naturally kings of hindi cine world like Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Amitabh Bachchan, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan etc will not like this word” Bollywood“. They have been ruling this industry and they don’t live in any inferiority complex or with the feeling that they are inferior in comparison to the hollywood..
Why Indian hindi cinema should borrow a word which is just imitation of Hollywood while in reality Hindi cinema has same long history as Hollywood has? We have also been watching world class actors in Hindi cinema like Ashok Kumar, Dilip Kumar, Balraj Sahni, Amitabh Bachchan, Sanjiv Kumar, Naseeruddin Shah, Om Puri, and several other character Artists who can give competition to any world class actor. Dilip Kumar was offered a role in Lawrence of Arabia long ago in 60s by David lean but he refused to accept it and later Omar Sharif grabbed that role and got an Oscar.
Amitabh Bachchan is no less competent than any actor who plays lead role anywhere in the world. Hindi cinema has been witnessing talented directors like K Asif, Mahboob, Raj Kapoor, Gurudutt, BR Chopra, Yash Chopra, Late Vijay Anand, Ramesh Sippy, Gulzar etc in the past who have given few world class films. Even now a days also Hindi cinema does not face dearth of talented directors and many have given some good movies and more and more new directors are coming in to the scene. We have great technicians also. Meaning is to say that Indian hindi cinema is not copy of hollywood and we have enough talent and have independent status which is not dependent on Hollywood to get inspiration.
It’s better to use an original name for Indian hindi cine world and this can be done by filmi people only.
But perhaps new artists, who dont have good status in film industry, dont have any objection to this name Bollywood because it has become famous like a trade name for hindi cine industry and outside of India this word is used to recognise the Indian hindi film industry, rather outside of the country Bollywood is used for every Indian film industry. Though inside India we have kollywood, tollywood etc and now I hear Lahore film Industry in Pakistan is called lollywood.
Should we believe in this new corporate identity? or there should be some efforts to keep a nice indigenous name which represents hindi cinema in a good and true manner. Will AB, SRK, Salman etc unite people to organise a name ceremony?
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Purist of Hindi Cinema would not use that term as it is derogatory. And I do not like it as well.
I think, ‘Bollywood’ implies a genre rather than Hindi Cinema Industry. If you would were to ask an outsider about Bollywood – they are more likely to say it’s about love, songs and dancing around tress – a bit rolly poly. And those kind of movies always overshadows other kind of movies in our industry.
It does appear derogatory. Its really time we stop publishing “Bollywood” starting from the categories in PFC.
What say Oz?
Punds
I second that.
:d
Yeah Stop Using the Term Bollywood or build a city in Mumbai by the name of BOLLYWOOD akin to Hollywood in LA.
speaking of changes, i think, ‘Wazzup!’ should be changed to ‘Chai-Paani’ or something else. ‘Wazzup’ is so outdated, sorry.
:-?
- tomorrow there’ll be a demand to change my name from oz to zo or go. [-(
@ HG your demands are incessant… Is it the Saffron brigade speaking? Wazzup can be simply put as What Is Up.. so much seen in the parts of Alabama. As always been with any democracy..let the rights be remianed with an individual. Kya Boltha Tu?
it was just a thought – i did not demand anything. anyway, i totally agree with you.
you guys will just have to get used to me – cos (when it comes to hindi cinema) i am kind of a guy who demands a lot and agrees less with people, apparently.
:o
i had to do googling to find out what’s saffron brigade is. no-way i’m like that. i just thought ‘Wazzup’ is not hip anymore, so thought something better (in any language) would attract people to that section.
- let’s keep these pages to talk about movies guys. HG, email me with your ideas.
I agree Oz i am :-ss on this topic. Lekin yaar mein tho mazaak kar riya si
So are we or are we not changing “Bollywood” in the categories?
2 vote bas nahi hue kya Oz?
Punds
Punds, As Shekhu-bhaiyya from England once said “What’s in a name?”
Have you read this particular article:
http://www.rediff.com/entertai/2002/oct/17deepa.htm
?
i think, we offend filmi people we love when we say ‘Bollywood’
While I don’t disagree with the name issue, let’s not include Karan Johar in the list of talented directors or say that we aren’t dependent on Hollywood for inspiration. Let’s not lie to ourselves, even for argument sake…
The term BollyWood, all it means to me is it reminds me of someone – a baldie with a woody (oy oz;)).
@radramble: Hollywood is no longer an inspiration for anyone – we are a global industry now – now we get inspired by asian (JP, KR, HK, CH), spanish, and french movies, and ahem.. so does hollywood, BTW.
@ HG –
the article is too good ….
The only thing is that the west would still associate ’song and routine’ with the mumbai film industry whether it is called Bollywood or not !!!!!
Shakespeare – “What’s in a name ??”
“Shakespeare – “What’s in a name ??””
And you will always see Shakespeare name next to that quote :-”
@wb: Do I need to provide a list of Hindi movies released this year that were ‘inspired’ by Hollywood, to substantiate my point?
Nice article HG. Wish I had read this article before writing about Bollywood name issue.
ranramble: Karan Johar can be and is a talented director. If he is not brilliant then he can become one. When we can call RGV genius just on the basis of 3-4 films out of his 10-15 films and whole crap which he brings out from his factory then its not wrong to call karan a talented director. Its not easy to give hit films. even if emotional quotient is much more in his films but you dont feal cheated like you feel after watching darna mana hai ya darna jaruri hai, ya vastu shastra etc. We know what will be there in KJ’s films when we go to watch and we get same things. so label and product is synchronized there. thats the honesty factor.
@ HG … I am left speechless by ur comment ^:)^
Kartik and HG,
naam mein bahut kuch rakha hai for film walla people.
Without name film will not be titled and will not be registered. and almost whole film fraternity(if it exists there?) has either added in or removed an alphabet from their original names, courtesy Jumani family.
After associating the meaning with a name , it becomes a very important thing.
if we keep initially ” chaon chaon” then Shakespere is right but if we associate this chaon chaon as a synonym name of Krishna then it matters a lot.
As last year veteran Pran’s family had done this survey to find any Pran in India born after 1960s.
RK, you forget to mention “Nollywood”, the largest film industry in Africa. Nollywood, Nigerian cinema, is more popular in Nigeria and parts of Northern Africa than American cinema.
I mention this because I don’t think that Bollywood is a derogatory term, Yes, among most Americans it is associated with song and dance, but most Americans who are familiar with Indian cinema make the distinction between Indian films and Bollywood films. “Anyplacewood” is just catchphrase to highlight cinema being made in other places in the world outside of the US. It could be worse, in the glory days of Italian filmmaking when Rome was the epicenter of production, Rome was known as “Hollywood on the Tiber”. Rome didn’t even get the chance to have its own name appended onto ‘wood!
“Should we believe in this new corporate identity?” Probably not, but I think it is one that won’t change, especially since it is a designation being placed on so many non-Western countries and places with developing or successful film industries. This is the downside of when catchphrases (and nicknames, if you have a bad one), stick.
That said, I like a good revolution. I think it is you guys (RK, Honhaar, WB, et all) that should unite and fight for a new name!
Hindiwood is better for hindi cinema and indiwood for indian cinema.given songs and dance in indian films they should be called
SongDancewood:d