Half truths and White Lies – My small triumphs and tribulations with ‘Bollywood’ in the US
iView Author: Hyderabad Girl (USA)
Email: withheld
As a Hindi film buff, when I moved to the US three years back, I was surprised at the number of people who knew about ‘Bollywood’. They sung ‘Bollywood’ tunes for me, told me of their experiences with our Hindi film industry and how happy our films made them. It took me some time to realize that most of these people were referring to the meaningless fluff that we churn out so prolifically year after year. Slowly, whenever someone said ‘Bollywood’ (Oh! How I hate the term!), I knew what to expect.
Early this year, when we heard of a ‘Bollywood Film Festival’ in our little city in the middle of nowhere, we were overjoyed. Then, we saw the brochure. What was pompously being promoted as the ‘Best of Indian Cinema in the past 30 years’ was actually a series of films, most of which didn’t deserve to be in a local galli Ganesh Chaturthi movie lineup, much less a film festival that boasted to be the best of Indian cinema.Of course, there were some films which made us want to go and take a look, but those were few and far between. When we went to see the films there, what greeted us was a motley crowd of people – mostly Americans – dressed in ill-fittng velvet ghagra cholis with multicolored jewelry and bindis of all shapes and sizes. And whatever was shown, they LAUGHED. And after every movie they said, “We love Bollywood. The movies are so ‘funny’”. When we went to see Saanwariya (bad mistake), we saw people laughing in the probably the only good scene in the movie – the scene where Ranbir hugs Zohra Sehgal for the first time – it was a touching scene (a little dramatic maybe, but definitely not guffaw-worthy) and yet the audience was in splits. It made me angry!
When there was discussion about the next festival, I tried to suggest that we had better cinema, but was suspected as someone with an agenda 
. Also, I was told time and again, that by Indian cinema people had come to expect the song and dance routine and fluff. No one expected to see good and/or serious cinema. And no one was interested either. It was very disappointing for me as an Indian that my country’s cinema was being viewed like this. And I wouldn’t blame only the Americans. Virtually all the films that made it to the overseas market, were films that fit into the definition of ‘musicals’ and ‘feel-good ‘fluff’. Obviously, good cinema wasn’t pushed by their makers into the overseas market. Another interesting aspect of watching Indian films here is that – Indians who are willing to pay 10 dollars to watch films like ‘Transformers’ and ‘Sex and the City’ aren’t willing to spend 7 dollars to watch an Indian film. In their own words, “Aajkal to DVD pe hi mil jaata hai, phir bade screen par dekhne ke liye paise kyon kharchen?” (Pirated DVDs are available galore here – everything from the Sadaf video kinds to the more professional looking ones whose distributors threaten to sue us if we complain against them!)
Anyway, after a few months of working to promote good Indian cinema (which also meant spending hundreds of dollars buying original DVDs and handing them around to people to take ‘one’ look at them!), I gave up. I was tired of being a ’suspect’.
Then one day, I met a Korean cab driver, who, while driving me around told me that he sees a lot of Indian movies. And I thought, “I know what’s coming”. But he surprised me. He said, he had loved Water, Omkara, Lagaan and Swades (which though not absolutely top-of-the-line stuff, are far better -and more respectable – than the song-and-dance movies). He further surprised me by telling me that he though Ray’s Pather Panchali was one of the best films he had ever seen and that he thought Ray was as good as, if not better than Kurosawa. While we were talking, I realized that there was a market for good movies. But, people were fed fluff and told that this was the best they could get from Indian cinema. I was re-charged . I wanted to be a part of the next ‘Bollywood’ festival. A part of me stopped me, but a part of me (and my husband) egged me on. While I was still deciding, I got a call from the organizers of the festival saying they needed help with choosing films since their regular people weren’t available and they knew from talking to me earlier that I had good knowledge of Indian cinema. I was still hesitant, but decided to go on. I decided on a strategy – a little compromise and a little determination. Something hilarious happened at this point.
I was shown the list of shortlisted films for this year’s festival and some of the names were – “Indra – The Tiger”, “Ram Jaane”, “Guddu”, ” Karan Arjun”, “Lal Badshah”. I really couldn’t believe that someone could choose those films to be shown in a film festival. Further, a lady who was a curator of French films – when told that we were trying to get some good films from India – told me on my face. “Who wants good cinema from India? We have French and Italian cinema for that. Give us fluff. Indian films are just song and dance and that is what we want to see.” That made me more determined. I gave them a list of films which could be categorized as good cinema, but were popular too. To my surprise, most films were chosen. But they wanted to scrap ‘Khosla Ka Ghosla’ and bring in ‘Dhoom’. My heart almost broke! I was told that people wanted ‘comedy’ from ‘Bollywood’. I thought about it.
I could either not oppose them and watch ‘Dhoom’ and feel guilty that I hadn’t done enough for a marvelous film like KKG, or I could tell them a little white lie and introduce people to a new kind of Indian cinema, which could be meaningful and entertaining at the same time. I wrote back to them saying ‘Khosla Ka Ghosla’ is a comedy. It has some terrific actors and it is a con-film too. And it is a full-on comedy. Its really ‘funny’ (the one term they understand). The lines of BBC review on the DVD cover helped me too . It said,”An entertaining watch from beginning to the end”. I said, “See, even the BBC says so!” Slowly, ‘Rang De Basanti’ too became a meaningful musical.”Music by A R Rehman”, I said. “Does it have any dance?” I was asked. “Of course, there’s bhangra” (yeah, only for a few seconds, I know… but its there, right?) “What about ‘Taare Zameen Par’?” “Yes, that has lovely songs too and a dance as well and it has a huge star – Aamir Khan. People love him back in India”. Then, almost as a boon, one of the films they wanted to show badly (K3G) wasn’t available for some reason and they chose another movie from my list, after running it through one of the directors of a very famous Indian film festival in the US. I couldn’t have been happier!
So, here’s my little step towards promoting good Indian cinema. Yes, this time(2009), all the movies in the line up, may not be the very best (Some of them are totally average), but its way better than what we had to endure the last time. And most importantly, its a start – albeit with little white lies and little half truths.
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
Good Experience for you seeing ups and downs with ending on a good note.
Prejudice is worst estimation and many people are suffering from it in one way or another.
Mumbai Meri jaan And Oye Lucky! has to be in upcoming festival, if you can make sure
Whew, thank God i am not in US, at least here, i get to watch all kinds of movies.
But i guess ur article underlines my assumption, that for all the crowing our “movie maestroes” do about how Bollywood movies are getting popular abroad, the fact is they are treated as exotica kitsch.
“Ram Jaane”, “Guddu”, “Lal Baadshah”- AAaaaaaarggh. Do you know who is that nutcase who recommended those movies? My aunt is a pyschiatrist in US itself, and i could send him to her for treatment.
Well i think one way we can go. See earlier Chinese and Hong Kong action flicks were treated as B Grade movies. But what happened was this, there slowly started to grow a fan club for those movies, mostly nurtured by the Chinese American community and then it spread to other communities.
We need such kind of effort from the Indian American community in US. What i suggest you is when u screen movies like KKG or Omkara or Maqbool, bring in non Indians who are interested in good cinema. I dont care if that guy is a redneck from deep South, who has no clue about India, but if he loves good movies, get him in. I think the attempt should be to reach out to movie lovers in US, irrespective of race, thats the only way Indian movies can really make an impact, not just as an exotica kitsch.
Indra The Tiger *faints*
boring
Hyderabad girl
congratulations. thats an accomplishment. I moved in the US in October 2002, when I was in 11th. In my DC-suburb high school, we formed a stupid “desi club”. in our first meeting (and the only one i think), we were thinking of getting together later and watching a hindi movie. so the usual names were thrown out: kkhh, k3g, ddlj etc. i, being naive at that point, suggested we watch Company. they didn’t even know about the movie, and i was laughed at.
Luckily, my college (Univ. of VA) held a South asian film festival, and they chose a good mix of popular and acclaimed. I attended 2 of the 4 film festivals there during my time, and watched Swades, Water, Khamosh Pani etc. good stuff, u know.
i wanted to know which area/city you are based in. i am interested in helping out with any south asian film festival thats near washington dc.
Whew !!!
It took centuries for the West to respect the culture of the East.
It will take a century for West to Learn about Indian Film Industry. :-)
Great to see your effort towards promotion of good cinema.
Thank God, you talked about the realities of where Indian movies are placed in film festivals and for cine-goers. It’s strange when our filmmakers say, “Our movies are global”, and I think we should remind them that, global means more Indians watching the film. And also remind them the fact that Chinese filmmaker also makes film first for their audience, yet it’s global. Rather most good filmmaker’s works do.
Beside it’s sad that our media reflects our mainstream movies presentation at non-competitive screening somewhat as a triumph.
So…it’s not hard to see that our filmmaker and there works are usually placed even below Filipino and Malaysian filmmakers. Though the former does have some real artist working and making good works.
@Hyderabad Girl,
Which metro area are you located in USA?
I am in NY_NJ area and film festivals in our metro area make sincere attempts to provide a platform to good films and filmmakers and not only blockbusters.
The challenge is though to reach a broader audience and not stay limited to South Asian community.
Okay, I guess, I should let everyone know…. I wrote the write up.
I wasn’t sure of how this would be accepted, so I was hesitant to give out
my name or location initially.
@Madhuri – I am located in Honolulu, Hawaii
. Our challenge here is a little different from that of yours. There is hardly a South Asian Community here. Even if there are, not a lot of them turn up at film festivals. 
Till 2008, the only Indian films that were shown, were shown at the Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF) and needless to say, most of them were blockbusters. Of course, a few other films like ‘Frozen’ and a few shorts are shown now and then, but those films are a rarity and my country’s cinema is seen as something that can be laughed at and can be used to earn a lot of money (because the craze for these films is huge). This is the first time, I have got myself involved -not in HIFF, but the ‘Bollywood’ festival organized by the Honolulu Academy of Arts. Hopefully, we can get some more like-minded people and can move forward from there, in changing people’s perception about Indian cinema.
I’ll keep you updated about the film festival. Its scheduled from 2 Jan-11 Jan, 2009.
debashri,
i think everyone knew it was you. good luck.
especially with hubby being very silent whenever ur commenting
I can get quite verbose while speaking about Indian cinema
. So, please excuse me, if I say too much 
@ Nitesh – Thanks! Yes, I do wish our mainstream film makers will grow up
@ Vishal – I’d definitely want to know why you find my write up boring
. Because, the whole point of writing this, has been to initiate a discussion.
@ Ratnakar – Getting in Americans is no problem at all for us here
. They are the ones who turn up loyally for anything that is Indian 
. But I feel, they’ve been fed with so many junk movies over the years, they’ve come to believe that its all we are capable of. And that is what I want to change. Amonsgst this year’s movies (at the festival) were ‘Amar Akbar Anothony’, ‘Satte Pe Satta’, ‘Saanwariya’, ‘Kuchh Kuchh Hota Hai’, ‘DDLJ’, ‘Kal Ho Na Ho’….. and amongst 2009’s screenings will be ‘Chak De India’, ‘KKG’, ‘Main Meri Patni Aur Woh’, ‘Rang De Basanti’, ‘Taare Zameen Par’, ‘A Wednesday’…. its not going to be a huge shift from 2008, but it will be a shift nevertheless. And of course, we will have crowd pullers like ‘Veer Zaara’ and ‘Dhoom 2′ …. that’s my compromise. But then, I am reminded of Vinod Nagpal’s compromise walla dialogue from KKG 
.
We really really wanted to show Maqbool and convincing the curator of the festival (yes, she takes the ultimate decisions. I just ’suggest’ and sometimes ‘con’) on Maqbool was really easy, especially since she had seen Omkara (Maqbool is – in my opinion – a million times better than Omkara). But, we just couldn’t manage to get it. Mila hi nahin….. Hopefully next year…
@ Papaji – I can SO understand what you went through with the ‘Desi Club’. Yahaan bhi same haal hai, bas thoda thoda improve karne ki koshish mein hain. And really, for now, its just me. People drop ideas and run away
. No one wants to work on it. Dekhte hain, kya hota hai. I am fervently wishing for the 2009 festival to be a success. Then next year, it’ll be OLLO and such other lovely movies 
@ Dabba – LOL!
Yes, I asked him not to comment on my write up.
Debashri, I sometimes feel that you are the virtual version of Geet!(Jab We Met)
I don’t know what you meant it as, but I shall take it as a compliment
. LOL!
off topic…just saw the clay flowers….they r awesome….felt like eating those :D reminded me of the ones on the cakes :D
Wow!
Debashri, how inspirational was that?!
Chalo, tumhari baat toh banni.
Who the hell sends ‘Indra-the tiger’ and ‘Lal Badshah’ to a Film Festival?! :O
That’s sheer madness!
Uss kambakht ko goli se udhado!!
Ur new list is DEFINITELY far superior!
The worst thing is, they weren’t even decent entertainers!
And our films are laughed at in Amreeka??!
Shall we send Bhaarat ka Beta, Manoj Kumar to teach them a lesson?! :-)
Shaabaash Debashri!
Tumne hindustan ki laaj rakhli!
Who would watch movies in Honolulu!! :P There must be tons of better things to do.
@ Steve – Haan, Manoj Kumar ko bhej do, good suggestion
@ Tejas – Why won’t people see films in Honolulu? Filmein kya sirf NY-NJ ya California mein dekhi jaati hain? There are tons of things to do, and watching good movies is one of many options here. Honolulu is not some weird place with people dancing Hula all the time
.
He, he Debashri, i go with Tejas, i would prefer the beaches more in Honolulu
@ Steve
Bharat Ke Beta Manoj Kumar is passe now, uska time ho Gaya.
Send our Punjab Da Putta Sunny Deol, to teach those Amreekis a lesson. He just needs to go and shout once, bas phir koi Amreeke mai ka Lal, hamari Hindustani movies ka be izzati nahi karenge.
No If, No But, Sirf Jatt.
** I mean Punjab Da Puttar, Sunny Deol.
Yaar Debashri, i dont mind the Veeru Zardas and the K Soup Movies, but give space to the Wednesdays, KKG’s, Maqbools also.
Let em understand that not all Indian movies are like India Travel Shows or National Geographic Specials or Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, it is pretty much diverse and varied, and there is space for every one.
@Ratnakar – Yahaan pe hum bhi rehte hain
. Tourists ke liye theek hai, its a very different place, but for us, it is a regular city na…. 
So, people like us – and there are millions – who want to watch movies in this city.
I agree with you regarding the comment that there is space for all kinds of movies…. so, why show people just the blockbusters which look like wedding parties. You put it very well.
And next time the Amreeki junta, makes comments about how funny our movies are, arrange a ” Sunny Deol Movie Festival” for them, showing movies from Gaddar and onwards.
Woh pikture dekhne ke baad, koi videshi mai ke laal, humaari Hindustani pikture ka beizzat nahin karenge.
Ratnakar – egjatly.
Why is dancing Hula all day weird? 
Well well well If Sunny Paaji is unleashed on the Americans then maa kasam woh din qayamat ka din hoga
if they hear him mouth- no if, no but, sirf jatt
or- doodh maangoge to kheer denge hum, kashmir maangoge to cheer denge hum- they would have no shelter.
If some company for Sunny Paaji is needed then show them flicks of Dharam paaji like- Elaan-e-jung, hukumat etc – ” maa kasam, main tera khoon
pee jaonga” & the effect would be complete.
@ Steve-I agree with you anybody wanting Indra-The Tiger & Lal Baadshah for a film festival has to be a moron.Even Big B would be mighty embarassed that of all his movies this gets selected
@ Debashri- wow! what wouldnt I do to swap places with you- Honolulu me rehna & kaam karna would be fabulous
but I guess you know better.And whats with the pseudonym? You from Hyd?
@ Sethu – Yes, its awesome living and working here
. Pseudonym…. umm… I am not a very confident writer. I guess, that’s the reason behind the pseudonym 
. I am mostly from Hyderabad, but I have also lived in 10 other cities in India 
. But yes, Hyderabad owns me 
, if I can put it that way…
”No if, no but, sirf jatt”!
LMAO!
So u guys saw that too then eh??
Yaar, hum logon ne toh Sunny paaji ko new lease of life de diya!
I reckon that those ‘classic’ films like ‘INDIRA’ were deliberately chosen as the organisers knew that the good quality stuff would’ve totally converted the public, and then they’d demand Hindi films only :-)
erm….Yeah!
@ Debashri- I thought as much.the reason behind asking you was you dont have a telugu name
and once again let me say I’m quite envious of you now 
( assuming you are a bong but I could be wrong) & also the fact I share the similar trait with you- have also lived in some 10 + cities in India,one of them being Hyderabad and again have a close affinity to Hyd like you
@ Steve
Sunny Paaji, is one of my guilty pleasures. Actually i have a weird rule of thumb, if the NRI or the swish set crowd, don’t like a hero, he automatically becomes my favorite. Thats how Sunny Paaji, Mithun Da, Govinda ended up as my favorites. Guess its a case of reverse snobbery LOL.
Yeah i often keep getting gasps and “How could you” expressions, from some of the folks, when i mention that Govinda is one of my favorites, or i watched the latest Sunny Paaji flick. Oh yeah i love it, love really riling them.
I watch every Sunny Paaji movie from start to end, Salakhen,Ziddi, Maa Tujhe Salaam, Hero, Khel, Indian sab ko dekha main, take that, Ha, ha.
@ Sethu – Yes, I am a Bong by birth
.
@ axw11 – I forgot to thank you for your comment…. thanks
@ Debashri
Tumi kemon acho? Tumi Ke Koribe?
Yaar forgive me, my Bengali is bhery bhery Basic. Some of my best friends are Bong in fact.
Oh Govinda’s brilliant!
I also love him!
Infact, he was the best thing in ‘Salaam-e-Boredom’ and ‘Partner’!
He’s such a good actor, yet people call him the king of mediocrity!
He’s ace.
Sunny ki picturein hum bhi dekhte hain, although I have to admit, i’m one of those Sunny moaners too.
Maybe he should play ‘Hulk’ in his next flick?
Oh what am I on?
He’s ALREADY ‘Hulk’ in every film! :-)
Steve- yes I’ve seen Jo Bole So Nihaal & Maa Tujhe Salaam too.Kya karen control nahin hota
@ Steve @ Ratnakar: i understand guilty-pleasure with Sunny / Govinda, but how cud u even tolerate big brother / teesri aankh et al (assuming u watched these sunny masterpices.
@Ratnakar @ debasri: im frm kolkata, now staying in nairobi, studied in st xaviers, kol,and incidentally, know Pratim D. Gupta (he was my junior, and already famous for writing in The Telegraph), though i cant guarantee he also “knows” me…
@ debasri: your article was awesome… almost the same fate of bollywood in nairobi, although it boasts of almost 45% indian population (90% of tht being gujju, of course…)
I’ve been a big Govinda fan myself & yes even I feel he was the best thing in Parter, Salaam -E-Ishq etc.Hope to see more better work form him now.
@ Satyendra Jha
Naah yaar, i have fortunately not watched Big Brother/ Teesri Aankh, though i heard they r fit to qualify for the “So Bad, So good” club.
Yaar for me Jo Bile So Nihal, itself was a case of Zor Ka Jatt Ka,Zor Se Lage, and not yet recovered from the blow.
@ Ratnakar watch Heroes (with a miniscule role by Paaji). it will help u recoup faster and develop a stomach for — as u rightly said— “so bad, its a classic” genre movies.
honestly, the last sunny movie i liked him in was Apne, decent stuff, though over the top, as usual.
I wish to request everyone to name their list of actor(s) who is/are an absolute FLOPIYA material. And PFC authors, plz bring it out in details. my picks (not in any order of “brilliance”): Hemant Birje, Suneil Anand (Jr. Dev Anand), Kimi Katkar, Kamal Sadanah, Atul Agnihotri, Rohan Kapoor (Mahendra Kapoor’s son), Taariq (HKKN, YKB) et al.
It was always my fantasy (still is…) to make a movie with all these guys together… but i guess someone has already tried / is trying it with “Khalbali”
@ Satyendra Jha
Well there was a Bollywood movie called Fight Club starring Zayed Khan, Dino Morea, Sunil Shetty, Amrita Arora, Rahul Dev, Ashish Chodhury. Perfect Timber Mart.
Yeah had the misfortune of watching a terrible movie called Baaz with Shetty Anna, Karishma Kapoor, Dino Morea, Jackie Shroff. Could not bear to watch it after the interval any more. Pakka torture.
FLOPIYA list- Rahul Roy, Fardeen Khan, Zayed Khan, Sunil Shetty, Amrita Arora, Celina Jaitley, Ashish Choudhury, Riya Sen, Dino Morea, Aftab Shivdasani, Gracy Singh.
Names i can recall as of now,will come back for later.
My list has Aftab Shivdasani,Dino Morea,Sunil Shetty,Bobby Deol,Zayed Khan, Fardeen Khan,Karan Nath, Sohail Khan,Arbaaz Khan, Sanjay Kapoor,Gracy Singh,Amrita Arora,Diana Hayden,
Yukhta Mookhey etc.Will add more names as I remember!!!
@ Satyendra Jha
I think Big Brother & Teesri Aankh were a bit too much- couldnt even dream of watching them.But yes I did watch Jo Bole So Nihaal, Maa Tujhe Salaam etc.Yes Apne was very very tolerable.And Paaji in Heroes was too much- remember the tile breaking fight scene LOL
@ Ratnakar @ Sethumadhavan: Can’t take Suniel Shetty (is tht the latest spelling..?) from u guyz’ list. he has proved himself in movies like Hu Tu Tu, Border etc. All others merit a mention.
hey u remember a guy who was in those movies.. Cant get his name. He was pukka FLOPIYA material. Hints:
1. Sang “Kaali teri topi hai paranda tera laal ni..” In fact, the other hero of tht movie also deserves to be in this list.
2. Played younger bro to Jeetendra (who is a Judge) and kills the rapists of his beloved using ingenuous methods…
3. Sang “Kaun sunega, kisko sunaayein, isiliye chup rehte hain… ” in a 90’s movie starring Jeetu, Rekha etc.
@ Ratnakar Yes I also watched tht godaweful movie Baaz, where Jaggu dada is a mayor, and **SPOILER** the murderer. I watched it till the end, and was ecstasic with derilium to have watched one of those “classics”.
@ Sethu that tile breaking scene was wht makes heroes a classic for me.
another FLOPIYA LIST: Chunkey Pandey (how cud we forget him…), Mohnish Behl (stricly as a hero), but i liked him in rajshri products.Faizal Khan
@ Satyendra Jha
That actor is Sumeet Saigal ( the great) and the song kaali teri choti hai is from Bahaar Aane tak.
It had another popular song- ”
mohabbat, inayat,karam dekhte hain
tumhe kitni chahat se hum dekhte hain”
i think the other hero was tariq shah
the heoines in the movie were Moon Moon Sen & Rupa Ganguly ( now I’m going mad 
)
Yes I’ve seen Baaz too & regarding Sunil Shetty- yes he’s done good movies in the past.But nowadays he’s always an irritating part of most multi hero movies.Nah!I’ll certainly have him on my list going by his current track record!!!
@ Satyen- Shetty Anna was fine in Border, Hu Tu Tu and Jungle. But baad me he had this delusion of winning an Oscar and started doing all kind of Sean Penn imitations, which became intolerable.
But truth be told, the only reason i sat through Khel was Sunny Paaji, Shetty Anna’s villiany was irritating, Celina Jaitley was awful, and as for Ajay Jadeja, ahem.
BTW u guys want to really see Sunny Paaji’s appeal, take a trip around Punjab especially the small town, rural areas. He is God there, the way Rajnikant is in Tamil Nadu. Any Sunny Paaji movie in Punjab or for that matter even Bobby’s is houseful on the day it is released. I visited my sister when she was in Pathankot, and when we were visiting Amritsar, it was the songs from Gadar all the way. In fact Sunny Paaji beats the Khans hollow when it comes to Punjab.
@ Sethu – yeah Bahaar Aane Tak, and the list of A-stars. and the moment u mentioned the other song from tht movie, i cud even hear the typical “jhankaar beats-nadeem shravan-pankaj udhas” lullaby resonating around me. gosh.. i’ll go mad…
talking of Moon Moon Sen & Rupa Ganguly, another FLOPIYA: Manda-kini (as in Mono-kini, Bi-kini), Pooja Bedi (i liked her only in JJWS), Salma Agha (remember her Pati, patni Aur Tawaif with Mithun da?), Sonam, and yeah, of the present lot… Diya Mirza
@ Ratnakar hey, u just wrote somethg tht was on my agenda for the next comment. im married to a girl from chandigarh, n keep visiting amritsar often. i know wht it means to be a sunny paaji fan in those areas.
in fact to give credit where it is due, drawing the same analogy of anna, paaji used to have amazing repertoire in the begining (watch out his movies like manzil manzil ofthe initial days), but he got corrupted later on. more on it after my lunch…
@ Satyen
One more candidate Ameesha “Wheezy” Patel. She is ok, as long as she doesnt start to “Wheeze” and Act, makes me want to smash the DVD.
Some more FLOPIYA candidates:
Sangeeta Bijlani, Anita Raaj, Mamta Kulkarni, Atul Agnihotri, Apurva Agnihotri, Avinash Wadhwan, Kamal Sadanah, Ritu Shivpuri.
@ Jha
Yeah Mandakini & Pooja Bedi would make the list.Do you remember Pooja’s Bedi “Vishkanya”?It even had Moon Moon Sen in it?
How can I forget Salma Agha- she even did movies like Nikaah, Kasam Paida Karne Wali Ki ,Aag Hi Aag etc.Apart from Sonam I’ll also include Anjali Jathar, Somy Ali,Sonica Gill!!!
@ Ratnakar
I certainly would agree with you on the Deol’s popularity in the Punjab-Haryana belt.Seen it myself & its quite surprising.But I think these days the magic is slowly waning with movies like Big Brother & Teesri Aankh.And Bobby bechara has been dishing out flops ek ke baad ek.I guess the people of Punjab would have gone crazy when Apne released- Dharam paaji,Sunny paaji & Bobby paaji all in one movie
And yes Ratnakar I agree with you on Amisha Patel.The moment she starts wheezing all hell breaks loose.The worst movie of hers has to be
“Aap Mujhe Ache Lagne Lage”-in fact thats probably a right candidate for Oz bhai’s torture series.It was the heights,seriously.Thankfully in Thoda Pyar Thoda Magic she only had to look hot & not get into the wheezing/hysterical act
@ Ratnakar @ Sethu: summarising FLOPIYA candidates till now: (all lists, repetitions ignored):
Hemant Birje, Suniel Anand, Kimi Katkar, Kamal Sadanah, Atul Agnihotri, Rohan Kapoor,Taariq Hussein, Zayed Khan, Dino Morea, Sunil Shetty (I still have reservations on this one), Amrita Arora, Rahul Dev, Ashish Choudhary, Rahul Roy, Fardeen Khan, Celina Jaitley, Riya Sen, Aftab Shivdasani, Gracy Singh, Bobby Deol, Karan Nath, Sohail Khan,Arbaaz Khan, Sanjay Kapoor,Diana Hayden, Yukhta Mookhey, Chunkey Pandey, Mohnish Behl, Faizal Khan, Sumeet Saigal, Taariq Shah, Moon Moon Sen, Rupa Ganguly, Mandakini, Pooja Bedi, Salma Agha, Dia Mirza, Amisha Patel, Sangeeta Bijlani, Anita Raaj, Mamta Kulkarni, Apurva Agnihotri, Avinash Wadhwan, Ritu Shivpuri, Anjali Jathar, Somy Ali,Sonica Gill…. AND COUNTING
Zeba Bakhtiyar, Pritivi (this guy was a real gem of hamming..), Ronit Roy (but i liked him in Jaan Tere Naam), Govinda’s nephew (i cant bear to remember his name)
Jhaji- Well let me add on Kunal Goswami,Kumar Gaurav ( except for Love Story,Naam & Khakee),
Ravi Behl,Jugal Hansraj,Uday Chopra,Sheeba,
Varsha Usgaonkar,Shika Swarup …….will add more soon!!!
Sorry Kumar Gaurav did Kaante & not Khakee
Isnt Govinda’s nephew someone called Krishna?
………
aur kaun hai bhai? well I guess Siddharth
( not the RDB/Bommarillu guy but the one who came in Vansh,Baazigar etc), Sanober Kabir, Nisha Kothari,Antara Mali,Monica Bedi
I actually went to a cinema to watch ‘Teesri Aankh’.
I know, that’s unforgivable!
It wasn’t just humans Sunny paaji tossed in the air.
We had vehicles, jeeps, motorcycles, all flying about.
Totally unbelievable!
I really liked ‘Apne’.
It was a true emotional film and probably the perfect script for the Deol’s.
The BGM by Monty Sharma was soothing and poignant.
Love that Monty guy!
FLOPIYA?
Oh can we remove Aftab Shivdasani from there please?
He’s a damn good actor… With BAD film choices!
Sethu!
Antara Malli??
Er, how can u forget her amazing performance in ‘Naach’ and ‘Company’.
Actually, i’d say she’s one of the most underrated actresses in India.
Woh toh kamaal ki actress hain!
Apni list se nikaalo, aur meri ‘Best Actress’ wali list mein daalo, badmaash! ;-)
@ Steve I had much faith on Aftab, and then I happened to see a disaster called Jaani Dushman, (which incientally had our paaji as the main protagonist), and i cud never forgive Aftab for playing the poor college guy studying alongwith likes of Aditya Panscholi.
That movie killed it for him.
Steve
Was wondering how come you are missing out on this discussion.Actually I was wondering where to classify Antara Mali- for a Naach or a Company she also has an irritating Mr Ya Miss.And anyways none of her movies have been outside the RGV camp anyways except Khiladi 420 ( another flop) I guess.Hence my stand remains the same
and you call aftab a good actor & you’ve also seen Teesri Aankh in a theatre- Steve Paaji aap theek to ho ?
@ Sethu, i somehow tend to agree with Steve on this. the objective is not to see whether the movies r a flop, the objective is whether the perpetrator of such flop movies is such a flopiya insaan, that try as hard as s/he may, the inherent stupidity of the movie cant be redeemed.
I was gaga for Antara in main madhuri. even tht stupid joke of a movie called mast, where she played the friend/sister to aftab, she looked hot n promising. RGV corrupted/ruined her, as he has done millions of other innocent lives.
her only regrettable movie has been mr ya miss. and i blame RGV for tht, not her
Aftab is ok in comedy roles, but intolerable in serious roles.
God i remember seeing him in the desi version of 21 Grams called Red, where he played Sean Penn’s role and it sucked badly. To make matters worse, Celina Jaitley, in Naomi Watts role, Grrrrrrhhhhh. ANy way to put a trigger to Vikram Bhatt’s head.
@ Jha
Yes I agree with your point- its just that it was Mr ya miss which was mainly on my mind.But for Naach & for Main Madhuri…. I guess I should take her name out.But I still wont rate her among the best actress list.for that she needs to do movies outside the RGV camp too.I think she’s actually on a sabaticcal now if I’m not wrong
Satyendra Jha Ji, (i love the ‘Jha’ btw :-)) yeah ‘Jaani Dushman’ was ewwww, but apna Aafoo behek jaata hai na?
Usko maaf karde yaar… woh ek chhotta sa, pyara sa, nanha sa baccha hain! ;-)
Sethu ji, discussion toh bahut garam hai, magar yahaan bahut sarrdee hain!
Flipping freezing today, and not able to text my responses as frequently yaara :-(
And yes, i’m taking Antara into my list!
Hum uske bahut bade fan hain :-)
‘Teesri Aankh’ in cinema?
Don’t ask!!!
I couldn’t get out of it man!
I like Antara Mali, she was sizzling hot in Road. Naach was a nice movie, but the choreogrpahy was weird, woh kya tha, mere ko samajh nahin aaye.
@ Sethu, im sure Steve also meant “best actress” thing in a jest. Antara is searching for a decent role outside RGV camp, but now tht she has lost tht innocence as well as backing, its a hard-ride for her.
talking of Bommarrillu, i freaked out on the freshness and treatment of the humble subject matter. u should check out MOZHI (tamil) also. its again a fresh movie with terrific comic timing from prakash raj.
btw, i think there r a few such FLOPIYAs in telugu/tamil industry also, but surprisingly, most of these guys we hv named have earned a very decent living down south. case in point – nagma, jyotika, khushboo, riya sen, rima sen
@ Satyen-71
Of the list u given Nagma, Jyothika, Khushboo did well enuff in South, and both Jo and Khushboo have given good performances too.
Reema Sen actually made her debut down South, and came into Hindi movies later, but right now she is more or less settled here.
As for Riya Sen, yaar let her stick to music videos, she cant act, cant deliver even a decent dialog, and looks like a High School Prom Queen, trying to be sexy.
I do like her sis Raima Sen, though, who has given decent performances in Honeymoon Travels and Manorama Six Feet Under.
O ho!
Was ‘Red’ supposed to be ‘21 Grams’??
What? Ratnakar, I couldn’t even tell!
That ‘Red’ was ridiculously bad.
Yeah, I likd Affy but yeah, bad film and he wasn’t great in that.
Although, i’ve watched his other gems ‘Shukriya’ and ‘Koi Aap Sa’ etc, and found him to be quite nuanced and effective.
Woh bahut accha hai, but is committing proffesional suicide with his choices!
And Antara may have been in many RGV’s films, but she played different characters very convincingly…
I like :-)
@ Steve-73
Red was a total fucking shameless rip off of Red. Vikram Bhatt is a chutiya of first order.
He will copy scene to scene. He copied Jagged Edge into kasoor so blatantly, that he made Lisa Ray, playing a lawyer in an Indian court, wear a Mini Skirt, damn man.
Sorry i meant Red was a total fucking shameless rip off of 21 Grams.
@ Ratnakar: yeah, totally agree with u on all counts, esp re: raima. u shud see her in chokher bali, bong connection & dosar also. yeah, in parineeta as well. in fact, she tends to give a nuanced performance with an able director, and seems a more sensible person.
she used to perform in some inter-school / college fest in kolkata, and was in the sister-school, Loreto House, to our St. Xavier’s, and we hv been competitors, so to say, although she used to represent schools, and i was already in third year by then…
the point i want to make is, she was ethereal and graceful even then.
Guys??
What have we done to this post?!
Topic kuch aur tha, aur humne kuch aur kardiya, Lol!
Maaf karna Debashri ji :-)
Bad habits….
@ Debashri, apologies for totally hijacking your Post, apne bachon ko thoda maaf kijiye please
.
Oops! Typo!
I didn’t ‘lik’ Aftab!
I ‘like’ Aftab!
Lol…
Ratnakar, i’ve done my Vikram Bhatt bashing for years, but I have to admit, I really liked his interview on the radio after the Mumbai attacks.
I kinda saw him in a more favourable light.
And i’m no fan, believe me.
And it doesn’t make him a great director, far from it.
But, after 20years of slating him, I have calmed.
Amazing what one interview can do…
Ppl, from where to where…LOL…this is becoming another Bollywood filmy list….
As a Westerner and fan of Indian films I think you have to find a good balance. What I can say for Germany is that the fans get attracted by the K3Gs but then stick around to see what else it has to offer. In consequence also arthouse films like Raincoat, Maqbool and Page3 have released in Germany. Furthermore it makes Westerners also want to learn more about the culture and the people. A lot of the fans followed the recent attacks in Mumbai very closely.
What I am saying: give them a little bit of fluff and a bit of song and dance and some more serious stuff at the same time. To me Indian cinema at its best gives you great entertainment and has a message like say Lage Raho Munnabhai.
Ohk..Couldn’t resist. After reading all the comments @ Antara Mali, I have to say that she is not a flop actor at all. Naach, Road, Company..and even MMDBCH…she was good!…When Road was released I thought her to be very different – intelligent and one who’d make diff films.
The scene in Road when she spurns off MB’s advances…Damn neat..Such a relief from the typical ‘ mujhe bachao’ scenario. That for me depicted Antara Mali as to what choices of films she’ll do later on…
But bad choices killed her career…Shes back with Ramu now on one of his next films – a thriller. I’ll definitely check it out…
Hi,
…..
. I would really like to do something like that and need your views on that.
I really would have wanted the comments to be a little more post-oriented
Anyway,
@ Julia – Yes, a mix of fluff and interesting cinema (I wouldn’t necessarily say ’serious’) is what is being given to audiences at the festival this year. I hope though, that in a few years’ time this audience will be ready for better films.
At this point, I would like to say that I don’t have as much as a problem with unabashedly ‘fluff’ films, as much as I do with fluff ‘films’ pretending to be good cinema.
And, I don’t really think its a problem with ‘western’ audiences per se. Its our fault too. It is what we feed the audiences with. If we are able to show them good cinema, I am sure a lot of them will stick around, just like they did, when we had a Shyam Benegal retrospective in Tempe, Arizona. I wasn’t a part of it, but I had a great time there. And Mr.Benegal was invited over to share his perspective on films with the audience. I couldn’t make myself miss even one film (though I had seen each of them several times). And there was a decent audience too. There were people who came in thinking its regular ‘Bollywood’ stuff, but they didn’t come back again
You guys forgot to add Mahima Chaudhary and Shamita Shetty and Nikita Anand to the list
Oh wow, so I’m not the only one who saw Jaani Dushman and Sunny Paaji’s Big Brother. lol.
@Papaji: You are more than welcome to help us with the Indian Visions Film Festival which takes place in DC. SALTAF also does special film screening events in DC.
Debashri ji, yeh Sethu aur Ratnakar bahut hi khatarnaak hain!
Bach ke rehna ;-)
Arthi, yeah, tell me about it!
Julie, I was in Stuttgart last year and I was extremely surprised at how popular Hindi films were there.
In particular SRK.
Man, he was HUGE!
I was very pleasantly surprised with German people in general, they were so appreciative about Hindi cinema.
And, I went to shops which had a SRK section!
Not ‘Bollywood’, but SRK!
I can completely see what u mean.
@ Amanda: I did help you guys with the festival. This is Angad, I just go by the ‘papaji’ alias. That was a lot of fun, btw and I learnt a lot. Did the rest of the screenings go smoothly? I only had time to see one film and I saw AIDS Jaago, which was impressive. If you can keep me in the loop about other screenings/desi film festivals, I’ll be sure to try and help.
@Papaji: Achaa, so you’re Angad! I’m happy to hear you had fun and learned a lot at the festival. And, I’m sure you got a lot of laughs out of what was happening the day you were at the festival ;) hehe. There were some minor issues with some of the other screenings. Sure, will keep you posted about other film festivals and stuff, and next year help us find a dholi!
Debashri- Sorry for being part of the group who’ve kind of hijacked your topic- kya karen control nahin hota
Steve- hum khatarnak kab se ho gaye,
” hum hain seedhe saadhe sethu sethu ”
@ Jhaji-
So you also watch tamil films?great- kahan the aap jab main, Ratnakar,Steve,Arthi etc were talking on & on about tamil movies sometime back?
dont worry we’ll start something soon
yes I liked Mozhi too
And yeah I like Raima Sen myself- apart from the movies mentioned by you I even liked her in Honeymoon Travels & even in a small role in Antarmahal!!!
@ Ratnakar & Steve-
Red was truly horrible.The only decent thing about it was music by Himesh.I started off liking Aftab myself but off late what puts me off from him is not only his “lajawaab” choice of movies but also the way he appears to look dumb in most of his movies.I thought it was good to start off with in Hungama but doing that over & over again is eeks- way too much for me
BTW talking bout Jaani Dushman have you guys noticed the way they tried to do a cheap imitation of T:2 in the climax?right from the factory kind of location for the fight to Armaan Kohli sticking an iron rod through Sunny Paaji was all there
I guess, I must say, I am truly disappointed. And I wish this doesn’t happen to anyone else here. I write one write up and this is what happens to it. I don’t think I’ll come back with more. It took me a lot to share my experiences with people and if you had nothing relevant to say, you shouldn’t have.
A little deviation here and there is alright but I am so very disappointed with what has happened here. I wish I can just take off my writeup from PFC somehow.
Debashri- I’m sorry again & this time I mean it.Not gonna write anything else apart from the topic hereafter over here.And please cheer up now.
galti ho gayi ji, maaf kar do
Debashri… Ur last response is….??
I’d like to apologise.
Not only because I contributed to the topic going in a different direction, but because i’d love to see more write ups by you.
I repeat once again that what you did was truly inspirational, and it’s a good sign of things which may come out of your decisions.
I feel bad that you feel this way, and all I can say is I am sorry.
I guess us guys become quite comfortable and have alot to say which means alot of jumping from topic to topic.
Ok, i’m not going to justify further.
But it’s important that people like yourself DO share these stories with us.
I hope this doesn’t prevent you from writing again.. :(
Really sorry, Debashri…
Sethu, Steve – Its okay
@ Debashri-
BTW out of curiosity I just wanna know apart from the film festivals do you otherwise get to watch Indian movies in the theatres in Honolulu or anywhere else in Hawaii like the rest of the U.S?
For example is Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi releasing there today?
@ Sethu – No Sir, no such luck
. Sometimes, when we travel to Arizona, we get to see movies in theatres. We were planning to travel to AZ for Rab ne… also 
, but decided it would be too crazy of us to do so. This time we’ve got some contact at Yashraj films.
Let’s see if we can get some kind of screening rights here. When we asked EROS, they said 4000 for a weekend + 40% of ticket price. There is no way we could recover that cost here. Not for a first movie though. There is a huge market, but it needs to be worked on. But I wish we could do something, because nothing beats the big screen!
@ Debashri- Aapne meri mooh ki baat cheen li.Nothing beats the thrill of watching movies on the big screen.
So you guys are gonna open up the market for Indian Cinema over there- thats gr8.All the very best
Debashri, tell me something, instead of relying only on theaters for screening, how effective would it be to for a club with a home theater kind of set up. Generally most community clubs have this video screenings for members. Now with home theaters, wide screen TV’s, DVD’s being available, doing a set up of this kind, cud be feasible i feel. And this way, you cud involve more.
I know watching movies on big screen is ultimate, but there are a whole lot of movies which dont really need the big screen experience.
If you are having these kinda small setup, which say cud fill in 20-30 people, i think its fair enuf.
I even have a middle of the road solution.If you have clubs which have some open air space, cant you actually set up a large screen ( or use a white wall for a screen) & use a decent projection system & DVD’s for the screening.It would also kind of give you the large screen effect !!!
@ Sethu – We will try, but really don’t have that kind of crazy money
. So, we have to find some compromises. Let’s see…. still hoping. Another problem is, we don’t know how long we’ll be here…. but we do want to set the ball rolling for good Indian cinema here
@Ratnakar – I don’t know what licences and other kinds of legalities are involved for a smaller set up. I should maybe talk to some of the distributors (only if they will talk to me!) after the festival is done. Right now, I am really too busy finishing holiday orders (my clay flower business) and also with the festival.
Please let me know if you have any contacts who might be able to guide or help out.
@ Debashri: Although its a bit late for the apologies, considering sethu, ratnakar, steve have already done so, i think i need to take the moral responsibility of having taken off on a different tangent on your effective and eye-opening topic.
i can actually understand your problems of arranging for a wide-scale screening in a theatre for a new movie, as its almost the same here in Nairobi, but considering the mostly business-class Indian community here, and higher Indian population, we generally end up hiring one screen of a multiplex altogether, and then charge ppl interested in it. so, the multiplex guys dont complain, nor do we.
ya, the only thing we have to compromise is, we cant get the latest movies to watch in tht week itself, but the week after tht.
i have a few contacts here n there, n let me check out if they can arrange for the new movies to be made available for widescale release in Honululu faster..
once again, sorry for hijacking your topic for some hours..
keep these writings coming….
@ Satyen – Please yaar, no need to apologise…. really
.
Yes, please let me know if your contacts can help me out a little. It would be so wonderful to be able to screen new films and good films here.
Very dissapointed to know that even Americans are watching the crap which most of us are forced to watch.