What is Bollywood?
Bollywood is the informal name given to the popular Mumbai-based Hindi-language film industry in India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema. Bollywood is only a part of the Indian film industry. Regional langauges like Telugu,
Tamil, Kannada and Malayalam have their own film industries.
The name is a portmanteau of Bombay (the former name for Mumbai) and Hollywood, the center of the American film industry. Though some deplore the name, arguing that it makes the industry look like a poor cousin to Hollywood, it seems likely to persist and now has its own entry in the Oxford English Dictionary.
Bollywood is commonly referred to as Hindi cinema, even though Hindustani, the substratum common to both Hindi and Urdu, might be more accurate. Bollywood consists of the languages of Hindi, Urdu and English. The use of poetic Urdu words is fairly common. The connection between Hindi, Urdu, and Hindustani is an extremely contentious matter.
There has been a growing presence of Indian English in dialogue and songs as well. It is not uncommon to see films that feature dialogue with English words and phrases, even whole sentences. There is a growing number of English films. A few films are also made in two or even three languages (either using subtitles, or several soundtracks).
Bollywood films are generally musicals, and are expected to contain catchy music in the form of song-and-dance numbers woven into the script. A film's success often depends on the quality of such musical numbers. Indeed, a film's music is often released before the movie itself and helps increase the audience.
Indian audiences expect full value for their money, with a good entertainer generally referred to as paisa vasool, (literally, "money's worth"). Songs and dances, love triangles, comedy and dare-devil thrills — all are mixed up in a three-hour-long extravaganza with an intermission. Such movies are called masala films, after the Hindustani word for a spice mixture, masala. Like masalas, these movies are a mixture of many things.
Bollywood plots have tended to be melodramatic. They frequently employ formulaic ingredients such as star-crossed lovers and angry parents, love triangles, family ties, sacrifice, corrupt politicians, kidnappers, conniving villains, courtesans with hearts of gold, long-lost relatives and siblings separated by fate, dramatic reversals of fortune, and convenient coincidences.
There have always been Indian films with more artistic aims and more sophisticated stories, both inside and outside the Bollywood tradition (see Art cinema in India). They often lost out at the box office to movies with more mass appeal. Bollywood conventions are changing, however. A large Indian diaspora in English speaking countries, and increased Western influence at home, have nudged Bollywood films closer to Hollywood models. Film kisses are no longer banned. Plots now tend to feature Westernised urbanites dating and dancing in discos rather than arranged marriages.
Film critic Lata Khubchandani writes,"..our earliest films...had liberal doses of sex and kissing scenes in them. Strangely, it was after Independence the censor board came into being and so did all the strictures."
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History of Bollywood
Raja Harishchandra (1913) was the first silent feature film made in India. It was made by Dadasaheb Phalke. By the 1930s, the industry was producing over 200 films per annum. The first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Irani's Alam Ara (1931), was a super hit. There was clearly a huge market for talkies and musicals; Bollywood and all the regional film industries quickly switched to sound filming.
The 1930s and 1940s were tumultuous times: India was buffeted by the Great Depression, World War II, the Indian independence movement, and the violence of the Partition. Most Bollywood films were unabashedly escapist, but there were also a number of filmmakers who tackled tough social issues, or used the struggle for Indian independence as a backdrop for their plots.
In the late 1950s, Bollywood released its first color films; however, the majority of films continued to be black-and-white until the mid-1960s. At this time, lavish romantic musicals and melodramas were the staple fare at the cinema. Successful actors included Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar and Raj Kapoor and actresses like Nargis, Meena Kumari, Nutan and Madhubala. In the late 1960s and early 1970s, romance movies and action films starred actors like Rajesh Khanna and Dharmendra. In the mid-1970s, romantic confections made way for gritty, violent films about gangsters and bandits. Amitabh Bachchan, the star known for his "angry young man" roles, rode the crest of this trend with actors like Mithun Chakraborty and Anil Kapoor, which lasted into the early 1990s. Actresses from this era included Hema Malini, Jaya Bachchan and Rekha.
In the mid-1990s, the pendulum swung back towards family-centric romantic musicals with the success of such films as Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994) and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995) making stars out of a new generation of actors (such as Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan) and actresses (such as Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit, Karisma Kapoor and Kajol). In that point of time, action and comedy films were also going strong with actors like Govinda and Akshay Kumar and actresses such as Raveena Tandon and Karisma Kapoor. This decade marked an entry of new performers in the art cinema area, some of which were succesful at the box-office as well, with new critically acclaimed performanes by actors of this generation (Nana Patekar, Ajay Devgan, Manisha Koirala, Tabu and Urmila Matondkar).
In the 2000s, the industry faced a strong renovation from its new filmmakers. This decade meant the spreading of Bollywood's popularity in the world. The increasing popularity of Indian cinema, often called “Bollywood Mania” by the press, was the main cause driving Indian filmmaking to new heights in terms of quality, cinematography and innovative story lines as well as technical quality advances, moviegoers come in ever increasing numbers to watch the latest movies arriving from India's largest city. Big production houses, among them veteran ones like Yash Raj Films and Dharma Productions were the producers of new modern films. The opening up of the overseas market, the more Bollywood releases abroad and the explosion of multiplexes in big cities, led to the growth of national and international hits like Devdas, Koi... Mil Gaya, Kal Ho Naa Ho, Veer-Zaara and Dhoom 2 delivering a new generation of popular actors (Saif Ali Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan) and actresses (Aishwarya Rai, Preity Zinta and Rani Mukerji), and keeping the popularity of actors of the previous decade.
The Indian film industry has preferred films that appeal to all segments of the audience (see the discussion in Ganti, 2004, cited in references), and has resisted making films that target narrow audiences. It was believed that aiming for a broad spectrum would maximise box office receipts. However, filmmakers may be moving towards accepting some box-office segmentation, between films that appeal to rural Indians, and films that appeal to urban and overseas audiences.
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Bollywood Song and Dance
Songs in Bollywood are sung by professional playback singers, rather than actors, who lip-sync the lyrics. Pictured here is Mukesh, a famed playback singer.Bollywood film music is called filmi music (from Hindi, meaning "of films").
Songs from Bollywood movies are generally pre-recorded by professional playback singers, with the actors then lip synching the words to the song on-screen, often while dancing. While most actors, especially today, are excellent dancers, few are also singers. One notable exception was Kishore Kumar, who starred in several major films in the 1950s while also having a stellar career as a playback singer. K. L. Saigal, Suraiyya, and Noor Jehan were also known as both singers and actors. Some actors in the last thirty years have sung one or more songs themselves; for a list, see Singing actors and actresses in Indian cinema.
Playback singers are prominently featured in the opening credits and have their own fans who will go to an otherwise lacklustre movie just to hear their favourites. Going by the quality as well as the quantity of the songs they rendered, most notable singers of Bollywood are Suraiyya, Noor Jehan, Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, Geeta Dutt, Shamshad Begum, Alka Yagnik, etc among female playback singers and K. L. Saigal, Talat Mahmood, Mukesh, Mohammed Rafi, Manna Dey, Hemant Kumar, Kishore Kumar, Kumar Sanu, Udit Narayan, Sonu Nigam among male playback singers. Mohammed Rafi is often considered the arguably finest of the singers that sung for Bollywood, followed by Lata Mangeshkar, who, through the course of a career spanning over six decades, has recorded thousands of songs for Indian movies. The composers of film music, known as music directors, are also well-known. Their songs can make or break a film and usually do. Remixing of filmi songs with modern beats and rhythms is a common occurrence today, and producers may even release remixed versions of some of their films' songs along with the films' regular soundtrack albums.
The dancing in Bollywood films, especially older ones, is primarily modelled on Indian dance: classical dance styles, dances of historic northern Indian courtesans (tawaif), or folk dances. In modern films, Indian dance elements often blend with Western dance styles (as seen on MTV or in Broadway musicals), though it is not unusual to see Western pop and pure classical dance numbers side by side in the same film. The hero or heroine will often perform with a troupe of supporting dancers. Many song-and-dance routines in Indian films feature unrealistically instantaneous shifts of location and/or changes of costume between verses of a song. If the hero and heroine dance and sing a pas-de-deux (a dance and ballet term, meaning "dance of two"), it is often staged in beautiful natural surroundings or architecturally grand settings. This staging is referred to as a "picturisation".
Songs typically comment on the action taking place in the movie, in several ways. Sometimes, a song is worked into the plot, so that a character has a reason to sing; other times, a song is an externalisation of a character's thoughts, or presages an event that has not occurred yet in the plot of the movie. In this case, the event is almost always two characters falling in love.
Bollywood films have always used what are now called "item numbers". A physically attractive female character (the "item girl"), often completely unrelated to the main cast and plot of the film, performs a catchy song and dance number in the film. In older films, the "item number" may be performed by a courtesan (tawaif) dancing for a rich client or as part of a cabaret show. The dancer Helen was famous for her cabaret numbers. In modern films, item numbers may be inserted as discotheque sequences, dancing at celebrations, or as stage shows.
For the last few decades Bollywood producers have been releasing the film's soundtrack, as tapes or CDs, before the main movie release, hoping that the music will pull audiences into the cinema later. Oftentimes the soundtrack is more popular than the movie. In the last few years some producers have also been releasing music videos, usually featuring a song from the film. However, some promotional videos feature a song which is not included in the movie.
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Bollywood Dialogues and Lyrics
The film script or lines of dialogue (called "dialogues" in Indian English) and the song lyrics are often written by different people.
Dialogues are usually written in an unadorned Hindi or Hindustani that would be understood by the largest possible audience. Some movies, however, have used regional dialects to evoke a village setting, or old-fashioned courtly Urdu in Mughal-era historical films. Contemporary mainstream movies also make great use of English. In fact, many movie scripts are first written in English, and then translated into Hindi.
Cinematic language, whether in dialogues or lyrics, is often melodramatic and invokes God, family, mother, duty, and self-sacrifice liberally.
Music directors often prefer working with certain lyricists, to the point that the lyricist and composer are seen as a team. This phenomenon is not unlike the pairings of American composers and songwriters that created old-time Broadway musicals (e.g., Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II, or Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe). Song lyrics are usually about love. Bollywood song lyrics, especially in the old movies, frequently use Arabo-Persic Urdu vocabulary. Here's a sample from the 1983 film Hero, written by the lyricist Anand Bakshi
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Top Bollywood Actors:
The following is a list of Top Actors in Bollywood:
Amitabh Bachchan •
Anil Kapoor •
Anupam Kher •
Aamir Khan •
Abhishek Bachchan •
Aditya Pancholi •
Aftab Shivdasani •
Ajay Devgan •
Akshaye Khanna •
Akshay Kumar •
Arbaaz Khan •
Arjun Rampal •
Arshad Warsi •
Ashmit Patel •
Ashutosh Rana •
Abhay Deol •
Arvind Swamy •
Ajith Kumar •
Abbas •
Ashish Vidyarthi •
Atul Kulkarni •
Allu Arjun •
Akkineni Nagarjuna •
Amrish Puri •
Ashutosh Gowariker •
Bobby Deol •
Boman Irani •
Balakrishna •
Chiranjeevi •
Dev Anand •
Dharmendra •
Dilip Kumar •
Dino Morea •
Emraan Hashmi •
Fardeen Khan •
Girish Karnad •
Gurdas Mann •
Govinda •
Hrithik Roshan •
Irfan Khan •
Jackie Shroff •
Javed Jaffrey •
Jeetendra •
Jimmy Shergill •
John Abraham •
Johnny Lever •
Jugal Hansraj •
Jr. NTR •
Kamal Hassan •
Lucky Ali •
Mahesh Babu •
Mohanlal •
Manoj Bajpai •
Milind Soman •
Mithun Chakraborty •
Nagarjuna •
Nana Patekar •
Naseeruddin Shah •
Nassar •
Om Puri •
Paresh Rawal •
Prabhu Deva •
Pradeep Rawat •
Prakash Raj •
Pawan Kalyan •
Prashanth •
Rajinikanth •
Rahul Bose •
Rahul Khanna •
Raj Babbar •
Rajesh Khanna •
Ritesh Deshmukh •
Rahul Dev •
R. Madhavan •
Saif Ali Khan •
Salman Khan •
Sanjay Dutt •
Sanjay Kapoor •
Shahid Kapoor •
Shahrukh Khan •
Shakti Kapoor •
Shiney Ahuja •
Sohail Khan •
Sunil Dutt •
Sunil Shetty •
Sunny Deol •
Sayaji Shinde •
Siddharth Narayan •
Sonu Sood •
Surya •
Tusshar Kapoor •
Uday Chopra •
Upen Patel •
Venkatesh •
Vinod Khanna •
Vivek Oberoi •
Vikram •
Ranbir Kapoor •
Zayed Khan •
Sharman Joshi •
Kunal Kapoor
Top Bollywood Actresses:
The following is a list of Top Actresses in Bollywood:
Aishwarya Rai •
Amisha Patel •
Amrita Arora •
Amrita Rao •
Antra Mali •
Aarti Chhabria •
Amrita Singh •
Asin Thottumkal •
Ayesha Jhulka •
Ayesha Takia •
Bhoomika Chawla •
Bipasha Basu •
Celina Jaitley •
Deepti Bhatnagar •
Deepika Padukone •
Dia Mirza •
Dimple Kapadia •
Divya Bharati •
Esha Deol •
Genelia D'Souza •
Gracy Singh •
Hansika Motwani •
Hema Malini •
Hrishitaa Bhatt •
Ileana D'Cruz •
Isha Sharvani •
Ishaa Koppikar •
Jaya Bachchan •
Jiah Khan •
Juhi Chawla •
Jyothika •
Kajol •
Kangana Ranaut •
Kareena Kapoor •
Karisma Kapoor •
Katrina Kaif •
Kim Sharma •
Konkona Sen Sharma •
Lara Dutta •
Lisa Ray •
Madhuri Dixit •
Mahima Chaudhary •
Mallika Sherawat •
Meera Chopra •
Mumaith Khan •
Namitha Kapoor •
Nandita Das •
Pooja Batra •
Pooja Bhatt •
Preeti Jhangiani •
Priya Gill •
Ramya Krishna •
Simran Bagga •
Sonali Bendre •
Tabu •
Tamanna Bhatia •
Tanisha •
Tanushree Dutta •
Trisha Krishnan •
Twinkle Khanna •
Udita Goswami •
Urmila Matondkar •
Urvashi Sharma •
Vasundhara Das •
Vidya Balan •
Yana Gupta •
Yukta Mookhey •
Soha Ali Khan •
Rani Mukherjee •
Priyanka Chopra •
Rimi Sen •
Reema Sen •
Raima Sen •
Riya Sen
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