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Decoding Bollywood
India’s Hindi-language cinema goes by the very inventive name of Bollywood. It’s the biggest film industry in the world, producing more films and raking in more money than any other film centre, including Hollywood. In 2009, 3.6 billion tickets were estimated to have been sold worldwide for Bollywood films, compared with 2.6 billion tickets for Hollywood films; 25 per cent of the overseas box office sales come from North America.
It’s not just the South Asian diaspora that has given Bollywood clout on the world stage—interest extends much farther than that. (Which is why an Uzbekistani pedicab driver living in New York City can nonchalantly sing all the words to “Rang De” from My Name is Khan, as one did to me recently.) Bollywood’s biggest stars—from Shahrukh Khan and Aamir Khan to Preity Zinta and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan—are powerful personalities both in the business and outside it. They own cricket teams and production companies. They are global brand ambassadors and talk show hosts.
The biggest misconception about Bollywood films has to do with the larger-than-life fantasy world they unabashedly create.
The typical Bollywood fare is generally understood, especially among audiences outside of South Asia, to go like this: boy meets girl; boy and girl fall in love. If the environment permits, boy and girl dance around a tree. But then an obstacle prevents them from being together. Boy and girl overcome this obstacle against all odds and live happily ever after.
While many films have their fair share of kitsch, colourful dubbed song, and enthusiastic dance numbers (see: Om Shanti Om or any Karan Johar film), Bollywood is a multifaceted industry, and produces many other films with complex characters and storylines. (That this needs to be pointed out is something of a problem.) These Bollywood films aren’t a recent phenomenon, either, although audiences’ growing awareness and appreciation might be.
Bollywood is not without its fair share of critics, having been accused by detractors of romanticizing, even fetishizing Indian culture. The films certainly don’t reflect the reality of the masses in India, nor the country’s widespread poverty. But it should also be noted that those masses, especially those who are at the very bottom of the social pyramid, are perhaps most appreciative of Bollywood films.
To honour this multi-billion dollar industry are the IIFA Awards, an annual award show which came to Toronto last night. And that very element, that they were here, is part of what makes IIFA unique: the awards are not tethered to a single place, having been held in London, Sun City, Malaysia, Johannesburg, Singapore, Amsterdam, Dubai, Yorkshire, Thailand, Macao and Colombo.
This year, it’s us. Why Toronto? In large part it’s our famous multiculturalism—we get to take some of the credit for driving up overseas box office numbers. We also happen to be the place where a little film called Slumdog Millionaire premiered before becoming a big hit.
The IIFA Awards are expected to be viewed by nearly 700 million people worldwide.