Welcome to Bollywood!

I also use Bollywood films in teaching (well, it's a toned down, Indian film that utilizes many of the Bollywood musical conventions). India has always had a strong film industry (think Ishmael Merchant if nothing else), but it's like Bollywood films have just been "discovered" by the west. Given that these films have a larger per capita international following than Hollywood films, it's no wonder that they are finally spreading to this culture. Baz Luhrmann was influenced by a Bollywood film for Moulin Rouge! I have a couple Bollywood films in my DVD collection (although one isn't really Bollywood; it's from Tamil--I know "Bollywood" is really only for a fraction of films coming out of the Mubai film industry and India is a very large place--although it does star Aishwarya Rai); they are quite delightful. I hadn't heard of "Nollywood", but then I don't really care that much about documentaries, although one of the winners at this year's Manhatten Short Film Festival was a Nollywood style documentary from Mozembique.

What I find interesting about Bollywood films in the context of Practices of Looking, is that the Bollywood films were influenced by the Hollywood musicals of the 1930's and 1940's and now Bollywood is starting to influence Hollywood films. At the beginning of the current recession, i did hear talk that this sort of movement was likely and that the recession or an economic depression is good for musicals--these are usually upbeat with a triumph over adversity ending, just the sort of pick-me-up people who are stressed often need. There's even apparently a Bollywood parody of Bollywood, Farah Khan's Om Shanti Om (I haven't seen it, but a such a film should be hilarious).

My students seem to like the Bollywood clips I've shown, and my Indian students (some of whom have been really shy about speaking in class) get really talkative when they see my examples. But it is also important to realize that Bollywood films are a specific genre in the Indian film industry--films like Fire and Water are hardly "Bollywood."