Technische Universität Dresden
Fakultät Sprach- und Literaturwissenschaften
Institut für Anglistik, Großbritannienstudien

Bollywood - The History and Key Elements of Bombay
Cinema; With an Excursus on Gurinder Chadha′s Cross
Cultural Film "Bend It Like Beckham"

von: Adeline Pissang

Table of contents

1. Introductory words and various general facts about Bollywood page 3

2. Always the same film-formula – the recipe for success “’Star Wars’ couldn’t have been made here: No one gets married.” “’Mission Impossible’? Not without a dance number.” 5

2.1 Commerce 7

3. History of Bombay cinema 8

4. Non-resident Indians 10

4.1 The satellite and video invasion – Non-resident Indians and their favourite leisure time activity 12

5. Indian women’s traditional roles in real life and on screen 13

5.1 Gurinder Chadha – An excursus on women’s roles and Western and Bollywood elements in “Bend it Like Beckham” 14

6. Conclusion 17

7. Bibliography 19
 

1. Introductory words and various general facts about Bollywood

“East is East, and West is West and never the twain shall meet!” (Rudyard Kipling) It cannot be denied that the division between these opposite cultural poles exists – but, when reflecting on the Bollywood subject, one has to disagree with this famous quotation by Rudyard Kipling as the Indian cinematic world proves that the East and the West can be in unison. The films of this branch are not only influenced by their homeland’s folk tradition, they are equally affected by MTV’s video styles, young fashion and – of course – Hollywood movies. Likewise, it is true that the Indian spirit has recently become perceptible in Western civilization. Nowadays’ music, clothi ng and film industry – to name just a few – seem to be more and more inspired by South Asian culture; Indian is said to be “the funkiest trend around”1 (Sardar, page 14-17).

As we shall see, both poles approach one another. Is it any surprise then that especially non-resident Indians, living in the Western hemisphere, are the centre where both cultures meet? Indian-English director and producer Gurinder Chadha portrayed this mixture of Western elements and Bollywood flair successfully in her latest movie Bend it like Beckham (2002). Among other questions, for example those about the history of Bombay cinema, the film industry’s costs and contents of typical Bollywood epics, this paper will also deal – in an excursus – with this particular movie. Some general pieces of information about this special film industry might, first of all, provide readers with basic facts necessary for this subject. Every day, 11 million cinemagoers visit 13,000 cinemas across India and, what is more, thousands of Indian films are watched day by day by millions of non-resident Indians living abroad – generally, in the UK or the US. Film business is India’s 6th largest industry (inter alia after textile industry, food industry and chemical industry), over 300,000 workers are employed in it. As in every country of the world teens between 12 and 24 are particularly attracted by the film glitz – India makes no exception in this case (Ninian, page 235). An astonishing amount of 800 films is produced in Bombay2 every year – compared to Hollywood’s 400. Therefore, Bombay’s film production calls itself Bollywood – simply as an ironical sideswipe at the West. Bollywood basically stands for the Hindi film industry located around this 11.5 million people metropolis. Bombay is the second largest city in India and considered by many as the actual capital – this is certainly due to the fact that Bombay’s film branch is by far the most commercial and influencing one, although other regional film companies, most of them in the south, exist (The Economist, Issue 8183, page 57f).

The reason for the success of Bollywood movies remains still obscure. In his essay, named Bollywood, Alex Ninian tries to find reasons for its triumph, namely by suggesting that this rich mix of Indian myth, tradition, religion and history creates an exceptional uniqueness which is incomparable to other countries’ cultures. Furthermore, Ninian illustrates that arts like poetry, music, painting and drama are joined together and that all these provide the Indian film branch with an exclusive and individual character (Ninian, page 236). The controversial author Salman Rushdie found a very precise and creative term that sums up the subject of Indian films perfectly, describing it as: “Epico-Mythico-Tragico-Comico-Super-Sexy-High- Masala-Art” (Salman Rushdi, 1995 in “The Moor’s Last Sigh” quoted in Mishra, page 2). . Another argument we should take into consideration when regarding Bollywood’s triumph is the fact that in a nation, in which 5 per cent or even less of its population are able to read, the only access for the masses to prose and poetry is to watch Bollywood films and to listen to the ornate style dialogues and lyrical songs. Thus, it is no coincidence that some film stars gain more attention from the public than politicians do. Logically, some of them secured this initial advantage by putting their foot in politics and are now running several organizations in India (Dasgupta, page 173-190). In the following section I will rethink the subject of success more detailed while the key elements of Indian epics will be presented. Furthermore, I will look at the commercial situation.

2. Always the same film-formula – the recipe for success “’Star Wars’ couldn’t have been made here: No one gets married.” “’Mission Impossible’? Not without a dance number.” 3

[...]

1 Examples for Bollywood slowly entering the western world can be easily displayed: Andrew Lloyd Webber successfully produced his new musical Bombay Dreams, Monsoon Wedding was a hit in Western cinemas, the album The very Best of Bollywood Songs recently reached the UK charts, the BBC’s advertising campaign includes colourful trailers with female Indian dancers and Pot Noodle even created a new flavour named Bombay Bad Boy (Sardar, page 14-17; Shamsie, page 26-29)!

2 At this point it is necessary to point out that Bombay is actually the old fashioned British Empire form of Mumbai. Nowadays, the latter form is the one which is politically correct. In this paper context the name Bombay is used to indicate the connection between Bombay and Bollywood.

3 Quotation taken from Robert Marquand: “Hooray for Bollywood’s tales of love“ in Christian Science Monitor; 10/20/99, Vol. 91, Issue 227.