Bollywoods Expanded Audience especially in the Western world

1
Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Ghum actually made it to the
top ten list for about a week in the US.
Bollywood
Taal grossed US 1.08 million within the first
ten days of its release in the US alone.
Bollywoodthe New Hollywood?
There Was A Beautiful Girl and Marigold touted
as the first Bollywood movie to be made by a U.S.
director- WORLD CINEMA REPORT Crossover
Anyone?...
Bollywoods Expanded Audience
Lagaan was a Best Foreign Film Oscar nominee in
2001.
4. Tailoring of Stories- In addition, producers
and directors are tailoring their stories more to
the western audience, although it is indicated
that the more authentic the movie, the more
westerners enjoy it.
Bollywood, Indias movie industry situated in
Bombay (now known as Mumbai), is named for its
similarity to the Hollywood film industry.
Bollywood makes well over a thousand movies a
year and contributes to more than a fourth of the
worlds films.

• Timeline of International Interaction
• 1914- Raja Harishchandra, Mohini Bhasmasur and
  Satyavan Savitri shown in London.
• 1916- Universal Pictures set up Hollywood's first
  Indian Agency.
• 1936- Amar Jyoti is shown in Venice.
• 1951- 9 Indian film artists were invited to visit
  Moscow.
• 1952- another group visited the US and were
  greeted by President Truman,first Indian
  international film festival
• 1956- second Indian film festival in Soviet Union
• 1973- FFC becomes channeling agency for import
  and distribution of raw stock. The Government
  imposes 250 import duty on raw film.
• 1980- FFC and Indian Motion Picture Export
  Corporation merge to form the National Film
  Development Corporation (NFDC).
• 1982- Adoor Gopalakrishnan's Elipattahyam wins
  prestigious British Film Institute Award.
• 1983- Mrinal Sen's Kharij wins special Special
  Jury Prize at Cannes. Bhanu Athaiya becomes the
  first Indian to win an Oscar for costumes
  designed for Richard Attenborough's Gandhi
  (1982). Panorama of Indian Cinema at the Centre
  Pompidou, Paris.
• 1985- Indian Cinema Season at Pesaro Film
  Festival, Italy.
• 1995- CNN announces a news channel with
  Doordarshan.
• 1998- The Government declares the Film Industry
  as a legitimate Industry qualifying it for
  Institutional Finance. Shekar Kapur makes a major
  breakthrough in the West with Elizabeth. Both
  Dil Se and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai enter the UK top
  10.
• 1999- Elizabeth goes on to win several Oscar
  nominations including one for Best film. Shekar
  Kapur however misses the Best Director
  nomination. Manoj Night Shyamalan of Indian
  origin breaks through Hollywood in a major way
  following the success of The Sixth Sense. The
  first fully insured Indian film Taal enters the
  US top 20. Santosh Sivam's Terrorist has a
  successful run at the box office besides being
  screened at various film festivals around the
  world. Amitabh Bachchan declared the superstar
  of the millennium ahead of such greats as
  Charlie Chaplin and Sir Laurence Olivier.
• 2000- Terrorist has a release in the USA. The
  Sixth Sense receives Oscar nominations in the
  Best Film, Director and Original Screenplay
  among other categories but wins none. IIFA, the
  Indian International Film Awards launched.
• Sources Indian Film and http//www.upperstall.co
  m/hist1966.html

5. South Asian diaspora- NRIs (Non-Resident
Indians) previously migrating to countries such
as Fiji and Africa, have now increased migration
to the western world. They often encounter a
nostalgic connection to their homeland and try to
connect with Indian through various mediums-
food, movies, religion, etc. South Asian
diasporas are considered a distribution territory
by Bollywood distributors due to the large number
of movie they import. With increased population
and import of movies, comes greater exposure to
Bollywood which generates interest in non-Indian
friends or associates. this world is getting
smaller, and people want to see what other
cultures are like. I have a sense that world
cinema is much more important to people now.
Tower VP John Thrasher qtd. in Hearing
Bollywoods calling, Eros finds a U.S. market for
Indian films
Bollywood is the worlds largest film industry,
watched by millions of people both within and
outside of India. It has had an international
audience for a long time in places such as
Russia, Africa, and surrounding Aisan countries.
Bollywoods fame and credibility has been slow
to develop. Its introduction probably began
with Pather Panchali in 1955 at Cannes.
Recognition increased with movies like Mother
India and then 30 years later- Salaam Bombay,
which were nominated for Best Foreign Film at the
Academy Awards. However, recently there has been
an increased interest in this movie industry as
more and more people see the emergence of
Bollywood in the international scale through
events such as the screening of Devdas at the
Cannes festival and famous Bollywood actress
Aishwariya Rai being a judge at the Cannes Film
Festival. Movies like Taal have made the top ten
and twenty list in the US and the UK. Recently
Lagaan was nominated for an Academy Award and is
readily available in the local Blockbuster store.
Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge and Kuch Kuch Hota
Hai grossed over a 6 million dollars in three
months.
THEN
Strangely enough India imports maximum number of
films from countries like U.S.A. and U.K., which
hardly import Indian films at all qtd in Indian
Film (1961)
In Tanzanias capital, open-air theaters screen
the latest Indian romances, with interpreters
standing in front of screens translating story
lines.- Bollywood Goes Global
Immigration of Indians Into US Cities
Foreign Earnings (1954-1961) 1954 9,713,000  1955
11,139,000 1956 12,922,000 1957 12,817,000 1958 11
,309,000 1959 15,379,000 1960 17,589,000 1961 16,3
31,000 SourceIndian Film
Bollywoods Global Audience
In Zanzibar, Swahili-speaking schoolgirls skip
down the street singing Hindi love songsdespite
not speaking a word of Hindi.- Bollywood Goes
Global

• Indian films are seen in Indonesia, Singapore,
  Malaysia, Thailand, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, and
  may other Afro-Asian countries.
• Movie-goers often seen the same movie more than
  once and despite not knowing the language, can
  sing the songs of their favorite movies.
• Hindi film fans in Eastern Europe, Fiji and the
  Philippines watch Indian programming via Soney
  Entertainment to catch the latest Bollywood news
  and see the stars in their favorite movies.
• Israeli movie theatres was still showing Dil To
  Pagal Hai to packed houses two years after its
  release.

NOW
Exports earned 100 million last year, a tenfold
increase since 1990. This years earnings are
estimated at 250 million. Indian exports will
expand by at least 50 percent each year, earning
around 3 billion by 2006. - Dont Call It
Bollywood
1996
In Afghanistan, after the fall of the Taliban,
one of the first acts of celebration noticed was
the sight of people queuing up outside cinema
halls to see Bombay films. The Idea of India

• In almost all the Islamic countries, including
  those whose ruling regimes have imposed very
  oppressive forms of religious fundamentalism that
  mandate keeping women veiled and in seclusion,
  people are addicted to Bollywood films where
  skimpily dressed heroines dance in parks, in
  nightclubs, and in the streets.- The idea of
  India

2000
2002
Why is Bollywood globalizing?
1. Technology advances- Digital media has
improved prints of Indian movies. They are much
more appealing because they lack the grainy
scenes of past movies, as well as frequent
advertisements that used to crowd the top and
bottom of the screen as well as break into flow
of the movie. 2. Breakdown of Language
Barriers- Subtitles now allow more people to
watch Indian movies without knowledge of the
language, making Bollywood all the more
accessible. 3. Cultural Differences- The main
attraction in these countries is the mix of
modernity and tradition in Indian movies. People
in countries in Africa and surrounding Asian
countries do not easily identify with American
culture. Topics such as divorce are not as
common to their lives as those in America. In
addition, people from other countries are
sometimes anti-Americanization and as a result
choose Bollywood over Hollywood. The Indian
masala film is closer to the emotional grammar of
the Asians and Africans than the Hollywood box
office bonanzas.- The Hindu Bollywood films
make waves around the world
Due to increasing transnational migration and
circulation of cultural commodities, Indian
media, especially Bollywood, has had an
increasing presence in South Asian diasporas in
the past decade. Beyond Bollywood Increased
immigration increases the availability of
Bollywood movies and therefore increases exposure
to them. Areas such as cities are more likely
places for such exposure and acceptance to occur.
Therefore, there is a positive correlation
between immigration into cities and the spread of
Bollywood. In the tables on the side, you can
tell that Indian immigration in the US has
increased dramatically over the last two years
(generally). In the major metropolitan areas of
America listed, the immigration has increased
significantly. From this you can infer a wider
exposure to Indian culture and thereby Bollywood
movies, has occurred as a result.
Source of Datahttp//commerce.nic.in/eidb/default
.asp