Bollywood and Hollywood: Closing the Gap ?

I shamelessly recycle the comments I posted on a very interesting article about the Indian movie market. The evolutions of the Bollywood cinema in the last years reveal both local and global issues.

Bollywood cinema: A force to reckon with

When I arrived in Singapore 3 years ago, I discovered that Indian pop culture was very strong and that my NUS Indian classmates were more interested in Indian songs and movies than they were in the global offerings in terms of pop music (Britney, Justin and Christina) and Hollywood.

Indeed, my Indian MBA classmates were surprised to learn that I had already seen “Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham” (2001), an almost 3 hours long movie starring Amitab Bacchan, (the reigning King of Bollywood), the ridiculously handsome Hrithik Roshan, Shahrukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor.

 
The cast of  ”Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham”
Almost 3 hours of glamour, drama
… and singing  

Supply being more ample in Singapore than it was in France, I had more opportunities to see Indian movies and get interested in the Bollywood culture.

I was a bit dissapointed by “Bride and Prejudice”. I saw Gurinder Chada’s movie as a flawed attempt to “close the gap” between Bollywood and Hollywood, bringing the best of Bollywood (and what a best it was, in the person of Aishwarya Raj!) in a format following the Hollywood conventions of romantic comedy on the canvas of Jane Austen’s master piece.

Martin Henderson and Aishwarya Raj in “Bride and Prejudice”
To respect the Bollywood conventions,
they did not share an onscreen kiss

Somehow, the plot and the characters could not choose a stand between both cultures: the Western characters had the romantic behavior of well groomed Indians, which was weird. The musical parts, except a lively opening dance, were too stretched (Gospel on a Californian beach ? Aishwarya getting all rock an roll?)

When enjoying “Dhoom 2″, I felt that Bollywood was on the move to “close the gap” with Hollywood. The mix between spectacular action sequences and stunts on par with their US counterparts (including the suspension of disbelief), and catchy songs and over the top dance numbers in the best Indian tradition was perfect. And the setting of the second part was Rio de Janeiro, with Baghra music melting seemlessly with capoeira in eye-popping sequences.

While the prequel, “Dhoom 1″ was just a Bollywood rip off of Taxi, banking on the Indian biker culture, “Dhoom 2″ brought the game to the next level. The film was like Mission Impossible (narcissistic lead man, chase sequences and gun fights), with a healthy dose of Bollywood fare: catchy songs and dance numbers.

The added “bonus” was the two stars sharing an onscreen kiss in a very dramatic sequence, an addition that indicates that the producers acknowledge the acceptance of Hollywood codes by the Indian public (although a few frustrated souls threatened to sue Aishwarya Raj for “degrading Indian women”).

Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Raj in DHOOM 2
The Bollywood stars “closed the gap”
and broke all conventions by sharing
 a controversial onscreen kiss  

“Tararumpum” sounded like and Indian style version of “Days of Thunder” or worse, “Talladega Nights” made more realistic with a US setting, so I wrote it down as another Indian attempt at closing the gap. I took a rain check on this one, thinking that Bollywood “going 100%” was a bit too much for a good Bollywood experience. Box Office reception was lukewarm yet acceptable, factoring in the simultaneous opening of Spiderman 3 in India.

The release of the last opuses of the Spiderman franchise in India might be the signal that Hollywood (or the local subsidiaries of US distributors) had decided to close the gap with the Indian public, by offering its movies in Indian languages.

Spiderman 3 did three things right. First, it released a record number of prints – 588 compared with an average of 500 for Hindi films. There were also 261 prints in Hindi, 162 in English, 78 in Tamil, 81 in Telugu and 6 in Bhojpuri (a language spoken in eastern state Bihar) – a record number of prints for any foreign movie. Spiderman 2 was released in 2004 with 303 prints with about 100 prints in local languages and was the third best grosser in India.
(Source: The Asian Pacific Post, June 1st, 2007)

Obviously, for Hollywood, “closing the gap” is not made in terms of adopting or adapting cultural codes, but more in terms of adapting the products for easier local consumption. The ample ressources of the Indian movie industry in terms of dubbing, post synchronization, etc. make it easy and economically sound for American studios to adapt their movies to the tastes of the public, one thing that the French movie industry has failed to do so far.

I just keep wondering what will happen in the near future. Will the Indian public, which is young and getting more educated every year, switch to “the real thing”, i.e. watching American movies in English language?

Pop music and movies closing the gap too ?

Globalization is at work in India too. A Thai pop music star, Tata Young, made a successful cover of “Dhoom 1″ title song. It failed to make it big in the West, but was a succes in South East Asia.

 Tata Young performing the theme song of “Dhoom 1″

What will be next? Will Indian movie stars globally release singles of their movie songs in English as part of the promotion plan of Bollywood movies ? Will Smith did the same successfully for “Men In Black” and “Wild Wild West”.

Will Smith’s video clip – “Men in Black”

Will Smith’s experience could also give a few hints to Hollywood. Pop music is an increasing part of the global promotion plan of movies. Example abound like Destiny’s Child “Survivor” hit, paired with “Charlie’s Angels”, but what abour songs as-part-of-the movie ? The delightful “Ella Enchanted” (2004) had a partly Indian cast, and some nice singing numbers.

“Ella enchanted”’s final sequence

 With Hollywood actors increasingly better at singing than before (Anne Hattaway is a trained singer and Justin Timberlake starts an acting carreer), pop music could bring the entertainment value of movies to the next level.

John Travolta’s Chilly Palmer was involved in movie making in “Get Shorty”, later moving on to pop music in the sequel, “Be Cool”. Does anyone see a pattern here ?

Copyright: Alfred LARGANGE – June 2007