BOLLYWOOD and Indian CinemaThe Global and Local in Tension

Globalization and Hindi Films

•Golden era (1947–1963)

Early internationalization phase (1964–1990),

Late Internationalization Phase: (1991-2007)

What’s in a name?•Bombay + Hollywood

•“It was Hollywood itself ... that, with the confidence that comes from global supremacy, renamed a concentration of production facilities in its own image.” (p. 86)

•Bollywood vis-a-vis flows and contra-flows.

De-regulation•1947: Independence of India

•Commitment to modernization and nationalization of communication infrastructures

•Cinema was not considered central to this process of re-invention of the state/nation.

Media Policy•1980s-1990s: Indian film industry

became pivotal to the re-imagination of the Indian state.

•1998: Bollywood receives ‘industry status’ > easing foreign investments and facilitating the entrance of Bollywood into the global scene.

Between formality and informality

•2 patterns to reconcile:

•a)Indian film industry is shaped by informal relationships: occasional labor, corruption, illegality

•b)Corporatization requires high transparency in the market

The Portability of the National•To become successful internationally,

Bollywood must become more Indian

•Bollywood’s enactment of India as ‘multimedia spectacle’- “Fatal misrecognition of Bollywood as Indian national cinema”

•How are regional/national identities reconstructed in globalized processes?

Bollywood as National Cinema

•Use of Hindi in non-Hindi Bombay

•Serves a Hindu nationalist project: exportability of Bollywood depends on its flattening of Indian diversity.

•1995 Hindu decision to change the name to Mumbai > need to re-assert its original identity and place in the global marketplace.

BOLLYWOOD HOLLYWOODFILMS PRODUCED

(2006) 1091 607

TICKETS SOLD 4 billion 1.4 billion

GLOBAL REVENUES (2002)

$1.7 billion (20% from foreign

revenues)

$51 billion (60% from foreign revenues)

ANNUAL GROWTH RATE 15-20% 7-9%

AVERAGE PRODUCTION COST/FILM $1.5 million $65.8 million

AVERAGE MARKETING COST/FILM $ 500.000 $34.5 million

Data on the Industry• Star salaries typically consume 40% of a

film's budget, leaving relatively little for scripts, preproduction planning, or sophisticated post-production digitization.

• In Hollywood, by contrast, even the $ 30 million paid to Arnold Schwarzenegger for Terminator 3 was less than 20% of the film's $ 170 million budget.

• Pirated copies of Bollywood flicks are readily available, both in India and abroad, costing the industry some $ 80 million a year.

Bollywood•Bollywood extravaganza is a means of

escape.

•This need for relief largely explains the seemingly inexplicable hodgepodge of melodrama and music that characterizes them.

•Little interest in the kind of linear stories that Western moviegoers consider basic.

•Not much violence, no nudity, hardly even any kissing.

• Example: DEVDAS. (2002) $10 million and took 2 years to complete Most expensive film in Bollywood.

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Devdas: -Family Honor-Caste System-Gender Roles

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What kinds of changes have occurred in Indian cinema?

Bollywood New Turn

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Bollywood meets Hollywood

Bride and Prejudice, 2005- Miramax

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Away from Bollywood

• Mira Nair’s films: more based on plots and dialogue-less dancing and singing.

• Treat more complex issues Indians (in India and abroad) deal with.

• Salam Bombay (1988)Mississippi Masala(1991) The Namesake (2006)

• The Reluctant Fundamentalist (2013) Telling stories about people who are ‘in between’ worlds

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The Other Side of Globalization in India

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