Before globalization, most of our Indian companies were run by families of Lala and Seths.They do not give preference to talent and people always end up doing Ji Huzoori, unless fresh talent happened to be connected. After opening of market,not many of those companies survived. Same story can be projected here. Barring few, not many will survive in bollywood in coming future. Times are changing.
Film making has became family business here. The bitter truth is that Bollywood of late has become Fortress Bollywood, shutting off its doors to non-filmi people. They are leaving out a wide section of society aspiring their career in this line.
Family rules despite lack of talent.
Bollywood is full of star parevaar like mafia families of 'The Godfather'.The Kapoors. The Deols. The Bachchans. The Roshans. The Khans. The Bollywood firmament is crowded with stars with the same surname. Apart from perpetuating fan following across generations, they make wonderfully symmetrical photo ops at the film magazines,awards and entertainment channels. Kumar Gaurav, Rajeev Goswami, Kunal Goswami, Suneil Anand, Faisal Khan, Pururaj Kumar, Sanjay Kapoor, Armaan Kohli & Uday Chopra... (the list continues) for those family members who fails in achieving goodwill of Indian public. Otherwise scenario would have been different and worse. Launch and relaunch of them through various means is well spread epidemic of our Bollywood.
Now let us talk about film makers.There is an entire breed of young directors who have been born into film families, the well-networked families and have easy access to almost the entire talent that the Indian film industry has to offer. what new talent have they given us? They take an SRK when he is a star. Not the SRK of 1991,the struggler one....
People with connections, rich dads, beautiful faces, pedigree find it easier to make in Bollywood. Kowtowing is performed and rumors of social service to acquire a role is always heard here. Any hero/heroine without Godfather or Sugar Daddy cannot stand in the rat race of fame and glory. Stereotype casting of good actors is waste of huge talent. Bollywood is full of babes. Every Miss India winner these days has a fair shot at making it in tinsel town if she keeps off the potato chips. Otherwise, there is enough demand from makers of hot & remix music videos.Ash - often denounced as 'plastic' and 'facile - indeed became a pioneer even though within a shabbily maintained bollywood standard of things.She has now become face of the nation and currently work with B grade directors of Hollywood and media (only Indian) creates the myth of her charm over firangees.
New wave in Bollywood
Today Mahesh Bhatt and RGV can be credited for bringing new talent on and off the screen. Aside: Whatever Ramgopal Varma may have degenerated today, he must be commended respect for giving break to all the newcomers. At the height of his career, the factory of RGV had consistently backed fresh talents in each aspect of film making.
Riskbearer Directors are hard breed to find these days but some directors are ready to experiment like hell. Some take their own time. New directors are projecting the globalization Hindi cinema and the liberalization of India. Never will quality cinema can take place of mainstream cinema or vice-versa.But for the growth of Indian cinema, the experimentation is necessary. Anurag Kashyap, Abbas Tyrewala, Raju Hirani, Vishal Bhardwaj, Rakeysh Mehra, Shimit Amin, Nagesh Kukkunoor, Dibaker Banerjee and Sriram Raghvan are the new talents to be watched in the future.
The Middle Path
When Vishal Bharadwaj makes a rural film (Omkara) with big stars, he beautifully mixed Deepak with Saif, Ajay, Kareena, Konkona and gang. How he took Shweta in Makdee. How, after the success of Hyderabad Blues, Nagesh chose to work with a newcomer in the lead role and wonderfully added Naseer as a support. This is the right way for our cinema.
Admiration of off-beat films with new faces and experiments are expected from this industry. The wonders of a Pankaj Kapur, Pavan Malhotra, Manoj Bajpai, Ranvir Shorey, Deepak Dobriyal or a rank, bloody-talented newcomer is still untapped for world cinema viewers. Some as-yet faceless cinephiles in some deep pockets of India can screw their heads and ask why? Unfairness - this is hardest to deal with, but unfortunately that is how our country works,not just only bollywood. Hence, luck and chance are needed for new comers with talent.
And if all else fails, there is the one-liner of the decade for the sarcasm. The man who worked with stars only,Karan Johar: comes on the Filmfare Awards stage and says, "Heere ka kadar sirf johri kar sakta hain. Aur hero ka kadar sirf Johar hi kar sakta hain..."
Saturday, January 3, 2009
Star vs Actor
"A viewer who has been addicted by melodramatic Bollywood dramas hardly have an understanding of good and bad cinema.The sudden change in mood for cinema something that challenges the viewership and demands certain intelligence requires time and patience to adapt and get used to such kind of films. Mythological characters laid the roots for ‘Idol-worship’ in Indian cinema that has continued to be an important aspect of identification for the Indian audience with cinema. When audiences watched their beloved mythology came alive on screen, the first seeds of ‘fascination’ and ‘love’ without a critical space became etched in our genes. Ever since, the admiration for stars on cine screen has grown by leaps and bounds. "(reference)
The love of cinema in India can be seen from two basic divisions:
1) Star "Idol" worship2) Actor admiration by Cinephiles
A star is a person who continues to be interesting even when he is not doing anything. An actor is a person who has to act (but of course!) to be interesting. Stars cannot be confused with their real life personas but these personas are important. Stars had managed the anxieties that people experience during times of such rapid change that we have lived through. his over-acting and mannerisms which so many people love to hate made him special.All that quivering and crying represented at a subliminal level the tremendous emotional upheaval that accompanies such radical changes. otherwise these films would have been empty consumerist fantasies! but the excessive and melodramatic emotions communicated the “pain” of these changing times even as the happy endings promised a better future.
Every era or region of Indian cinema has a star and actor pair.Bengali and Tamil cinema provide the best examples. The iconic pairs – of Uttam Kumar & Soumitra Chatterjee and Rajanikanth & Kamal Hasan – remain the subject of heated debates. Dilip Kumar was the actor while Dev Anand was the star. The former charmed audiences with dramatic pauses and natural tears while the latter’s puffy hair, scarves and 6:05 tilt held men and women in awe!Subsequently, when Amitabh Bachchan strode the industry like a Colossus, the actors of his generation got completely overshadowed and ended up in parallel cinema :Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah, for example. Today,same thing is repeated with Rahul Bose,Kay Kay Menon,Irfan Khan and Konkana Sen Sharma overshadowed by Khans. Sometimes there is complete mis-use of some fantastic acting talent in insignificant and underdeveloped characters. I could name a few examples, but the worst had to be “Aaja Nachle” where Ranvir Shorey, Vinay Pathak and worst of all Irrfan Khan were completely wasted!
Bollywood Masala films are mainly running on the faces of their stars but the circus around the ‘star’ has been running around for such a long time that the relation with the art form is lost.There is no ‘Method Acting’ in star's performances on screen – just madness in the name of art and fun in the name of chaos.There is almost no relation with the content and the story flow. Hence the dialogues, set-pieces and gags which are an integral part in building the blocks of narrative rhythm do not exist due to which there is no building of characterization, emotions or development of pace.
To my feeling, star system harms the cinema when stars are taken in repetitive roles all the time. This stops their growth as actors and it hinders the growth of cinema also because much of the money available in the film industry is available to the films having big stars.It really does not matter if a director always makes a film with a particular star/actor as long as he has interesting subjects and characters to present that star/actor. All good directors have been working with few faces only in the lead roles but they give different characters to their favourite actors and don't repeat them.
If a story can be shown by a known star face then in the following weeks people rush to the cinema halls after knowing the merits of the film.This is their prerogative to select any star to present their stories. End results will always be analyzed later.Repetition in films like medium will never get respect because it removes the trace of unpredictability from the cinema. Genuine emotion and effortless acting are rare in Bollywood and must be preserved either by a star or an actor.For detail and original cause of discussion,link is here;
The love of cinema in India can be seen from two basic divisions:
1) Star "Idol" worship2) Actor admiration by Cinephiles
A star is a person who continues to be interesting even when he is not doing anything. An actor is a person who has to act (but of course!) to be interesting. Stars cannot be confused with their real life personas but these personas are important. Stars had managed the anxieties that people experience during times of such rapid change that we have lived through. his over-acting and mannerisms which so many people love to hate made him special.All that quivering and crying represented at a subliminal level the tremendous emotional upheaval that accompanies such radical changes. otherwise these films would have been empty consumerist fantasies! but the excessive and melodramatic emotions communicated the “pain” of these changing times even as the happy endings promised a better future.
Every era or region of Indian cinema has a star and actor pair.Bengali and Tamil cinema provide the best examples. The iconic pairs – of Uttam Kumar & Soumitra Chatterjee and Rajanikanth & Kamal Hasan – remain the subject of heated debates. Dilip Kumar was the actor while Dev Anand was the star. The former charmed audiences with dramatic pauses and natural tears while the latter’s puffy hair, scarves and 6:05 tilt held men and women in awe!Subsequently, when Amitabh Bachchan strode the industry like a Colossus, the actors of his generation got completely overshadowed and ended up in parallel cinema :Om Puri and Naseeruddin Shah, for example. Today,same thing is repeated with Rahul Bose,Kay Kay Menon,Irfan Khan and Konkana Sen Sharma overshadowed by Khans. Sometimes there is complete mis-use of some fantastic acting talent in insignificant and underdeveloped characters. I could name a few examples, but the worst had to be “Aaja Nachle” where Ranvir Shorey, Vinay Pathak and worst of all Irrfan Khan were completely wasted!
Bollywood Masala films are mainly running on the faces of their stars but the circus around the ‘star’ has been running around for such a long time that the relation with the art form is lost.There is no ‘Method Acting’ in star's performances on screen – just madness in the name of art and fun in the name of chaos.There is almost no relation with the content and the story flow. Hence the dialogues, set-pieces and gags which are an integral part in building the blocks of narrative rhythm do not exist due to which there is no building of characterization, emotions or development of pace.
To my feeling, star system harms the cinema when stars are taken in repetitive roles all the time. This stops their growth as actors and it hinders the growth of cinema also because much of the money available in the film industry is available to the films having big stars.It really does not matter if a director always makes a film with a particular star/actor as long as he has interesting subjects and characters to present that star/actor. All good directors have been working with few faces only in the lead roles but they give different characters to their favourite actors and don't repeat them.
If a story can be shown by a known star face then in the following weeks people rush to the cinema halls after knowing the merits of the film.This is their prerogative to select any star to present their stories. End results will always be analyzed later.Repetition in films like medium will never get respect because it removes the trace of unpredictability from the cinema. Genuine emotion and effortless acting are rare in Bollywood and must be preserved either by a star or an actor.For detail and original cause of discussion,link is here;
Riskbearer Producers
Movie making is also an industry and film making is a project or like a start-up where its the team and your product that plays a major role in determining the success. The name of the game is to play safe. Big budgets and big stars bring in the big bucks. It doesn’t matter if the film is a hit. The cycle continues. When you take the risk for experiments, independent films are produced.
The reason behind a Karan Johar a Farhan Akhtar, Rohan Sippy etc going behind big stars with whom they are comfortable with is not only about making money- but also the kind of pressure on them to succeed and comparison to their family members. If anyone have SRK or Akshay or Big B available and ready to work with them and why wouldn’t work with them.
Secondly, every new and also many an experienced director is repeatedly asked for an actor’s approval for a film by the producer before he decides to finance it. Why would any director who wanted finance and had best buddy SRK on his ’speed dail’ do in this case when hiring SRK could create boxoffice hit and a new talent a risk no one would like to take? So it’s really not a lack of commitment that makes the star-kid go for bankable stars in their kitty. They have insecurities of their own.
Team selection may not be only merit based but depends on personal rapport. It works.Why cant they mix two 40cr films with one 10 cr experiment? It is no dent to them! Make all your K films. It is these ‘money making’ films which let people make smaller experimental films. I also watch and love them. But add something new to your bouquet... The point is, choose an actor that suits the character. Not write for someone you have already decided to take. There is a lot of difference.
Only these giants are the ones who can afford taking economic risks more than the others. As long as Karan Johar or Aditya Chopra or Suraj Barjatya or any director in this club of rich and powerful directors/producers, are willing to present their chsoen stars in different roles, everything is fine.
Many people have managed balancing the act. But I talk from the Producer’s perspective. Shah Rukh has managed doing a Chak De and Swades with an OSO and RNBDJ. Aamir has done a TZP and Mangal Pandey with a Fanaa. And box office failures of 1-2 films will not affect SRK or Aamir personally. They will always keep getting films. The Producers whose risk taking threshold is higher can be the torchbearers of change. That’s all that I wish an begin happening...
The reason behind a Karan Johar a Farhan Akhtar, Rohan Sippy etc going behind big stars with whom they are comfortable with is not only about making money- but also the kind of pressure on them to succeed and comparison to their family members. If anyone have SRK or Akshay or Big B available and ready to work with them and why wouldn’t work with them.
Secondly, every new and also many an experienced director is repeatedly asked for an actor’s approval for a film by the producer before he decides to finance it. Why would any director who wanted finance and had best buddy SRK on his ’speed dail’ do in this case when hiring SRK could create boxoffice hit and a new talent a risk no one would like to take? So it’s really not a lack of commitment that makes the star-kid go for bankable stars in their kitty. They have insecurities of their own.
Team selection may not be only merit based but depends on personal rapport. It works.Why cant they mix two 40cr films with one 10 cr experiment? It is no dent to them! Make all your K films. It is these ‘money making’ films which let people make smaller experimental films. I also watch and love them. But add something new to your bouquet... The point is, choose an actor that suits the character. Not write for someone you have already decided to take. There is a lot of difference.
Only these giants are the ones who can afford taking economic risks more than the others. As long as Karan Johar or Aditya Chopra or Suraj Barjatya or any director in this club of rich and powerful directors/producers, are willing to present their chsoen stars in different roles, everything is fine.
Many people have managed balancing the act. But I talk from the Producer’s perspective. Shah Rukh has managed doing a Chak De and Swades with an OSO and RNBDJ. Aamir has done a TZP and Mangal Pandey with a Fanaa. And box office failures of 1-2 films will not affect SRK or Aamir personally. They will always keep getting films. The Producers whose risk taking threshold is higher can be the torchbearers of change. That’s all that I wish an begin happening...
Popcorn Movie Lover to Cinephile
In Hollywood, there is an unspoken dictum: “No film should have the mental age of more than ten years.” So, the birth of popcorn movies. We call ourselves Bollywood. How can we be any different? We lament the fact that there is no more a Hrishikesh Mukherjee amongst us. But really the question is where are Kundan Shah, Sudhir Mishra and Saeed Akhtar Mirza? --- This is from a article written by Kundan Shah.Its the reality of bollywood in simple lines.
Bollywood and Cricket culture is here in Indian same as Hollywood and Baseball in america. But unlike modern American history, Bollywood is not something you can squeeze in just one lifetime. It is in genes of movie watchers.But a new trend is happening here in recent past. Bollywood totally losing its touch with the Hindi heartland and instead catering to the multiplex-going city slickers. The latest India Today calls it the 'popcorn' movie trend - films specially conceived and designed for the youth which, today, is the highest spending demographic. Young people - and even older folks, families - are going to the movies because it is 'something to do'. In this country we don't have baseball games or any other weekend sporting events(Currently IPL). Well, often a movie gets just 3 stars out of 5 but junta goes to see it because it's 'good time pass'. We don't have a clubbing culture. After 5 days of BPO or IT culture, weekends are just part of great consumer culture.
IT revolution lead to the rise of Internet and mobile culture with people attached to the technology. There are lot of films downloaded over the Internet that forms an important growth of watching films, sharing films along with music in colleges in India. Students across India; consciously or unconsciously watch tons of films from all over the world. Then they feel the shock impact that a lot is happening in the world of cinema and why are we not there. I have felt the same PAIN and AGONY.
All these aspects has lead to the growth and ‘Appreciation of Cinema’ in the country, where people are getting aware about watching good films and not just sticking to watching routine Bollywood fare. These groups of people mainly belong to the urban class. The urban class of film lover notably refers to people leaving in the metros in India because they have the facilities and the accessibility to watch foreign films in theaters, film festivals, and in their own homes.
Today foreign films are released in theatres and Film titles are available in the market, and there are 24hrs satellite TV showing not just Bollywood or Hollywood but World Movies. NDTV Lumiere is releasing foreign language films in India, World movies is up and running, palador and ndtv lumiere again releasing great titles on DVD. Independent films are clicking their space inch by inch with coming years. There is light shining at the end of the tunnel.......
As Indian Cinema needs a support (who love the medium- Cinephile), and not just another SRK fan clubs. Since the importance of such fan clubs or critical look at filmmakers could only hold importance when compared on the overall merit of the 'Indian Film Industry,' since Cinema in India also exist beyond the boundaries and clutches of Bollywood.
Bollywood and Cricket culture is here in Indian same as Hollywood and Baseball in america. But unlike modern American history, Bollywood is not something you can squeeze in just one lifetime. It is in genes of movie watchers.But a new trend is happening here in recent past. Bollywood totally losing its touch with the Hindi heartland and instead catering to the multiplex-going city slickers. The latest India Today calls it the 'popcorn' movie trend - films specially conceived and designed for the youth which, today, is the highest spending demographic. Young people - and even older folks, families - are going to the movies because it is 'something to do'. In this country we don't have baseball games or any other weekend sporting events(Currently IPL). Well, often a movie gets just 3 stars out of 5 but junta goes to see it because it's 'good time pass'. We don't have a clubbing culture. After 5 days of BPO or IT culture, weekends are just part of great consumer culture.
IT revolution lead to the rise of Internet and mobile culture with people attached to the technology. There are lot of films downloaded over the Internet that forms an important growth of watching films, sharing films along with music in colleges in India. Students across India; consciously or unconsciously watch tons of films from all over the world. Then they feel the shock impact that a lot is happening in the world of cinema and why are we not there. I have felt the same PAIN and AGONY.
All these aspects has lead to the growth and ‘Appreciation of Cinema’ in the country, where people are getting aware about watching good films and not just sticking to watching routine Bollywood fare. These groups of people mainly belong to the urban class. The urban class of film lover notably refers to people leaving in the metros in India because they have the facilities and the accessibility to watch foreign films in theaters, film festivals, and in their own homes.
Today foreign films are released in theatres and Film titles are available in the market, and there are 24hrs satellite TV showing not just Bollywood or Hollywood but World Movies. NDTV Lumiere is releasing foreign language films in India, World movies is up and running, palador and ndtv lumiere again releasing great titles on DVD. Independent films are clicking their space inch by inch with coming years. There is light shining at the end of the tunnel.......
As Indian Cinema needs a support (who love the medium- Cinephile), and not just another SRK fan clubs. Since the importance of such fan clubs or critical look at filmmakers could only hold importance when compared on the overall merit of the 'Indian Film Industry,' since Cinema in India also exist beyond the boundaries and clutches of Bollywood.
Bollywood Award Ceremonies
Today, Bollywood is cursed by epidemic of award ceremonies. These ceremonies are used as platform for tieing superstars with production houses. But, now we have atleast 5-10 big award ceremonies and each award is given to strengthen business connection or satisfy the ego of ruling bollywood families.
Starting from the 1950's, Filmfare Awards continue to remain the Big Daddy of Indian film awards - probably because no other award has the might as big as that of Times of India behind it. Long before the Filmfare nominations became the subject of nationwide debate and controversy, it was more of an exercise in bonhomie than any serious competition between actors. Anil Kapoor was given a prize for Beta, which was announced (by Dimple Kapadia) without opening the envelope! . It is one of the most blatantly rigged prizes in the history of film awards.This angered Aamir Khan (in the running for Jo Jeet Wohi Sikandar) so much that he has boycotted the awards ever since!
We have now IFFA award each year (not staged in India) and only bollywood films are in contest with the brand name of Indian film federation awards. No regional language films other than pure commercial bollywood flick can enter the competition. And they call it Indian film awards. A real tribute to diversity of India.Hail Preetesh Nandy!!!
News/Scandel/Controversy: Akshay Kumar has rejected the best popular actor award that he received at the Nokia 15th Annual Star Screen Awards. However, Akshay came with his wife to attend the award function. But, later on when he was presented the Best Popular Actor award he refused to accept it saying that he had watched Ghajini recently and he felt that Aamir Khan, the 'Ghajini' star had done a lot better than him or any other Bollywood actor this year. He said that he believes that Aamir Khan should have won the award irrespective of the fact that he attends award functions or not. It was done by him deliberately either to show true face of awards or as he was not given best actor award for 'Singh is King'. Award for the Best Actor went to Hrithik Roshan, 'Jodha Akbar' star as he attended the award function just in nick of time. Other wise, the prize of best actor would have fall in the laps of Akshay Kumar. It would also be ridiculous for sponsors for presenting best actor award to Akshay in front of Hrithik for 'Singh is King'. To satisfy ego of AK, the sponsors presented him the award of Best popular actor. He just nominate his award to the fellow who does not give damn to the award ceremonies. The point to note here is that it was not critic award for acting but was given for popularity among audience. How can one present his popularity to other which solely depends on fans...
One more article about truth behind award ceremonies is here.
Bottomline:In the end, Bollywood Award Ceremonies are all about loving your sponsors.
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