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

Adeline Pissang

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Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2...

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Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject English Language and Literature Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: 2,0 (B), Dresden Technical University (Institute for Anglistics), course: Hauptseminar Asian British Culture, language: English, abstract: "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. [...] 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)!