You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
RE: Behind the Scenes of a Bollywood Blockbuster - part two
Great post, as always!
It was really fascinating to get a look behind the scenes. Wow, 15 hours, that's a long day. The people working behind the scenes on movies really seem to earn their pay.
Looking at the movie trailer, it has a very big-budget Hollywood feel to it. For better or worse, Bollywood seems to be getting more and more westernized. From what I understand they already produce more movies per year than Hollywood. And as India's GDP increases, I guess the budgets will get larger and larger until they may eventually surpass Hollywood there too.
Definitely a tough job. As I said in the post, very highly strung, a lot of big egos, and a lot of hours.
I believe that Bollywood has been the king of quantity for a few decades, and there's 10 or so other film industries in India, each producing films in a different language. So India's output is truly huge. Definitely as India opens up to the world, western culture is infiltrating India's diverse cultural fabric. I experienced this with not just the movies, but the music and nightlife as well.
A great example I can think of is Coke Studio. Originating in Brazil, but now most famous in Pakistan, it's a YouTube based TV programme showcasing the best national music talent. It features reworks of traditional songs, fused with modern styles and instrumentation. Here's an example of how that works out in Pakistan:
After its wild success in Pakistan, which many people in the subcontinent credit with reviving sufi music and bringing traditional Pakistani music to a new generation, naturally India had to outdo Pakistan by making their own Coke Studio. India's version is done in conjunction with MTV, because India is bigger and "better", and they put out some amazing fusions as well, but a lot of it is heavily infiltrated with western styles of music, like this for example:
I personally don't think it works very well. It's two good individual pieces of music that simply don't gel with each other whatsoever.
Interesting. I agree, the Indian one doesn't work. Really a jarring juxtaposition. (Btw, the video doesn't play here. Apparently the owner has disabled it from playing outside of Youtube).
Once I've reached the Pakistan part of my journey, I'm actually gonna do a Pakistani music showcase in tandem with my usual travel stories.