Exploring The Popularity And Reasons Behind The Growth Of Bollywood Movies In Asia

The Vibrant Nature of Bollywood Movies

Discuss About The Film Industry In Hindi Language From India?

Bollywood industry represents the film industry in Hindi language from India. Currently, bollywood is one of the leading and prominent film industries around the world. Moreover, bollywood is having the record of producing highest number of movies every year. However, the key distinctive aspects of bollywood are something else which are creating waves in the Asian regions and around the world. The south Asian regions are already being covered by the craze of bollywood movies. The popularity of the bollywood movies is now expanding in other Asian regions. It is rapidly evolving as the popular culture in the Asian countries (Daspit and Weaver 2012). In the recent years, newly released bollywood movies are earning huge money from several Asian regions and they are going to prove as money spinner in various countries. Now the there are various concepts and debates being held to determine the reasons behind this popularity of bollywood movies in the Asian regions. This essay will discuss about the probable reasons of gaining popularity of bollywood movies along with discussing various theories being given by different authors. It will help to identify the core competitive advantages of these movies which help them to stay ahead over other competitors.

According to Roy (2012), the key reason for the bollywood movies in becoming the popular culture in the Asian regions is the vibrant nature or approach of the movies. According to him, the approach of storytelling of the bollywood movies is much different than that of the approach of the movies from other countries. The film industry from America which is popularly known as Hollywood is the leading the film industry in the world. However, they are trailing behind the bollywood movies in terms of vibrancy. He also stated that bollywood movies involve more extensive use of colors and festivals which increase the aesthetic value of the movies. Thus, they are being more attracted by the people from various Asian regions who are not accustomed with these types of movies.

Related to this concept, another author also added some more aspects which further help to identify the reasons for the bollywood movies for becoming the popular culture in different Asian regions. Mukherjee (2012), stated that involvement of songs in the movies is one of the key reasons for the bollywood industries to gain momentum in the Asian countries. This is due to the reason that, involvement of songs helps to gain more attractions towards the movies. Moreover, the songs normally used in the bollywood movies involve synchronized beats and tunes which feels pleasurable to hear. The songs and dance sequence being used in the bollywood movies is one of the unique features which helps to attract foreign audience. Thus, it helps to gain the instant attraction from the side of the audience. In the Asian regions, countries such as China, South Korea and Japan is also having prominent film industries but they are more influenced by the Hollywood culture and thus, bollywood movies are getting the market place by offering something different and unique to the audience.

The Involvement of Songs in the Movies

According to Willis (2013), bollywood movies also involve different genres in one single movie. Thus, audience has the choice of enjoying various genres in one single movie. Majority of the Hollywood and movies from other countries follows a single genre, whereas in the case of bollywood movies, action, romance, climax, songs and dance are all being involved in a single movie. This is also one of the key reasons of growing popularity of the bollywood movies in different Asian regions. Bollywood films have the perfect blend of all the genres in their mainstream movies which increase their attractiveness to the audience (Morcom 2017). This type of concept is new to the countries in the Asian regions expect the Indian subcontinent. Thus, bollywood is having large untapped market to grow by offering distinctive films.  

According to Roy (2016), the pattern and design of the story being portrayed by the bollywood movies is much easy to connect to the audience compared to other film industries. This is due to the reason that, bollywood movies involves the stories having social messages and the struggle of the masses in the daily life. Compared to this, Hollywood and other major movie industries convey more complicated story through their movies. Thus, the audience is finding easier to understand and relate with the bollywood movies compared to other movies. Another aspect that can be added here is the commercial viability of the bollywood movies which is more than that of other movie industries. The entire approach and design of the movies is being initiated keeping in mind the commercial viability of the project. Thus, the movies are being made according to the taste and preference pattern of the audience. It helps to attract the audience more effectively by serving them the product that they will enjoy.

Buga and Meyer (2012), stated that the migration of the Indian population is growing by leaps and bound and majority of the Asian countries are having large number of Indian population. Thus, this is another influencing factor for the gaining of popularity by the bollywood movies in the foreign countries. More people are being influenced by the Indian population living abroad and the culture of bollywood movies is gaining market penetration. According to Matusitz and Payano (2012), bollywood is slowing evolving as popular culture in major Asian countries due to many reasons. He also stated the catchy sound track of the bollywood movies is one of the key reasons of attracting foreign audiences. Moreover, according to him, bollywood movies are being perceived as the mode of entertainment only rather than the broader perspective of the Hollywood movies. Thus, this commercial factor is more influencing the popularity of the bollywood movies in the major Asian countries.

The Perfect Blend of Different Genres in One Film

However, there are various opposing views being given by different authors regarding the effectiveness of the bollywood movies. This is due to the reason that portrayal of bollywood movies is having various implications in the lifestyle of them. According to Ganti (2012), it is the time for the bollywood movies to look beyond the song and dance sequences and come out with more practical stories rather than portraying larger than life characters. It is also been stated that the portrayal of the characters in the bollywood movies are far away from the practical situation. Therefore, this shortcoming of the bollywood movies may have adverse effect on the audience.

Another issue being stated by Tere (2012), regarding the bollywood movies is the representation of the females. Bollywood movies are notoriously known for representing females as sexual means. The dance and the movie sequence are being plotted in such way that it will represent the female characters as sexual objects. Moreover, according to the author, bollywood movies are accused for numerous times for wrong portrayal of the characters which often lead to misconceptions. Due to the reason of the rising bollywood culture, various social cultures based on caste, creed and religion are being type casted and stereotyped. Moreover, the art content of the film is being sacrificed for inducting more commercial elements. This cause quality reduction not only for the movies but also the audience is being deprived from having good content in the movies.

However, with rise of the popularity of bollywood culture in different Asian countries and accepting it as the popular cultures by the major section of the populations is providing mileage for the soft power democracy for India (Blarel 2012). This is due to the reason that with the increase in the market of the bollywood movies, the business opportunities of the Indian Diaspora is also increasing. In addition, the influence of the bollywood movies on the common people will also help to expand the Indian culture in other Asian countries. More number of people will be attracted towards the Indian culture. Therefore, the soft democracy and bargaining power for India will rise in the Asian regions.

Having analyzed the various aspects of the bollywood movies being transforming in to popular culture in majority of the Asian countries, it can be concluded that the content and the commercial elements of the bollywood movies are attracting more number of audiences. Bollywood movies are providing the instant and short term entertainment which is not being provided by movies from other leading film industries. This factor is further influencing the audiences to accept it as the popular culture. However, the drawbacks of the bollywood movies are also being critically analyzed in this essay. Thus, it s being recommended that overcoming the issues and introduction of good and healthy content will help bollywood movies to gain more popularity not only in the Asian regions but also around the world.

Reference

Blarel, N., 2012. India: the next superpower?: India's soft power: from potential to reality?.

Buga, N. and Meyer, J.B., 2012. Indian human resources mobility: brain drain versus brain gain.

Daspit, T. and Weaver, J.A. eds., 2012. Popular culture and critical pedagogy: Reading, constructing, connecting. Routledge.

Ganti, T., 2012. No longer a frivolous singing and dancing nation of movie-makers: the Hindi film industry and its quest for global distinction. Visual Anthropology, 25(4), pp.340-365.

Matusitz, J. and Payano, P., 2012. Globalisation of popular culture: from hollywood to bollywood. South Asia Research, 32(2), pp.123-138.

Morcom, A., 2017. Hindi film songs and the cinema. Routledge.

Mukherjee, M., 2012. The architecture of songs and music: soundmarks of Bollywood, a popular form and its emergent texts. Screen Sound Journal, 3, pp.9-34.

Roy, A.G. ed., 2012. The magic of Bollywood: at home and abroad. SAGE Publications India.

Roy, S., 2016. What’s in a Name?: Examining Representation of Indian Ethnicities in Bollywood Movies in the New Millennium. In Communicating Differences (pp. 87-103). Palgrave Macmillan UK.

Tere, N.S., 2012. Gender reflections in mainstream Hindi cinema. Global Media Journal, 3(1), pp.1-9.

Thussu, D., 2013. Communicating India’s soft power: Buddha to Bollywood. Springer.

Willis, A., 2013. Notes on the Hindi blockbuster, 1975 to the present. Movie Blockbusters, p.255.