Did you know: Bollywood edition

By Paul Anthony

I always thought about Bollywood, I have heard things about it but knew very little about. In fact, the only thing I knew about it was basically it was the Hollywood of India. Now I must admit I don’t know much about the culture of India but outright saying Bollywood doesn’t sound like it fits in, doesn’t it? So, I decided to take the time to look in to Bollywood. Now this blog might sound different than our previous blogs but either way I hope you enjoy learning something new. Or who knows you may know more about Bollywood than I do.

First let’s start with the name Bollywood, did you know that it’s not actually called that. In fact, Bollywood is nothing more than a Nickname that mostly used outside of India. When we say it, we believe it to be all of India cinema but the truth is that it is only a part of much larger cinema they have. So, what is it called then? Well the real name is Hindi Cinema and it is in the city Mumbai which was formally known as Bombay. Bollywood counts as 43 percent of the box office revenue in Indian Cinema beating the film producers by 7 percent. Bollywood also sold 3.5 billion tickets worldwide in 2011 beating Hollywood by 900,000 tickets. When it comes to the number of films in Indian Cinema Bollywood produced 252 films out of 1969 films. Bollywood got its name in the 1970s when it over took America as being the world largest film producer. Not everyone enjoys the name Bollywood many believe it makes Hindi Cinema a poor cousin to Hollywood.

Did you know that most of Bollywood films are musicals with different plots. However, most plots are Melodrama, which typically sensational and designed to appeal strongly to emotions. The earliest known films that happen in India dates back all the way to 1913 with silent films.

Bollywood has had its influence even on us, if you haven’t notice in the past decade there have been a resurgence in the musical genre and those films have been successful, these ideas all came from Bollywood. Like we have here there are families of actors and actresses that considered to be legends and carrying the load so Bollywood can shine as bright as it. They have some actors and actresses that are considered some of the best worldwide!

How cool is this information? To know there are tons of other great films out there that need to be watched, sure they may need subtitles but who cares a little reading won’t hurt. Heck I wouldn’t mind getting chance to watch a few films myself. I would encourage you to find a few films from Bollywood and let us know what you think of them.

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