Bollywood Film Industry

Bollywood Film Industry or the Hindi film industry is actually the biggest industry if measured by the number of films released every year. The term "Bollywood" has origins in the 1970s, when India overtook America as the world's largest film producer. Credit for the term has been claimed by several different people, including the lyricist, filmmaker and scholar Amit Khanna^, and the journalist Bevinda Collaco. 

Since Bollywood is a world in itself, it can not be explained briefly how vast it went from how small it was. Bollywood has very less studio sets where shooting usually takes place. However, Since 2000 Bollywood started influencing 'Western Films and played a particularly instrumental role in the revival of the American musical film genre. Baz Luhrmann stated that his musical film Moulin Rouge! (2001) was directly inspired by Bollywood musicals. The film incorporated an Indian-themed play based on the ancient Sanskrit drama The Little Clay Cart and a Bollywood-style dance sequence with a song from the film China Gate. The critical and financial success of Moulin Rouge! renewed interest in the then-moribund Western musical genre, and subsequently films such as Chicago, The Producers, Rent, Dreamgirls, Hairspray, Sweeney Todd, Across the Universe, The Phantom of the Opera, Enchanted and Mamma Mia! were produced, fueling a renaissance of the genre.

A. R. Rahman, an Indian film composer, wrote the music for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Bombay Dreams, and a musical version of Hum Aapke Hain Koun has played in London's West End. The Bollywood musical Lagaan (2001) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, and two other Bollywood films Devdas (2002) and Rang De Basanti (2006) were nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Danny Boyle's Slumdog Millionaire (2008), which has won four Golden Globes and eight Academy Awards, was also directly inspired by Bollywood films, and is considered to be a "homage to Hindi commercial cinema". The theme of reincarnation was also popularized in Western popular culture through Bollywood films, with Madhumati (1958) inspiring the Hollywood film The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975), which in turn inspired the Bollywood film Karz (1980), which in turn influenced another Hollywood film Chances Are (1989). The 1975 film Chhoti Si Baat is believed to have inspired Hitch (2005), which in turn inspired the Bollywood film Partner (2007).

The influence of Bollywood filmi music can also be seen in popular music elsewhere in the world. In 1978, technopop pioneers Haruomi Hosono and Ryuichi Sakamoto of the Yellow Magic Orchestra produced an electronic album Cochin Moon based on an experimental fusion between electronic music and Bollywood-inspired Indian music.^[48] Devo's 1988 hit song "Disco Dancer" was inspired by the song "I am a Disco Dancer" from the Bollywood film Disco Dancer (1982). The 2002 song "Addictive", sung by Truth Hurts and produced by DJ Quik and Dr. Dre, was lifted from Lata Mangeshkar's "Thoda Resham Lagta Hai" from Jyoti (1981). The Black Eyed Peas' Grammy Award winning 2005 song "Don't Phunk with My Heart" was inspired by two 1970s Bollywood songs: "Ye Mera Dil Yaar Ka Diwana" from Don (1978) and "Ae Nujawan Hai Sub" from Apradh (1972). Both songs were originally composed by Kalyanji Anandji, sung by Asha Bhosle, and featured the dancer Helen. Also in 2005, the Kronos Quartet re-recorded several R. D. Burman compositions, with Asha Bhosle as the singer, into an album You've stolen my heart - Songs From R D Burman's Bollywood, which was nominated for "Best Contemporary World Music Album" at the 2006 Grammy Awards. Filmi music composed by A. R. Rahman (who would later win two Academy Awards for the Slumdog Millionaire soundtrack) has frequently been sampled by musicians elsewhere in the world, including the Singaporean artist Kelly Poon, the Uzbek artist Iroda Dilroz, the French rap group La Caution, the American artist Ciara, and the German band Löwenherz, among others. Many Asian Underground artists, particularly those among the overseas Indian diaspora, have also been inspired by Bollywood music.


There is a lot more to Bollywood, which can not be expressed in just a blog, since Bollywood has become a world in itself.

Ram Gopal Verma : The Director I Chose

Ram Gopal Verma

Ram Gopal Verma is a director who needs no introduction, at least not in the world of films made on criminal behavior and crime itself. In his website [1] Ram Gopal Verma writes " Ever since I can remember, I have always been fascinated with the psychological aspects of criminal behavior. After years of reading and hearing about all kinds of criminal acts and using many of them in parts as subject matter for my films, I had come to the conclusion that I had seen, heard and read. " This is the first and the most important reason why I chose this director. His first Bollywood Crime hit is Satya (1998) and the second one is Company (2002), while he produced D (2005) and these three made up the Indian Gangster Trilogy. This director does not make films because it's his job to make films or to get an earning, instead, from what seems, this director has combined up the concept of stylizing and content making his films real in their nature. 

Certain examples of connecting the both, style and content, can be inevitably noted in his films. Assuming that audio is a part of stylizing, Satya not only gained popularity due to the fact that it was based on criminal structures operating in India, but it was also a big hit due to it's famous song "Goli Maar Bheje Main". Because Satya is almost 14 years old, the film is stylized accordingly with that time period in which it was released. His second film Company has the same case. It was a big hit due to it's songs "Khalaas" and "Sab Ganda Hai". Although in Company, he has experimented with different camera techniques and  has given a new perspective towards viewing things in POV and extremely high angle shots (a great example would be the shot when things go wrong and there are telephone calls happening in the whole Mumbai city). This is the second reason of me choosing him as the director in focus. This director is not only experimental when it comes to direction, but is also experimental in his choice of making films, such as, in the gap between Satya and Company, he made experimental films (in terms of his particular genre) such as, Jungle in 2000 which was entirely set in a Jungle. 

In an interview, Verma speaks of why he chose crime or what were the basic events which lay the foundations for his choice [2]. It was since his highschool, he used to observe bullies in his classroom. This is where Verma started thinking about the big picture. Apart from Verma's explicit features, based on my own perception, Verma has an excellent choice of characters. The key is versatility. Urmila is very versatile and has appeared in three of Verma's hit films. Ajay Devgan is very versatile and has appeared in Company along with Vivek Oberoi. 

My genre and the concept behind the film I want to make, is most closely associated with Verma's depiction of the Indian criminal world through his Indian Gangster Trilogy. Infact, it were Verma's films that inspired me to 'do something' about what I feel is deep and gritty in it's nature. The maker of the famous Slumdog Millionaire, Danny Boyle, states in an interview that it were Verma's films which inspired him to shoot the gritty slums of Mumbai [3]. Therefore, the fourth reason here is that Verma has tried getting as close to the reality as he could in his films. A great example would be the torture scene in the film Company, where the local gangster is being interrogated. 

Verma is one of those coincidental directors who 'feel' what they should do, they do not pursue any sort of formality to achieve what they know they want. He was actually an Engineering Graduate from the V.R. Siddharta Engineering College, with repeated unsuccessful attempts as assistant directors. It was his view that made him a director, as he himself states, he learned direction by watching films. 

References :-

[1] - http://rgvzoomin.com/

[2] - http://www.tehelka.com/story_main34.asp?filename=hub150907ramgopalverma.asp

[3] - http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2008/12/slumdog-millionaires-bollywood-ancestors

Plot

The Plot

In summers 2010, when crime has made it's deep roots in the City of Karachi, the activities rise in the localities of the city. In a small area of the city known as F.B. Area Block 20, lives an emotionally and financially deprived physically smart person named Abd and nearby lives Asfar, another person who's elder than Abd, is in his mid 20s and is an experienced senior member of a criminal organization which seems to be the subsidiary of the large D-Company. Asfar handles his area and is in need of a great helping hand.

On a saturday in mid summers, Abd, on his daily routine sitting in a park finds Asfar terribly observing Abd. Asfar reaches Abd and gradually makes Abd his friend, along with giving him a new identity through his criminal group. Abd has no reason to disagree, because he wants respect in his neighborhood as all of the boys his age have and therefore, enters the realm of the criminal world, still not getting close enough due to his new entry. Abd has to kill his conscience by killing a culprit of the group. He has to stab him to death to prove that he deserves what he really wants, a new life. Asfar, present in the room along with the bruised culprit, who seems to be a normal person with no direct criminal affiliation and Abd, wait for Abd to kill that person. Abd succeeds.

He is now Asfar's right hand and sticks together with him, doing jobs for him. Abd learns about one of the senior most members of his group who operate at a bigger strategic level, Kaleem Bhai. Kaleem gives direct orders to Asfar and keeps Asfar as his best followers. Abd never gets to meet Kaleem, because he has never reached that level, yet. There are some rules of the group, as there are in every organized group, disobeying pays death.

After a year of their joint venture and success in the criminal world, Abd receives a call from his informer that Kaleem Bhai and his minions are after Asfar and him to kill him, because he did not obey Kaleem bhai on killing an orphan witness who earned a living for his family. Kaleem disobeyed and now must face the consequence. Abd and Asfar start planning a get away to another city though a land route as soon as they get the information and they decide they would initiate after two days, on Sunday, where the world tends to sleep, but criminal organizations and their leaders decide major things. This would be the best chance for the getaway because most of Kaleem's watchmen would be with Kaleem.

On Sunday morning, around 9:00 AM to 10:00 AM, Asfar and Abd both engage in their plan of escaping, but by different routes, because they both know anything can happen in the way and one must survive. Afsar is lucky enough to get away clean, but Abd is caught by Kaleem's men. Kaleem interrogates Abd, beating him. Abd refuses to say anything about Asfar and is eventually killed by Kaleem.

Conflict
-Abd's main conflict with the criminal system/structure.

Resolution
-Abd loses from the criminal system because as a rule of nature, an individual can not bring down a whole structure which comprises of several individuals as Abd, maybe better.

Story

The Story

Abd happens to be an emotionally and financially deprived individual who is struggling for a way out of his miserable life. Since he is emotionally deprived due to unacceptable societal behavior of his elder sister and his mother, he tends to spend most of his day outside his house alone in a nearby park. Little does Abd know, that the random person who seems to be consistently observing Abd would be his next and his only best friend, Asfar.

Asfar is notorious in his neighborhood due to his activities and is in search for a helping hand. But why Abd ? Asfar is a member of an organized local criminal group and more or less handles affairs in his area. Since the jobs are risky, Asfar can not trust people in his own team who already have established connections in the underworld. Abd seems to be the only implicit introvert who fits Asfar's criterion.

After shaking hands with Asfar, Abd gradually becomes Asfar's special and has entered in his team where he starts his new venture. There are things that still need to be done and there are points where Abd needs to be tested, after all, it's nothing small for what he is about to get, a new life. Abd succeeds, because he has to, he has no choice of going back, the privileges are promising and Abd is desperate for the respect he never had like other boys of his age. The test involves murder, by stabbing, Abd eventually succeeds.

After months of his new life , Abd seems to be prone towards the sensitivities involved in his new gritty wonderland and this makes him emotionally and psychologically harsh. Of course, a new world means new people. Abd comes to know of the Asfar's boss, Kaleem Bhai, who gives direct orders to Asfar, which Asfar passes on to Abd. Abd never gets to meet Kaleem Bhai, no one does except for people like Asfar who have some sort of authority in their profession. Kaleem Bhai is the brainchild of Asfar's organization, known by many but doesn't know many.

The story reaches to an end where one day Asfar disagrees Kaleem's order and now has to go through the rule of the group. Disobeying pays death. Asfar and Abd both know this will happen, therefore they make a plan to get away together. Asfar succeeds in getting away but Abd is caught by Kaleem's minions. This takes Abd to what he went through his short and great life. It was only Asfar who had made place in Abd's heart, Abd sacrifices himself for his only friend.