This is a guest entry from Sangeeta, who describes the incredible reaction to mainstream Bollywood films in Prague.<\/p>\n
\n“Why would you want to start a “Bollywood” Film
\nFestival in Prague?
\nWho would want to watch the films there?”
\nWhen we first started the Prague ?Bollywood? Festival (
\nwww.bollywood.cz ) in 2003 many people questioned the
\nappeal that commercial Hindi films could have in the
\nCzech Republic, a small Central European country where
\nHindi films and their stars are virtually unknown and
\nwhose South Asian population remains small and
\nscattered. Well, we proved all skeptics wrong! Last
\nweek, our festival celebrated its third year, breaking
\nattendance records of previous years with four
\ncompletely sold out films.
\nUnlike ?Bollywood? events in London, Toronto, or
\nSydney, our festival cannot rely on fans from the
\nSouth Asian diaspora. But, for the third year in a row,
\nwe haven’t had to. The continued success of our
\nfestival testifies to the global appeal of Indian
\ncinema, and also raises the question of why there is
\nsomething so attractive about ?Bollywood? for the Czech
\nfilm-goer.
\nHindi cinema grew out of multi-linear storytelling
\ntraditions like Nautanki and the Parsi Theater and
\n?Bollywood? story structures continue to abound with
\ndigressions like comedic subplots and song & dance
\nsequences. It’s precisely the playfulness of these
\ndigressions that make the films appealing to Czechs,
\nwhose own fairy tales and folk traditions rely on
\nsimilar conventions – ?Bollywood’s? spirit seems
\ncuriously more familiar to the Bohemian palate than
\nHollywood movies.
\nThe digressions, direct engagement of the audience by
\nfilm characters, and the occasional illogical twist in
\nthe story also encourage a strong sense of
\nparticipative viewership. From the beginning we urged
\nour reserved Czech audiences to feel free to clap,
\nshout, whistle, and dance during the film. This year,
\nthe arrival of Raj Kapoor in “Shree 420”, the heroic
\nescapades of Shahrukh Khan in “Veer Zara” and the
\ndisappearing stunts of Anil Kapoor in “Mr. India” were
\nmet with enthusiastic approval, and the hospital
\njiggles of Sanjay Dutt in “Munnabhai M.B.B.S.”
\ntransformed theater aisles into dance floors. As a film
\ndistributor visiting from London remarked, “the
\nfestival is so much more than just seeing?it is about
\nthe whole experience of engaging with the films in ways
\nthat take us back to what films mean in villages – when
\nthe whole village assembled to watch the mobile film
\ncaravan when it came to town.” In short, the
\nparticipative experience celebrated by our Czech
\naudience harks back to an “interactivity” that long
\npredates the current popularity of that term. I believe
\nthat this is an invaluable aspect of ?Bollywood? cinema
\nthat we should celebrate and maintain as Indian and
\nother regional cinemas continue to grow and change.
\nHigh brow film artists may protest that ?Bollywood’s?
\nnarrative conventions are trivial, but my experience
\nin Prague suggests that Hindi commercial films possess
\na certain expressive depth, which resonates across
\ncultures. If ?Bollywood? is to challenge Hollywood over
\ndomination of the global cinema market in the 21st
\ncentury, then shouldn’t we be paying more attention to
\nthe complex question of what makes Hindi commercial
\nfilms so appealing to foreign audiences?
\nSangita Shresthova
\nCo-Organizer Prague Bollywood Festival
\nPhD. Candidate World Arts and Cultures UCLA
\nwww.bollywood.cz<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is a guest entry from Sangeeta, who describes the incredible reaction to mainstream Bollywood films in Prague.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business-of-entertainment"],"yoast_head":"\n