The History of Bollywood
Monday 17th September Sitzungssaal Schloss 7.30 p.m.
Bollywood as India's Mumbai based popular film industry is commonly called, is just on the brink of celebrating its 100th birthday. Reason enough to look back now on its changing history through the decades and discover that it is so much more than song & dance and love epics.
Bollywood films have often been accused of offering nothing more than escapism yet if we look at these films more closely, it gives us an insight into what moved Indian society at a certain point of time. The 70s for example spawned a new type of film hero called "the angry young man" who fought against a corrupt system and reflected the citizen's disappointment with a threatened democracy after Indira Gandhi had declared the State of Emergency. And whereas the hero of 50s cinema was a poor vagabound in the tradition of Charlie Chaplin, the millenium saw the protagonist live the Indian dream in spacious palaces and designer clothes after the country's economy underwent liberalisation.
Apart from mirroring social history Bollywood films have always conveyed values, often alluding to mythology and creating its very own mythology with film stars so revered they have temples dedicated to them.
About Julia Wessel
I'm chief editor of Germany's most popular Bollywood monthly called ISHQ which covers Bollywood as well as regional cinema and Indian independent films and in addition to that offers background articles on Indian culture. In this capacity I have been interviewing Indian film stars, directors and producers for six years now and gained a good understanding on how its film industries function. Needless to say I do love Indian cinema.
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