Perhaps, this fake idea of superiority denied the actors and everyone involved in the Hindi film industry a brush with the reality that regional films are increasingly being preferred now.Ī recurring complaint also is that while rehashing the original script, Bollywood films distort the narratives that botch up their theme and relevance. Yet the halo of popularity floated thanks to heavy PR mechanisms and hyped media snippets that kept the industry in the limelight. It turned out to be a conveyor belt mechanism of movie-making that India couldn’t identify with anymore.Īlso, with celebrities engaging too much in urban chatterati instead of concentrating on what they should be doing more, making films, the formula for commercial success slipped away from Bollywood’s grip. That India is rich in its variant indigenous cultures were ill-represented by most Hindi directors and storytellers. While this pigeonholing could be largely due to the NRI audience post-liberalization overdosing on stereotypical movies churned out by Hindi filmmakers, it cannot be denied that the masses gradually started disconnecting with this generalized format presenting India through an extremely loud, Karan Joharesque Punjabi prism.
BOLLYWOOD GEMINI CELEBRITIES MOVIE
While Anil Kapoor (amongst the very few who are not oblivious to the hold the south has in the movie sector), after the SS Rajamouli blitzkrieg RRR floored the nation, acknowledged that his career began with Telugu and Kannada films and that the south has always been making really good cinema, many in Bollywood pretend that Indian cinema is synonymous with only, and only Hindi movies. Inspirations, lift-offs, blatant copies or official remakes in Mumbai from successful reel ventures from the southern part of India notwithstanding, Bollywood’s step-motherly treatment of regional film industries is not just rankling but reeks of a patronizing and ignorant mindset about the business these industries do or the popularity they enjoy amongst movie lovers in different states. If we were to map the career of many Hindi film actors today, somewhere or the other there will emerge a connection with the South film industry. Interestingly, another of his hit films, Woh Saat Din, where he played the endearing Prem, a struggling musician who falls in love with his landlord’s granddaughter, was remade from the Tamil hit Andha 7 Naatkal. Kapoor went on to act in Mani Ratnam’s Kannada directorial debut Pallavi Anu Pallavi (it won three Karnataka State Film Awards) before finally breaking into the Hindi film industry as Raja in Yash Chopra’s 1984 action drama Mashaal. This was after his debut in the 1979 film Humare Tumhare in a blink-and-you-miss role that is nowhere similar to the launchpad Hindi film debutants, rather star kids, get today.
Not many would be aware that Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor began his film career with the Telugu movie Vamsa Vruksham in 1980, which was remade from the National Award-winning Kannada film Vamsha Vriksha, adopted for the screen from SL Bhyrappa’s novel of the same name.