Bollywood Movies- changing to compete?

Growing up in a Guyanese Indian family, Bollywood movies made up a big part of my childhood. I would constantly play the DVDs my parents bought and dance along to all the upbeat songs the movies had to offer.

Just for anyone who may not know, Bollywood is a film industry in Mumbai, India. A great portion of Hindi cinema comes from this industry (though there is some Urdu in these films as well). These movies are known for generally being very clean (there is almost no on-screen sexuality shown), and for mainly being centered around a love story. Bollywood movies are also known for the wide array of songs in each movie; they’re basically musicals.

I loved these movies. Since I’m speaking in general about them, I cannot properly portray just how much they meant to me. I loved the cheesy love songs that were song on top of mountains, the classical dancing done by beautiful actresses decked out in their saris and henna.

I’ll just give one example of my favorite movie. Devdas (2002) was based on the novel by Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay, focuses on the tragic story of Devdas, a rebellious alcoholic. Sent away to England at the age of 10, his childhood friend Parvati (which of course becomes his lover) lights a lamp for him which will die out on its own when he dies. Of course, when Devdas returns, his family does not want to make an alliance with Parvati’s family, so the possibility of marriage is eliminated. Furious, Devdas leaves and meets a woman from a brothel named Chandramukhi.

Of course, the rest of the details of this tangled story are too complicated to get into, so I’ll just post a link to one of the songs from the movie (Dola Re) in which both women become friends and speak of their love for Devdas.

By the way, Parvati is the tall one who dances in the beginning, Chandramukhi is the slightly heavier and shorter one.

However, Bollywood movies have been changing noticeably this decade. You can notice in that video above how classical and culturally rooted it is. Also note that Bollywood movies were known for their lack of sexual display. However, I recently stopped watching these movies because of the gradual change that’s occurring. What used to be a beautiful sari is now a short party dress. The mountains and street corners have been replaced by flashing lights at a club. The movies are even getting a little more riskier with that amount of sexual content being played.

I noticed this after watching Salaam Namaste (2005). The first Indian film shot entirely in Australia, the atmosphere of this movie is immediately different. The title song involves a wedding in swimsuits. The dancing isn’t classical, and I honestly think that a talentless person would’ve been able to dance in this particular song.

This isn’t the song with the most sexuality in the movie, I just didn’t know whether it should be posted or not.

Let’s be honest; we’ve seen worse than what was displayed above in American films. However, Bollywood has always had a reputation for being clean, and boundaries have been pushed in these recent years. Understandably enough, Bollywood does have to compete on an international scale with other film industries. In order to keep the money coming from overseas, Bollywood has to keep up with industries from places like the US, UK, and Germany. In order to do so, more sexuality and violence leaks in.

But Bollywood managed to stay clean so many years and still do reasonably well. Why are the movies changing now? If they made money in the past by remaining clean and traditional, could they still not be successful by maintaining those principles now? And if they continue to press on further with this new feel of movies, how much further are they going to keep going?