Blog5: Bollywood's Influence

Introduction

    I read"The 'Bollywoodization' of the Indian Cinema: Cultural Nationalism in a Global Arena" (2008 by New York University), and there are a lot of interesting discussions in the book. It is said that Bollywood is" Indian pop culture"or Cultural Industry. The element of cultural representation is emphasized a lot. I really agree with it and I think Bollywood is actually the biggest Cultural Industry in India.

   Then, in the reading discussion on Wednesday, I came up with some ideas about the question of " Does Bollywood work as preventing people or government  from conflict between countries or is it just under covering the conflict?" I think this is really interesting to think about and I will try to find an idea for that.

Some elements for Bollywood
- According to India Together , Indian culture  is difficult to say like this is India. Rather there are many varieties of civilizations, beliefs, religions,values and cultures. These diversities influence to Bollywood movies because, as I mentioned, Bollywood is Cultural Industry in India. Movie is basically an entertainment for citizens so normally it is allowed to many varieties, but Bollywood should include some certain cultural elements as an Indian Culture representation toward the world. So cultural diversity makes making film in Bollywood a little difficult. However, it is also said that there is a common sense of Indian, which are very direct and open, like they wear their hearts on their sleeves. And also it says " You can recognize "Indianness" by tuning into People's hearts rather than by their external trappings." We can see it through Bollywood movies. The explanation of feeling by dancing and singing, which is the feature of Bollywood movies, is actually common points of all movies of Bollywood. This is cultural thing in India, at least Japanese people don't explain their feeling like that, and they have never tried to change this point. I guess it shows "Indianness" such as obeying their hearts, even if Bollywood movies are created toward the world consciously, and explanation of feeling by dance and song is not common all over the world.
- Also India is famous of diversity of religion. The biggest religion here is Hinduism, 84 present people have beliefs, and India is the biggest hinduism country. Religion influences culture and people's lives. The people who have another religion beliefs or don't have anything have no idea about other beliefs. Bollywood movies reflect some aspects of Hinduism. So it also shows what Hinduism is. People knows the diversity in India so Indian people are flexible about difference of religions and can enjoy as an entertainment.

Conclusion
  Bollywood movie is actually very popular all over the world.  This article says that Bollywood movie is full of action, music, dance, drama, romance, or fashion and these things are all family-friendly. I think this is one of important points of Bollywood. People from children to adults can enjoy Bollywood movies together on both of inside and outside of India. And then, throughout movies, people out of India can know Indian culture. As one idea for question of " Does Bollywood prevent India from conflict?", in my opinion, based on some research in this blog, at least Bollywood works as one of great industries that shows Indian culture. I cannot say Bollywood prevent India from conflict with other countries, which is over my small research, but it is certain that these movies make country of India more open and create opportunity for people in other countries to feel familiar with India. Perhaps, these small occasion would become linked to conflict-free.