Is Bollywood Shining in Asia?
Is Bollywood Shining in Asia?
Introduction
As Smith, a columnist for Articlemyriad, mentioned, “Far from being mere entertainment, though, the Bollywood movies represent a powerful means of self- and community expression which Indians are using to define themselves in front of the rest of the world,” (Smith) Exploring the Bollywood movie and its emergency in Asia is an effective way to see whether India has some common culture elements with other Asian countries and whether they are integrating under the impulsion of culture.
Dudrah (2006) mentioned in his book Bollywood: Sociology Goes to the Movies, “Bollywood, the moniker for popular Hindi cinema from Mumbai, India, has become an important catchword in the vocabulary of global South Asian popular culture.” (Dudrah, 2006) It demonstrates that Indian culture dominates in South Asia. However, with the success Three Idiots achieved in Asia, some people began to consider the situation of Bollywood in Asia. “Bollywood is a real buzz word at the moment,” said Vinay Virmani, writer and actor of Breakaway, in an interview, “I think thats because Bollywood has been able to translate beyond the whole south Asian community.” (Mahmood & Mitra, 2011)This opinion is true but maybe too simple as he just considered about the popularity. The opinion I want to argue in this paper is that although Bollywood movies become popular in Asia, the commercial profit they gained is still limited. Maybe Three Idiots, the most successful Bollywood movie in recent years, is the best representative of Bollywood movies which are facing such an embarrassing situation.
“Have you seen the Three Idiots second time?” It may be the first reaction when Hong Kong people talked about this famous Indian movie. It is amazing that a Bollywood movie gained such huge success in Hong Kong. In fact, Three Idiots has run for 13 weeks since it was released in Hong Kong in September, 2011. It broke the spell that “Normally, a Bollywood Film in China and Hong Kong would run in select multiplexes for 1 to 2 weeks.” (3 Idiots Rocks in China & Hong Kong, 2011)Although it gained high praise in Hong Kong and other Asia countries, the box-office contributed by Asian countries was still limited. According to the statistics from Box Office Mojo, 60.8% box-office of Three Idiots came from India (3 IDIOTS box office, 2011) and it was released in only six other Asia countries (or areas), which are Hong Kong, Malaysia, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia and Taiwan. (3 Idiots)
Why Bollywood becomes popular in Asia
Thanks to Slumdog Millionaire
Slumdog Millionaire tells a story happened in Indian slums. It is made by Hollywood but full of Bollywood characters, which made many audiences mistake it for a Bollywood