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| Home > Articles > Indian Cinema V/s Hollywood
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| | Indian CinemaV/s Hollywood
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The Indian cinema and Hollywood have been interrelated in the early days of film in India itself. The inspiration behind Dadasaheb Phalke making Raja Harishchandra was after watching Life of Christ at P.B. Mehta`s American-Indian Cinema. Similarly, some other early film directors were inspired by Western movies. In India at least 80 percent of films shown in the late 1920s were Hollywood movies. Then, J. F. Madan`s Elphinstone Bioscope Company at first focussed on distribution of foreign films and organization of their regular screenings and additionally, J.P. Madan, the prolific producer, employed Western directors for many of his films.
But the connection of both these worlds`s does not limit itself only to get inspired by movies, it has also been accused of plagiarising from Hollwood movies. But, nothing is done about the cases relating to copyright violations, since the law system in India takes a lot of time to provide justice. The Indian film industry is very hesitant in purchasing the rights from Hollywood producers, saying that these would run into millions of dollars. But even if it is true, the rights would be less expensive for Hindi remakes because the price would be based on the audience`s buying power, the economy and the number of bidders.
Today, Indian cinema is becoming increasingly westernized. This trend is most strongly apparent in Bollywood. Newer Bollywood movies sometimes include Western actors, try to meet Western production standards, conduct filming overseas, adopt some English in their scripts or incorporate some elements of Western-style plots.  Bollywood also produces box-office hit like the films Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge and Kal Ho Naa Ho, both of which deal with the overseas Indian`s experience. However, the meeting betwen Hollywood and India is a two-way process: Western audiences are becoming more interested in India, as evidenced by the mild success of Lagaan and Bride and Prejudice.
 Indian cinema is also influencing the English and American musical; Baz Luhrmann`s Moulin Rouge (2001) incorporates a Bollywood-style dance sequence; The Guru and The 40-Year-Old Virgin feature Indian-style song-and-dance sequences; A. R. Rahman, India`s star film composer, was recruited for Andrew Lloyd Webber`s Bombay Dreams; and a musical version of Hum Aapke Hain Koun has played in London`s West End. Some Indians have succeeded in the Western film industry purely on their own terms without showing any Bollywood influence, such as filmmakers Manoj Night Shyamalan and Jay Chandrasekhar. Indian actors like Aishwarya Rai are getting good roles in Western films.
However, Indian cinema, is continiously criticised, for its lack of creativity and its over usage of the same plot line. Movies like Kaho Naa Pyar Hai one of Indian cinema`s biggest hits, had a storyline which was used for generations. Critics also point out that almost every drama film in India, is mainly centered around family, and that each of there dramas are extremely similair to those of soap operas. Indian cinema, is also very celebrity oriented. It should be noted that filmmakers in Bengal, and Orissa, and Tamil Nadu, have extremely talented filmmakers, and have made much better films, than those of Hindi cinema, which is popularly called Bollywood, but none of these films, are even considered for the Indian entry to the Academy Awards.
The major criticism however is that Indian cinema, gives no leverage to new directors, or  actors. Most who are given the chance, have to mould out of their conventional styles, and have to transform to the thoughts of the producers, who don`t care for the artistic aspect of films, but more for the commercial aspect of it, hence the introduction of item numbers and skimpily clad women. Indian cinema is at its lowest level at the moment, and even though a few are trying to lift it up, it will take the entire consesus of both the audiences and the producers, to make Indian Cinema on par with those like the Hollywood, French, Chinese or Iranian films, which are widely credited to be the best in both art as well as in commercialism.
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