The echo of "Jai Ho" was missing at this years Oscars but the song still reverberate across US and in many parts of the world. A.R Rahman and his Jai Ho brought Mumbai film world into the living rooms of people across the globe, even those that did not understand the lyrics loved and enjoyed the rhythm. While the movie Slumdog Millionaire was not truly an Indian creation, many elements of it had parallels in Indian movies. The song "Jai ho" however had an unmistakable desi stamp to it. I was proud to hear the Hindi song featured in parties, on cruises, at corporate events, or professional conferences. In fact, You Tube is flooded with various versions of song. The song has become a part of any celebration.
The general interest in India's economic success has led to a lot more coverage of India in US press these days and one often hears references to 'Bollywood". Listening into a a radio program about India, a participant innocently asked what is Bollywood all about, of course the response was that it is India's Hollywood, based in Bombay hence Bollywood. I got to wonder hey Bombay changed to Mumbai then it should now be called "Mu"llywood instead of "Bo"llywood !!!. As if this imitation is not enough we have a Kollywood and a Tollywood representing Tamil and Telugu film worlds. Coming to think of it, these names sound funny but I am also curious why no one is applying some creativity to create a distinctly Indian brand.
We have done it for our cities recently why not for the film industry ? Call it the resurgence of nationalistic pride, or plain politics, we have made a big deal about the names of cities. Several cities have decided to roll back to their pre-British raj names, with the idea that those names better reflect the true and original identity of the city and its people. Bombay became Mumbai, Madras became Chennai, Calcutta became Kolkata etc. While not all cities had passionate local political champions, like in Mumbai, to enforce the name change, over a period of time people seem to have gotten used to the new identity. I wonder if Bollywood had any such old name to revert to. I guess not, so it may be a chance to create a distinct new brand identity for India's film Industry. In fact the timing may be perfect for such a change.
Several Indian movies earn more than 50% of their revenues from overseas. Telugu and Hindi movies are routinely released in US on the same day they are released in India, I believe that is true for several other countries as well. 10 years back during my early days in US watching a Hindi movie in a theater was a difficult proposition. We had to travel miles and sit in a run down theater for the sake of viewing a recent release movie. The other option was to watch a horrible quality pirated VHS tape. These days I go to the nearest mainstream multiplex to watch the latest Hindi movie. Indian movies are now part of main stream multiplexes in many cities and play alongside Avatar or Harry Potter.
As things stand today, this emergence of Indian movies on the global multiplex scene is largely supported by the diaspora from India and other south Asian countries. I don't think there is much chance that an American would wander into the theater to watch Ishquiya or 3 Idiots or Rann. It's not for lack of originality or language, but because we may not be doing enough to increase awareness of what Indian cinema produces. The perception largely is that Indian movies are all about weddings, melodrama spiced with song and dance. Its true for many movies but there have been many movies specially over the last few years with original themes that could appeal to any urban audience. If Avatar's Hindi and Telugu version can rake in some serious money in India, why not "Jab we Met" dubbed or subtitled for American audience, after all it's like any many other chick flick churned out by Hollywood. As a matter of fact I think Indian movie makers of all languages should be really worried about the trend of dubbed Hollywood movies making so much money in India. This is only going to increase, with more US distribution companies operating in India, added to that, the increasing English speaking or English aware population means more of the wallet share lost to Hollywood movies.
The Ramgopal Varma's and Vidhu Vinod Chopra's of the world need to create products with wider appeal and bring non south Asians into the movie halls across the world. The first and important step to make this happen is to brand the Indian movie Industry. A brand name that reflects originality, creative insight and displays the cultural diversity of India. A name that reflects originality and Indian-ness will certainly sound better than Bollywood to a movie goer. Indian movie industry has an opportunity to make a mark globally, expand its viewer base, increase revenues, may be in the process even promote India and the worlds' understanding of our way of life.
Being an industry that produces more movies than Hollywood and having a larger movie going population the industry deserves a better name then a tweak of Hollywood.
Amitabh, Amir, Sharukh are you listening ?
