“Bollywood is just one of the Indian film industries”

Transcript: “Bollywood is just one of the Indian film industries”

Kedar: So, this is a very interesting aspect of Indian cinema, right? So, people, most people just know Bollywood. While Bollywood is one of the large industries in India, there are like film industries that cater to sth.auf etw. ausgerichtet, zugeschnitten seincater to each state. 

Mae: Generally, I feel like people, I mean, at least I thought of the Indian film industry as Bollywood, but there’s multiple film industries within India. 

Kedar: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Mae: Bollywood is just one of them. 

Kedar: Bollywood is one of them. 

Mae: So, are they all kind of similar to... what?

Kedar: Maybe Bollywood is the oldest one, I’m not sure. The Indian film industry has, like, really old roots, right? I think, from the 1930s, which were probably Hindi movies to cater to a larger audience. But maybe some aspects of Bollywood have trickle downdurchsickern; hier: überspringentrickled down into other cinema. But the nice thing is each state has its own film industry that cater to sth.auf etw. ausgerichtet, zugeschnitten seincaters to its own state, and the populaceBevölkerungpopulace of its own state, right? And it being India, like my state, for example, is the size of Germany. It has a population of, like, 80 million or so. Yeah, it is a formidablebeeindruckendformidable industry. 

Mae: That makes sense.

Kedar: But the interesting thing is that a local movie made in, say, Sandalwood will get dub sth.etw. synchronisierendubbed and shown in Hindi in the northern parts of India, and similarly, you have Hindi movies that will be dubbed into Kannada and then played in Karnataka. 

Mae: And what about Hollywood movies? Are they shown in India ever? 

Kedar: Yeah, so there are plenty of theatres that screen Hollywood movies. Sometimes, they are dubbed, but most times, at least in the cities, you can find the original version and I remember just going to the English version of the movies. Most often that’s the, those were the movies I would go to when I was a kid. So, I was a big fan of the Marvel movies when Avengers came out and Batman came out. 

Mae: I skip sth.etw. überspringen, sausen lassenskipped all of those. 

Kedar: No, you’re miss outverpassenmissing out, you are missing out. 

Mae: No, I’m not a fan of action. I prefer dancing and singing, like musicals and comedy and non-Hollywood, but kind of, like, independent movies. 

Kedar: Well, Bollywood might just be the perfect thing for you. 

Mae: I know. I actually, um, I went through a phase, a Bollywood phase, um, and I really only remember one of the Bolly­wood movies that I really liked. It was called Hotel Mumbai or Mumbai Hotel. 

Kedar: I think it’s Hotel Mumbai. 

Mae: Hotel Mumbai. 

Kedar: Yeah, it’s about the terrorist attacks in... 

Mae: The Taj Mahal.

Kedar: The Taj Mahal [Palace] Hotel, right? 

Mae: And that was really good. And the other one, which isn’t Bollywood, but it’s also not Hollywood, is Slumdog Millionaire. I think that’s a British production. 

Kedar: I think, yeah, that is a British production 

Mae: But it’s set in India with an Indian cast. 

Kedar: It is. Yeah.

Mae: I recently read an article with the director, who was saying that movie could never be made today because he brought this whole crew from England to make it, and it was basically all in English, and nowadays, it would never get financed because they would insist on, like, an entirely Indian crew. And knowing that there are so many film industries within India, it’s crazy to me that they didn’t just employ the biggest film industry in the world to make that movie. 

Kedar: Exactly, exactly. I mean, for a few years now, Bollywood makes, I think, twice as many movies in a year as Hollywood. So, it is a very robust, experienced film industry, along with the experience of all the other film industries. So, I am certain that there are equally good or even better filmmakers, crews, whatever it takes to make a movie in India. So, I am glad that at least things are take a turn for the positivesich zum Guten wendentaking a turn for the positive. However, I’m not a fan of Slumdog Millionaire.