Bollywood

Focus: Indian Cinema: Why Bollywood is coming to Britain
Independent, The (London), Apr 30, 2000 by SONIA TRIKHA

He was just an ordinary guy, helping to run a theme park outside Paris. And then he got the phone call, the call that would change his life. It was the stuff of dreams - to take command of one of Britain's newest and most notorious tourist attractions. And now, just two months later, he cannot believe his luck. Not only does he get the job, he gets the girl. He is to meet Miss World, the most beautiful woman in the world.
It's a rags to riches story worthy of Bollywood, the Indian film industry, and it is, of course, the story of Pierre-Yves Gerbeau, the French boss of the Millennium Dome, who quit Disneyland in Paris to take over in Greenwich after its original chief executive, Jennie Page, was ousted in February.
Since then Gerbeau has been struggling to boost attendance figures. Even Easter visitor numbers have proven disappointing. But now he has come up with a publicity wheeze to wow the crowds: to bring Bollywood's Oscars to the Dome, and have Miss World, the Indian beauty queen Yukta Mookhey, host the ceremony. It brought him headlines last week, but is there any more to it than that?
For Bollywood film moguls it is a chance to enhance their profiles in a country that, outside of India, has one of their biggest target audiences. With that in mind, Britain has also become a favourite location for Indian films, particularly for song and dance routines.

There are certainly plenty of Bollywood film fans here in Britain, which, along with the United States, forms a sizeable chunk of the 25 million Indian diaspora. These are the people for whom "masala films", as the Hindi song and dance extravaganzas are popularly known, spin their fantasies. This is where 55 per cent of the Hindi movie ticket sales abroad are coming from. No wonder, then, that the Indian film industry, which produces almost 800 films a year, is willing to travel to collect the awards.
Gerbeau can rely on the Indian movie business to provide the Dome with a much needed injection of glamour. Bollywood does glamour as Hollywood did it in the Thirties. The stars are worshipped, and they behave in a manner befitting demigods. On screen the women are all plunging necklines and heaving bosoms, but there is most definitely no kissing and - heaven forbid! - no sex. Innuendo reigns, with fountains gushing forth. Mustachioed villains divide families, but fate intervenes to enable them to live happily ever after. Young love transports the hero and his blushing beloved to idyllic countryside, while music and song blast out.
The formula is so successful that the Indian film industry is now valued at pounds 5.5bn globally. Indian film exports that were about $10m in 1989- 90 climbed up to $100m in 1999. They may be somewhat optimistic, but industry projections for 2000 are targeting $250m. Film-maker Subhash Ghai is calling Indian films the "biggest cultural export after Hollywood". (His own love-triangle musical, Taal - which means rhythm - starred another former Miss World, Aishwarya Rai, and broke into the British Top 10 last year.) And the Indian government recognised Bollywood's cultural importance when it made foreign entertainment earnings tax free last year.
According to Komal Nahata, editor of an Indian cinema-industry guide, movie makers want to create the right mix of "Indian themes and western look" to sell films abroad. In essence, this is often feel-good family dramas, which reflect the relative affluence and cultural activism of its overseas audiences.
The ball was set rolling by Aditya Chopra, whose 1995 Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge (The Brave get the Bride) starred superstar Shah Rukh Khan and the doe-eyed beauty Kajol as two expatriate Indians. The film broke box-office records in India and drew in overseas audiences in droves. Ghai's next enterprise was Pardes which was set in the United States and dealt with the cultural dilemmas of non- resident Indians.
Unfailingly, an Indian film has its song sequences shot abroad, mostly in Britain and Europe. The super-successful young Turk Karan Johar's Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (Something Happened in my Heart) was shot largely in Scotland. He made the decision, he says, because he has "always loved the landscape there". British Asian audiences identified with the look of the film enough to drive out to view it in hordes. Johar's films nearly always star Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Kajol dressed in household- name brands such as Ralph Lauren and DKNY.

Yash Chopra is another film-maker who has opted to film in Europe as part of an attempt to attract bigger international audiences. His new film, Mohbbatein (Love Stories), starring the inevitable Shah Rukh Khan, Aishwarya Rai and also India's most popular star ever, Amitabh Bachchan, is currently being shot at Longleat, the Wiltshire residence of the Marquess of Bath. Chopra also favours foreign locations for their beauty and because "they give you more freedom in shooting away from the crowds of Indian fans back home". Little wonder the British Tourism Authority gave him an award in 1998.