Source: http://villagefilm.com/
Everyone has heard of Hollywood, right? Technically it’s a district located in Los Angeles, California but it’s most notable as being the heart of the American, if not global, entertainment industry. However, the new millennium has seen the emergence of Asian film industries, particularly China and India (Bollywood), which scholars predict will compete against the global film flows of Western dominance (Karan, 2010).
Bollywood, the large Hindi language-based part of the Indian film industry, originating back in 1899. On the other hand, the creation of Hollywood dates back to 1910, 11 years later than Bollywood, with many similarities discovered between these two national film industries. Although it may be more common to hear that Bollywood has remade (or plagiarised, depending on the situation) Hollywood films but more so, it is unlikely vice-versa. Such similarities are an effect of cultural hybridity, which intentionally creates and mixes both local and global cultural elements appealing to current audience tastes and trends. Appadurai (1996 cited in Karan and Schaefer, 2010) emphasises that this cultural mixing of elements in film production are results from the provision of global mediascapes.
As hybridized content continues to spread worldwide, ‘contra-flows’ arise that shifts cultural influence towards the direction of the Global South, blurring boundaries such as modern/traditional, high/low context, and national/global culture (Thussu 2006: 175 cited in Karan and Schaefer, 2010). In the case of Bollywood films, it is exemplified through their ‘soft power’ because, although everyone may not understand the Hindi dialogue, audiences are enraptured by its spirit and glitzy entertainment as shown through the 2008 Oscar-winning British/Indian drama film, Slumdog Millionaire (Tharoor, 2008 cited in Karan and Schaefer, 2010).
Positive impacts of hybridized contra-flows on global film trade are further exemplified through East Asian films industries such as Hong Kong, Taiwan and China. Curtin (2007: 287 cited in Karan and Schaefer, 2010) claims that East Asian film makers have been most successful with mixed unique content such as Chinese martial arts and ‘Wuxia’ storylines. An exemplification would be Ang Lee’s ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’, where success attributed to hybridization as it was an film that could be enjoyed by both Western and Eastern audiences (Lagerkvist, 2009: 370 cited in Karan and Schaefer, 2010).
In conclusion, it appears that Indian (Bollywood) and East Asian are becoming increasingly influential players in the global film industry, also known as ‘Chindia’ (Ramesh, 2006 cited in cited in Karan and Schaefer, 2010). In particular, Indian/Bollywood films stand the best chance in challenging Hollywood’s dominance in the movie industry, demonstrated through the incorporation of ‘Bollywoodism” in mainstream media (Bose, 2006: 195, cited in Karan and Schaefer, 2010). However, the hype of Bollywood doesn’t yet compare to the great influence that Hollywood possesses in global film industry but its their vast potential is undeniable.
References
- Karan, K and Schaefer, DJ, 2010, ‘Problematizing Chindia: Hybridity and Bollywoodization of popular Indian cinema in global film flows”, Global Media and Communication, Vol. 6, No. 3, p. 309-314
- Woke, 2007, Bollywood vs Hollywood – The Complete Breakdown, Mutiny, blog, 1 February, viewed 25 August 2014 <http://mutiny.wordpress.com/2007/02/01/bollywood-vs-hollywood-the-complete-breakdown/>
- Unknown, 2014, 10 Hollywood movies you probably didn’t know were a direct copy of Indian films, IBNLive, viewed 25 August 2014, <http://ibnlive.in.com/news/10-hollywood-movies-you-probably-didnt-know-were-a-direct-copy-of-indian-films/484753-79.html>
- Pranshu, 2014, A Complete List of Bollywood (Indian) Movies copied from Hollywood | Plain Plagiarism, Pranshu, viewed 25 August 2014, <http://pranshu.hubpages.com/hub/a-complete-list-of-bollywood-movies-copied-from-hollywood-plain-plagiarism>
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