From Bollywood to Hollywood
An Insight into the vibrant colours, dance and film
My stay in India was nothing less than extraordinary. The colours, the aromas and the dancing were not to be missed and it truly lived up to my expectations. As much as I enjoyed my first few days In New Delhi this was not the reason for my visit to India. My destination was Mumbai or formally known as Bombay to explore the roots of Bollywood. It is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and is one of the most populated cities in the world with a population of 20.5 million people. Mumbai is the Bollywood film centre of India and many films such as Mother India, Salaam Bombay and Lagaan were filmed there.
After a long journey on the metro train from New Delhi to Mumbai and a very hectic ride on an Auto rickshaw, a three wheeled vehicle with no doors, I was met by my guide a middle aged woman named Chaitali, who was going to lead me on my journey to discover the Indian film industry known as Bollywood. Bollywood is a Hindi-language film industry in India. Bollywood films are usually musicals and are made up of songs and dance. The bollywood genre of dance has been a new style of dance that has only just recently started to steal the limelight in countries all over the world. As well as the song and dance a key part of Bollywood is the vibrant costuming that is recognized all over the world. Chaitali took me to the Mumbai Film City where I was to get a firsthand experience of this world wide phenomena.
When I arrived I was greeted by Aamir Khan a current Bollywood Actor and Kamal Hassan who was once a Bollywood actor and now directs Bollywood films. They were going to explain to me the ins and outs of Bollywood.
Kamal explained that dancing, music and costuming are very key parts to a Bollywood film. Bollywood dancing is about story telling. The songs that the dances are performed to are from and for movies so the dancing is about portraying a character and trying to give off a certain vibe or emotion. It may be a love song, seduction song, sad song etc and the dance is performed to suit the song. The dancing is a mix of classical Indian dance as well as a variety of Indian folk dances. The music is important to help the dances to portray emotion and to express emotion. The costuming in Bollywood movies are really what takes everyone’s breath away. The costumes are used to reflect the emotion that the dancers are trying to present to the audience. In spite of this the costumes are always vibrant and covered with gold or silver embroidery. Each costume is unique from another with many different patterns from one costume to another. An essential part of the Bollywood look is the jewellery. Lots and I mean Lots of jewellery is worn, bangles upon bangles, numerous necklaces, big eccentric earrings and big headpieces. The reason for wearing lots of bangles is to get the jingling noise which truly reflects the heart and soul of Indian culture and brings the sounds of the Indian market place to life.
After spending time talking to Kamal and Aamir I went to see a film in the making. The amount of discipline of the actors and dancers was incredible. Seeing the making of a film in real life makes you appreciate the hard work that has to be done