Poster of "Little Lori's Monkey God Uncle"
WrestleMania! Daddy" poster
Mysterious Superstar poster
Not long ago, the Indian movie "Little Lolita's Monkey God Uncle" was screened in China, gaining good word-of-mouth and box office, with a total of more than $98 million in the global box office.
From Wrestlemania! From "Daddy" to "Mysterious Superstar" to "Little Lori's Monkey God Uncle", Indian movies have been hotly sought after in China and even throughout Asia over the years.
In fact, since 2005, India's Bollywood has surpassed Hollywood in the United States, and its film production ranks first in the world. While the quantity has increased, the quality has also improved significantly, and films such as "Three Fools Bollywood", "My Name is Kehan" and "Even Drop God" have attracted attention worldwide.
The success of Indian cinema is not achieved overnight, it is inseparable from the efforts and creativity of Indian filmmakers for many years.
An Indian film with songs and dances
Audiences have a traditional impression of Indian cinema as bright colors and brisk rhythms, a group of handsome men and women singing and dancing, and song and dance shots that appear multiple times in a movie.
The famous talk show star Russell Peters, a Canadian Indian immigrant, once joked: "Indian movies must have songs and dances, and no matter what type of movie, no matter what the plot, the actors will dance to the beat of the music coldly." ”
Ridicule is ridicule, but Indian cinema has come all the way in a long process of development.
On May 3, 1913, India's first feature film, King Harish Chandra, directed by local director Don Diragi Bargi, was released. The film is based on the Hindu epic Mahabharata, which tells the story of King Harish Chandra sacrificing his wife and children to fulfill his promise to God. Bargi is thus known as the "father of Indian cinema".
By 1954, the film "Wanderer" had a strong response throughout Asia, and the dance songs "Song of Raz" and "Song of Lida" became popular hits.
Produced in 1971, "Caravan", translated by Shanghai Translation and Production, was released in China in 1979, and its tense and exciting plot and vivid and cheerful dance have opened the eyes of Chinese audiences.
In the 1980s, Indians created their own movie mecca, replacing the letter "H" that began with "Hollywood" with the "B" in Bombay, the film capital of their country, and turning "Hollywood" into "Bollywood". As a result, Indian cinema also opened its own era.
Indian films are diverse in genre
Since the beginning of the 21st century, India's film industry has developed rapidly, with nearly 100 film studios, 13,000 cinemas, more than 500 film magazines and more than 300,000 film practitioners in China, producing nearly 1,500 films every year.
The well-developed film industry also attracts a steady stream of audiences, with as many as 14 million moviegoers per day in India.
Chris Dodd, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, once said: "In 2010 alone, the indian film industry was worth $3.2 billion, which has to be surprising." ”
At the same time, India's film genre has become more diversified, no longer limited to song and dance romance. The emergence of various themes has also made audiences all over the world, especially Chinese audiences, shout: "Indian movies can be so beautiful." ”
Over the years, thrillers have "Unknown Death", "Aralosh Mystery", etc., action movies have "Strike", "Deadly Bollywood" series, etc., science fiction films have "Bollywood Robot Love", Indian version of "Iron Man" and so on...
Among them, "Three Fools Bollywood" is the most well-known to the audience. The film profoundly satirizes the Indian education system in laughter and anger, and the film also has a nuanced depiction of ideals, family relationships, friendships, etc.
Another "Bollywood Robot Love" combines science fiction, action, song and dance, love, the story is full of imagination, but it is not divorced from Indian culture and values. The large scenes and special effects shots that cost the film 250 million yuan were very shocking.
Bollywood is a star-making factory
The booming film industry also made Bollywood a star-making factory, most notably Saruk Khan, Salman Khan and Amir Khan, all of whom, interestingly, have "Khan" in their names.
Shah Rukh Khan is known as the "Bollywood Tom Cruise", and his popularity coincided almost in tandem with the rise of Bollywood. His 1995 romantic film "Courage to Win hearts" has not been offline until now, which is a miracle in India; and the epic blockbuster "Ashoka" he starred in not only sold well at the box office, but also won the Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film that year.
The Indian critic Raja D'Yaksa joked: "In India, Shah Rukh Khan is more famous than Indira Gandhi. ”
Looking at Bollywood for nearly two years, Amir Khan's popularity has greatly surpassed that of Shah Rukh Khan. He starred in "Three Fools Bollywood" in India box office is 3 times the Hollywood blockbuster "Avatar", the film has also attracted a lot of attention around the world, many fans say Bollywood think of Amir Khan.
Previously, he had already become a Bollywood A-list star with films such as "Stars on Earth" and "Once Upon a Time in India", and in recent years, "WrestleMania!" New works such as "Daddy" and "Mysterious Superstar" have once again ignited super popularity.
The third star, Salman Khan, is Bollywood's premier action movie star. At one time, his two works, "Operation Tiger", and "Fearless Police Officer 2", were the top two in the Indian box office list that year. Of course, as an action movie star, he also tried to shoot literary and artistic films, and the new work "Little Lori's Monkey God Uncle" was praised by many parties.