Bollywood

Hindi cinema, often known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is the Indian Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai (formerly Bombay). The term is a portmanteau of "Bombay" and "Hollywood". The industry is related to Cinema of South India and other Indian film industries, making up Indian Cinema – the world's largest by number of feature films produced.

There is a mindset in Bollywood that doesn't let Indic ideas flourish. ~ Vivek Agnihotri

Quotes

• That day I learnt that in the big fat world of Bollywood, the problem isn’t whether the pyramid should be inverted or not. The problem is there isn’t any pyramid. ... In Bollywood, stars don't support small, meaningful cinema. They are more inclined to support a leave-your-brains-at-home kind of cinema, if only it can be called cinema. ... There is a mindset in Bollywood that doesn't let Indic ideas flourish.
  • Vivek Agnihotri - Urban Naxals : The Making of Buddha in a Traffic Jam (2018, Garuda Prakashan)

• Sadly, Bollywood doesn’t invest in R&D. That’s why most of our films have no insights to offer. As a result, small, independent films have become the R&D lab for the Indian film industry. These films have to do an extraordinary research, for their only strength is transporting the audience to another universe, where they can feel and relate with the characters, their concerns, and their behaviour. In the mainstream films, the world is unreal, devoid of any real human concern, and the characters are like caricatures. Hence, this kind of cinema ends up becoming ‘Escapist Cinema’. Like a circus.
  • Vivek Agnihotri - Urban Naxals : The Making of Buddha in a Traffic Jam (2018, Garuda Prakashan)

• The Sadhu lynching happened a couple of weeks ago; still no one said a word. It happened in Maharashtra where most of these celebrities reside…Bollywood anyway is a derived name from Hollywood. It is a shame they [Bollywood celebrities] continue to live in a bubble and never fail to jump on the bandwagon, which can give them two minutes of fame, but ‘white people’ must drive the bandwagon. Perhaps, it is because of their pre-independence colonial slavery genes. ... Even for environmental issues, you see them fight for a white teenage kid but so many incredible elderly women and even children. They are doing exceptionally well in India on environmental matters without any help or support. Some of them were honoured with the Padma Shri award. I was amazed to see their stories, but they never get the same acknowledgement from the industry. Perhaps, sadhus or tribal people aren’t fancy enough for the Bollywood crowd or their followers.
  • Kangana Ranaut, Pinkvilla, June 3 2020 [1] [2]

• [Marathi film actress Asha Kale] was popular in Marathi films and known for her extremely "sojwal" (i.e. saintly, goody-goody, suffering doormat, weepy) roles. In this rally, Asha Kale addressed the crowd and revealed her extreme repugnance to injustice and to the very saintliness she was compelled to play in films. She pointed out that often when she played these extremely "sojwal" roles, she actually felt very humiliated and depressed at having to depict "saintly" women who encouraged abuse and injustice by tolerating it in a doormat manner, and (or so she claimed) actually shed tears over this after returning home from the day's shoot.
  • Shrikant Talageri, "Justice" in Sohrab Modi’s 1939 Film “Pukar” and Related Issues , Tuesday, 24 September 2019 [3]

• The "Amar-Akbar-Anthony" brand of film propaganda has always been an indispensable feature of our Film industry. It has served to highlight this "composite" culture, by presenting stereotypes of blatantly West-Asianized Muslims and blatantly Europeanized Christians, insisting all the time on the "Indianness" of these stereotypes…. The entertainment media have played no mean role in carrying on this brand of propaganda. The calculated glorification of Urdu, of Lucknow tehzib, of the Mughals, of gazals and qawwalis, etc., and the subtle ridicule of Sanskritized Hindi, has been a basic feature of the Hindi film industry…
  • S. Talageri, 1993, "The Aryan Invasion Theory and Indian Nationalism"

• So many independent-film-crusaders have turned mainstream-bollywood-flunkies now. These are the same people who used to rant 24/7 about the “system” for attention before they were given entry into the pearly gates of mainstream Bollywood. #Hypocrisy much?
  • Ranvir Shorey (@RanvirShorey) July 21, 2020 on Twitter [4] Hindustan Times

• Kashmiri Files KILLED BOLLYWOOD.
  The MONSTROUS SUCCESS of KF (Kashmir Files) will permanently change BOLLYWOOD in the following ways:
  1. It will start making a lot of serious films on serious issues.
  2. It will start focusing on content and not on stars, budgets and extravaganza.
  3. It will start making films with actors rather than stars.
  4. It will henceforth not depend on songs to make a hit film.
  5. It will finally show its face with pride to world cinema instead of being apologetic about the Indian audience.
  6. Its top 6 or 7 production houses and makers will cease to be at the top and will lose their control because Kashmir Files has proved that anyone can come out of anywhere to sit at the top which is the ultimate democratisation of cinema.
  7. More than anything else it will start taking the audience seriously and not anymore presume them to be mindless dumbos who will only see masala films .”
  “I want to sum up by saying that Bollywood will be permanently divided into 2 eras as pre #KashmiriFiles Bollywood and post #KashmiriFiles Bollywood. I want to touch the feet of @Vivekagnihotri and the entire team of #KashmiriFiles for BREAKING the foundations of BOLLYWOOD so as to BUILD A BRAND NEW BOLLYWOOD.”
  • Ram Gopal Varma quoted in March 2022

• “For the first time in my entire career, I am reviewing a film”. Ram also said, "Kashmir Files released and broke every rule in the book. It doesn't have stars. There is no intention in the director to impress the audience which is what every filmmaker will be trying to do. He wants to impress." He added that from now onwards when any director or filmmaker plans any new film 'they can't help but study and refer back to Kashmir Files'. At the end of the video, he concluded, "I hate Kashmir Files because it destroyed whatever I learned, whatever I thought was right and whatever I thought was in at multiple times. I can't go back and I can't reinvent myself and can't rethink now, 'Oh, this is how it should be made'. No, can't. So I hate Kashmir Files whether it is the director or acting style or it is the way the screenplay was made...I hate all of them because you guys made me and all of the filmmakers I would say lose our identity...I hate all the people associated with Kasmir files but I love Vivek Agnihotri for making this happen." Sharing his review on Twitter, he wrote, “Don’t take at face value that mainstream Bollywood, Tollywood, etc are ignoring the mega success of #kashmirifiles. The reality is they are taking it more seriously than the audiences, but their silence is because they are s*** scared. Watch my review.” He also added, ".@vivekagnihotri single-handedly (footedly) kicked on the following myths a**** 1. Only big stars can get people into theatres, 2. Only mega budgets can get people into theatres, 3. Only #KapilSharmaShow can get people into theatres, 4. Only super hit songs can get people into theatres."
  • Ram Gopal Varma, in [5]