Bollywood Shollywood
The Western media'scoverage of Indian cinema remains largely confined to mainstream Hindi films and exotica
"Hey, I need your help. I've to interview that guy but I know nothing about him or Bollywood," said the British journalist beside me. We were at a press conference being addressed by Hrithik Roshan on the sidelines of the Cannes Film Festival 2009. I had not been surprised to see Hrithik stroll down the street virtually unrecognised the previous evening - you can't expect the public to know every artist from every part of the world. This however was not a member of the public. This was a journalist from a reputed media organisation about to interview "that guy".
"First tell me what you know," I replied patiently. She: "I know the usual stuff - that the Indian film industry is called Bollywood, that you make long films with lots of songs and dances, and you don't kiss in your films." Sigh! Where do I begin? "Bollywood is the Hindi language film industry based in Mumbai. India has several flourishing film industries in other languages," I began explaining. "I had no idea," came the surprised response, though Google could have told her what I just had.


