Mix Hollywood with Bombay and What Do You Get?    "Bollywood: India and the West Meet On The Big Screen"

By Neeti Dewan, The Executive Yogi™   So, what is Bollywood?    Bollywood is the nickname for world's largest film industry based out of the Bombay (now called Mumbai), India.  The word comes from a combination of two words - Hollywood and Bombay.

The goal of an Indian movie is to transplant you to another world, where you can forget about your daily lives and indulge in fantasy for a few hours.

Watching movies is the favorite pastime of most Indians.  It is not unusual for someone to watch the same movie over and over again, especially if the music is good.    The Indian movie industry produces over 800 movies a year.  (Yes, that’s 800!!!)   Music is an important part of any Bollywood movie.  A.R. Rahman is the most popular composer in India and writes the music for a large number of Bollywood movies.    In a typical three-hour Indian movie, the audience expects to see a mix of drama, love, social issues, and no movie is complete without five to ten song-and-dance numbers.  Indian actors for the most part do not sing the songs.    The songs are pre-recorded by professional singers and the actors lip-synch to the songs on screen. The song and dance numbers may feature as many as a hundred dancers and can be extremely elaborate.  Often, movie goers will watch the movie not for the storyline, but for the songs and dances.  In India, singing and dancing to movie songs is a popular way for people to pass their time.

If you want to experience the thrills of Bollywood musical movies, you can begin with "Bride and Prejudice," produced by Gurinder Chadda.    The movie is in English and features several dance numbers.

Don't expect to see any on-screen kissing or steamy scenes.  Until recently, onscreen kissing or nude love scenes were banned from Indian cinema.  However, due to Western influences, recent movies have been pushing the envelope when it comes to these issues.    You'll even notice quite a bit of English phrases used in more recent movies and actresses who traditionally wore "sarees" are now seen in a mixture of Indian and Western outfits.  New releases provide English subtitles for their Western audience or second generation Indians growing up in the West.

Bollywood in turn has influenced Hollywood. Did you perhaps see "Moulin Rouge” with Nicole Kidman?  Ms. Kidman and Baz Luhrman, Moulin Rouge's director, selected the popular Indian song "chamma chamma" for their movie musical.  It is even rumored that Nicole took some dance pointers from the lead Indian dancer who performed to the original song in the Indian movie "China Gate."

Western countries like Australia, Ireland, and the U.K. are trying to attract the Indian film industry.  Most films are shot with exotic scenery and backgrounds, and the governments in these three countries are hoping to bank on the Indian tourists watching their locale on screen and deciding to travel to those worldwide spots.    As Indians get comfortable with western culture, they will watch more western movies. (James Bond movies are already popular.)  Western audiences may be in for a delightful surprise if they indulge themselves in an Indian movie with English subtitles.    How about checking out “Bride and Prejudice” which is currently playing on cable TV in the US?  Or if you'd like a taste of Bollywood music, dancing, and pulsating video clips from Bollywood, you can experience them on July 16, 2006  when A.R. Rahman performs LIVE at the Hollywood Bowl in Hollywood, California.

Neeti Dewan is The Executive Yogi™.  She serves on the Advisory board of Givingyouavoice.com Magazine and also is a reporter and columnist for the magazine.

She is a Board Certified Public Accountant and has worked for Fortune 500 companies in this capacity. Currently she serves as Director of Tax for Aramark in the Los Angeles area, a $10 Billon dollar business. Additionally, she was part of the PricewaterhouseCoopers Tax Consulting practice and CEO of her own consulting business which provided finance and accounting services. She is the recipient of the Small Business Administration “Small Business CPA Advocate of the Year Award.” She is a Los Angeles Event Leader for Board Room Bound, a nonprofit organization that helps companies find pre-qualified women and minority candidates for corporate board service. She also serves on the Alumni Advisory Board of PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP. She has served on the Board of National Association of Women Business Owners and was Co-Chair of its Networking Chapter in the Los Angeles area. Neeti has also served as Business Mentor for Valley Economic Development Center. Neeti is an accomplished public speaker and has presented at Hughes Electronics, British Petroleum, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Institute of Professionals in Tax, local churches, California State Board of Equalization, Tax Executives Institute, and Economic Planning Board.  She is an active member of the Los Angeles Press Club and is an Event Leader for the Launch of Board Room Bound Los Angeles.   Neeti is a graduate of California State University, Northridge (“CSUN”) with a degree in Bachelor of Arts, Economics. She served on the Board of the Student Union at CSUN. She can be contacted at Neeti@TheExecutiveYogi.com.

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