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20th AMIC Annual Conference,

24-27 June 2011, AMIC,

Hyderabad

Conceptual paper by Ms. C. N. Archana

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y Need for the paper

y Identical approach of current Indian cinema

y Established relationship of early Indian cinema with

Hollywood Historical contexty Hollywoods experience with Indian Market

y Influence of Hollywood on content of Indian cinema

y Concluding Remarks

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y Indian Film industry to grow at 9.1% compound annualgrowth rate (CAGR), to touch Rs 137 billion by 2014(PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) predictions).

y Global Hollywood, a benchmark to movie-lovers and

movie-makers of India.y Set standards to develop a settle infrastructure, strategic

marketing methods and various indigenous studios.

y Can Indian cinema be an emissary to national

identity under the strong influences of Hollywood?

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y By the end of World War I 85% of films shown in Indiawere American.

y The Indian cinematographic committee in 1927, a toolto counterforce the Hollywood predominance.

y Greatly influenced by technology of Hollywood in1920s.

y Hollywood, a reference point for structuring of studios.y The aftermath of World War II Raise of star system.

y The Charlie Chaplins tramp style of Raj Kapoor in1950s.

y Influence of Avant Grande Hollywood post war movieson lifestyle of youth in 1960s.

y The male gaze action hero during 1975s with theinfluence of Hollywood macho.

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y

Entered India in early 1900s through vertically integrated distributed mechanismsy Enthralled audiences irrespective of class, creed and sex.

y Boosted up with television movie channels, VCD and DVD formats during liberalizedeconomic policies.

y Out of 184 imported films certified by Central Board of Film Certification in Indiabetween April 2009 and December 2009, 130 are from USA(Ministry of Information

and Broadcasting, 2009).

y Releasing in dubbed version of regional languages an extremely popular strategy.

y Horizontal integration to outsource and grab the technical expertise .

y Hollywood technicians to work for India or on India.

y Following the footsteps of Hollywood to identify add-on revenue generating

sources, monetize the content etc.y Entry of cinematic exhibition outlets like Multiplexes.

y Hollywoods co-productions i.e., making Indian movies for Indian audience

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y Common assumptions labeled at Bollywood and other commercial mainstreamIndian cinema are unrealistic, formulaic entertainment for the masses, and a copyof Hollywood films.

y The only deviation from Hollywood i.e., Song and Dance sequences is nowwesternized.

y Fair skin fascination to choose lead female roles in Telugu film industry and / or at

least to hire Caucasian girls to shake the bust or butt to satisfy the voyeuristicpleasures of local audience.

y Most of the movies made in Bollywood are in fact blatantly copied or inspired toadopt storylines are screenplays.

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y Hollywood which is so prevalent in American culture, gives a makebelief aura that the way Hollywood makes the movies is the only wayand the rest possible ways are inferiors to it ((Benshoff, Griffin, 2004)

y Mulveys (1975) influential Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinemaexplains that the male spectator is privileged in the dark theatre toenjoy the female spectacle on the screen with non-mutually extremes:either to devalue, punish, or save woman, the guilty object, or to makeher a pedestal object, as Hitchcock films do.

y Watching cinema is a communal, shared experience, where spectatorsrational ego is lulled in the darkness of the theatre - a place consideredto be no different to a prayer room or a tribal rallying hall (Bischoff ,1993)

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y

Kellner (1998) states that Hollywood has been seamlessly perpetuating themyth of American Dream while propagating patriarchal ideology, includinghierarchical social order and stereotypical female roles, avoiding the reality.

y The Hollywood genres with popular themes taught that money and successwere important values; that the state, police, legal system were legitimate

sources of power and authority; that violence was justified to destroy threats tothe system; and that American values and institutions were basically sound,benevolent, and beneficial to society as a whole (Kellner, 1998).

y Hollywood commercial narrative film is Illusionistic. Theyefface themateriality of the film medium by offering a narrative based principle of unity,

continuity and closure, and through this transparency of form promote anidentification with, and unquestioning acceptance of, the fictional worldoffered by the film (Rodowick, 1994).

y Hollywood thus, is much delineated as tech-narrative but highly misleading.

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