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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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