How real is the Bollywood reel?

Growing up in Nigeria, especially in the north, one’s perception of India is shaped largely by the hours and hours of Bollywood movies consumed. This does not just shape one’s thinking but seems to also have influenced northern Nigeria’s film industry, Kannywood, as elements of Indian movies and sometimes a total remake of a Hindi […]

Growing up in Nigeria, especially in the north, one’s perception of India is shaped largely by the hours and hours of Bollywood movies consumed. This does not just shape one’s thinking but seems to also have influenced northern Nigeria’s film industry, Kannywood, as elements of Indian movies and sometimes a total remake of a Hindi language movie can be seen in the Hausa movies.

A recent trip to Mumbai, India, which is the heart of the Bollywood film industry, has reshaped the once movie-induced reality of this reporter. For instance, one discovered that Bollywood, which is the name of the popular Indian film industry, based in Mumbai (Bombay), is just a fraction of the vast country’s cinema. Like you have Nollywood, Kannywood, and ‘Yoruba-wood’ in Nigeria, India’s large film industry has other production centres churning movies in other languages like Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and Bengali among others.

The Bollywood films we grew up watching contain musicals with and catchy music in the form of song-and-dance numbers woven into the scripts. This gives one the perception that while walking down a street in India one would hear spontaneous singing and see meticulously choreographed dancing. This was not the case as this reporter went round Juhu, Bandara and Andheri-west, Kandavali and Goregon; not once did she come across a singing-dancing group.

With the amount of music and dancing in Indian films, one would expect that film/sing/dance schools will be the destination for Indian children but young Priya who has lived in Mumbai for years said: “These schools definitely aren’t as popular or encouraged by the Indian society. Mainstream schooling is considered important and people are largely skeptical about any other hobby such as dance, music, theatre or sports. Such may be kept aside as a side hobby but as a profession, it isn’t encouraged.”

Bollywood directors can be called masters of “picturisation” as the lead actor or actress will often perform carefully choreographed dances with a troupe of back-up dancers where often-than-not there are instantaneous change of costume, and sceneries between verses of a song which are always staged in beautiful natural or grand architectural surroundings.

This gives an avid Nigerian Hindi movie fan the idea that  India is filled with picturesque environment whereas in fact a good number of the song scenes as explained by Rajesh, a tour guide who took this reporter around Mumbai, are shot in western Europe – New Zealand and Austria –  and previously in Kasmir. Of course, this does not mean India does not have picturesque surroundings.

The saree is traditional attire in India. In Bollywood films, actresses are often costumed in beautiful saree’s that have a half-cropped blouse that shows most of their belly and back, but this reporter observed that young girls do not wear the saree as much as middle aged and elderly women and even when they do they wear a full blouse.

Striking up a conversation at the Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport, Mumbai with a lady who simply identified herself as Bindo, on why the reporter had not spotted any girl in short or three-quarter skirts, Bindo explained that the society frowns at girls showing off their legs, reason why most of them would rather go for leggings and pants and even though the saree accompanied by half-cropped blouse is traditional, young girls would rather cover their belly areas to avoid being eve-teased or sexually harassed.

Bollywood plots have the tendency to be melodramatic as the hero tends to be bold, confident, taking up dare-devil challenges. The heroine aside from being beautiful, exude confidence to the extent of being sassy and ‘mini-divas’ who are often accompanied by a throng of girls (were of course she is often the better of them all).

This writer observed that Indian girls are not as forward as portrayed in Bollywood films because in gardens, at the beach, airport or restaurants guys will often come and ask for a selfie: “Excuse me ma’am can I take a selfie with you?” Not same for the girls who steal glances, giggles and whisper to one another and the ones that are bold enough ask their brothers or mothers to do the asking for them.

Cruising through Bandara and Juhu, an area populated by film stars, the tour guide pointed out a couple of houses belonging to professional Bollywood singers who are not actors. Prodding further, the writer realised that songs from Bollywood films are generally pre-recorded by professional playback singers, like Lata Mangeshkar, and Asha Bhosle, and the actors then lip sync the words to the song for the camera while dancing. Even though most actors might not need a body double to dance a routine, few of them actually do sing their songs.

In addition, Bollywood movies aside from those that are centred on extreme poverty usually featured luxurious spacious homes that are akin to palaces in Nigeria, even though Indians live in extended family-styled homes, houses are not as spacious as they are portrayed.

But one thing that rings true is that Indian ladies are generally good looking and they do have luxurious crown of beautiful hair.

Lastly, just like portrayed in Bollywood films, schools girls are expected to part their hair from the middle and braid into two side pony tails or make one all back pony tail braid. This is mandatory said Rajesh, so that “they won’t come to school with their hair styled like those of film stars.”

This reality in Indian probably applies to other movie industries across the globe as they tend to portray a myth that is different from the reality. It also goes without saying that without industries like Bollywood we might never have a near real-life feel of other cultures and countries without reading, which is still different from motion pictures or travelling there which is a luxury that only a few can afford.