BOLLYWOOD

If you are in India sooner or later you will notice something: they love movies!!!

India has its own film industry, well known around the world as Bollywood. Although Indian movies have a very modest budget comparing to Hollywood, the amount of films released every year is literally thousands (all the Hindi movies and the regional movies from each state).

But what is it that makes these movies so special?! Well, first of all they are all musicals. There is not a single movie without at least a couple of choreographies between some scenes. All actors are good dancers but they don't sing in the movies. The people singing are professional singers and they have their own fans, too! Another difference is that in all these movies you can find all the ingredients you’d probably find in all soup operas, only that while in the soup opera you have 1000 episodes in the movie you have 2 and a half hours, very often three hours. The movies’ plots are just like we are used to in our countries: good dialogues, bad dialogues, some scenes you’ll remember forever and some you keep trying to forget because you want to be able to sleep again. But something is fascinating: the colors. Everything is India is colorful but this choreographies are just amazing. Even when you don’t understand a single word you keep watching all the colors and all these people on the screen dancing for minutes and minutes. Usually the soundtracks are the music hits we’ll listen during the promotion… Some of the biggest actors from Bollywood are known around the world. All countries in Asia watch Hindu movies and all Indians around the world try to keep updated with the last hits. The result: some of the Bollywood stars are better known around the world like for example Tom Cruise! That means you’ll be in some place in Iran, Nepal or Philippines and everybody will recognize the bollywood stars, while they’d probably have to think a little bit if you show them a picture of some of the Hollywood stars!

Here are some examples of Bollywood choreographies: This video is from Dhoom2, an Indian action movie. The girl is Aishwarya Rai, best known here as Ash. She is like a god here. She is considered the most beautiful woman in the world and she’s a symbol of India.

And here is Ash once more performing a classic Bollywood scene. It's so unique! You just can't believe your eyes when you start watching!

And as well as in Hollywood, we have our hero: Abhishek Bachchan, his dad is also considered as a god in India, but like Enrique Iglesias, this boy was not wasting his time! And of course like in Hollywood, too we have some gossip: Ash and Abhi just got engaged! Wow! They have a lot of movies together, too. Here is a video where you can notice another difference in Bollywood movies: they never kiss!

But you can also find other productions, that for us doesn’t look so charming like the big titles but they are really popular… For different but obvious reasons, again you can’t believe your eyes!

Now after this brief introduction to Bollywood, you will probably be able to understand the humor in this video


Ya hacia tiempo que me apetecía contaros de Bollywood. Esta es la industria cinematografica de India, con unos presupuestos mucho menores que Hollywood, pero con miles de peliculas al anyo literalmente entre las de idioma oficial, Hindi, y las de producción a nivel regional.

Las peliculas, como en todos los sitios, pueden ser buenas, malas o agonizantes. Suelen tener un entramado con todos los ingredientes tipicos de los culebrones, lo que pasa es que mientras en los culebrones tienes 1000 episodios para verlo todo, en las pelis de aquí tienes "solo" dos horas y media o tres... Pero la diferencia principal son las coreografias. Basicamente todas las peliculas son musicales. Las bandas sonoras son los exitos de la radio mientras estan de promoción. Es una fiesta de movimientos, bailes y colores. Uno se queda como atontado mirando aunque no entiendas ni jota de lo que está pasando!!!! Todos los actores suelen ser buenos bailarines pero no cantan; las voces en playback son de otros cantantes que tambien tienen sus fans! Una curiosidad: las peliculas de Bollywood son vistas en toda Asia y por todos los indios viviendo en cualquier sitio del mundo. El resultado es que vas a cualquier sitio de ya pueda ser Iran, Nepal o Filipinas y reconocerán a las grandes estrellas de Bollywood. A esas mismas personas les ensenyas una foto de Tom Cruise y se lo tienen que pensar un poco en dónde vieron esa cara ántes...

Aqui podeis ver una coreografia moderna de la pelicula Dhoom2, una pelicula de acción que ha tenido mucho exito. La chica protagonista es Aishwarya Rai (conocida en el mundo mundial por Ash), todo un simbolo nacional y considerada como la mujer mas bella del mundo, por encima de las bellezas hollywoodienses.

Aqui otra coreografia mas clásica, más de lo que nos viene a la mente sobre Bollywood, interpretada de nuevo por Ash.

Como en Hollywood, tambien tenemos a nuestro heroe: Abhishek Bachchan y como no, tambien tenemos los cotilleos: Ash y Abhi se acaban de comprometer! oooooohhhhh!!!! rios de tinta! Han hecho muchas peliculas juntos, aqui podeis ver otro video. Nótese que en Bollywood no se besa en la boca...

Pero tambien podemos encontrar otro tipo de producciones que puede se alejen un poco de la imagen de Bollywood, pero que son muy populares... Por distintas pero obvias razones tampoco podreis quitar los ojos de la pantalla...

Y despues de esta corta presentación sobre Bollywood, posiblemente vais a poder entender un poco mejor el humor en este video.