Breaking into Bollywood

"Many are from small towns - some drawn by the opportunity of the big city, and others by the superstardom Bollywood represents in the Indian pysche."

By Nishat Kurwa

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India - as a country - is the biggest producer of films in the world...more than 800 new movies a year. But the real star of the show is Bollywood, the Hindi language film industry, based in Bombay. It’s the stuff dreams are made of for one billion Indians - especially the ones who aspire to fame on the silver screen. And Hollywood is so saturated that wannabe starlets from the US and UK are flocking to Bollywood too. Youth Radio’s Nishat Kurwa reports.

Actress Kashmera Shah shimmers in the spotlight for this dance number in her movie - My Bollywood Bride, a cross-cultural feature film set in Bombay and Venice Beach, California. Shah has been in more than 20 Bollywood films...climbing the ladder from modeling, to music videos, and finally, to the movies. Stories like hers inspire hordes of young actors to travel to Bombay, trying to rub shoulders with industry big shots.

Shah says the scene at Film City, a huge Bombay studio, wouldn’t be complete without all the kids waiting to talk to their favorite star - and hoping to get their big break.

KASHMERA SHAH (on tape)
My god, they come every day - I mean we see them at Film City, waiting outside - and then they will start crying!

NISHAT
Many are from small towns - some drawn by the opportunity of the big city, and others by the superstardom Bollywood represents in the Indian pysche.

TEJASWINI GANTI (on tape)
...It's the equivalent of being a TV star, a rock star, a movie star and a sports celebrity all rolled into one.

NISHAT
Tejaswini Ganti has written extensively about the Hindi film industry. Ganti says it’s gotten harder for young actors to break in. She says to make it, they need connections to Bombay social networks, or family ties...specifically, wealthy family ties.

TEJASWINI (on tape)
All the production companies are mostly family-run businesses, the sons and daughters of actors and directors and producers.

NISHAT
But there are cracks in the Bollywood fortress. The biggest new “in”? The dance routines called item numbers. They look like MTV music videos, with fast editing, and beautiful girls cavorting around a bar or disco. Item numbers are inserted almost randomly into a film, nearly unrelated to the plotline.

Producers casting for item numbers hire beautiful unknowns, hoping the promise of a gyrating young lovely will draw in the crowds.

Modeling is another new industry here that emerged in the last decade - and now it’s a stepping stone into Bollywood. In 1994, Indian beauties won both the Miss World and Miss Universe titles - and walked off the ramp, right onto the movie set.

ALEKH SANGAL (on tape)
Here was my first feature...

NISHAT
Or there’s the path Alekh Sangal took. Sangal is one of the six winners of a nationwide talent contest - the “grand prize” is a role in a feature film. American Idol-style contests aren’t the typical route to Bollywood - but Sangal says you have to find new ways to make a name for yourself.

ALEKH (on tape)
You can’t slack here because there is too much competition.

NISHAT
There’s an old cliché that every one of the hundreds of trains that pull into Bombay each day has an aspiring actor on board. And these new paths into Bollywood make the city even more tempting.