Cast and crew
- for further details see Indian movie actors, Indian movie actresses, Indian film directors, Indian film music directors and Indian playback singers
Bollywood employs people from all parts of India. It attracts thousands of aspiring actors and actresses, all hoping for a break in the industry. Models and beauty contestants, television actors, theatre actors and even common people come to Mumbai with the hope and dream of becoming a star. Just as in Hollywood, very few succeed. Since many Bollywood films are shot abroad, many foreign extras are employed too.[58]
Stardom in the entertainment industry is very fickle, and Bollywood is no exception. The popularity of the stars can rise and fall rapidly. Directors compete to hire the most popular stars of the day, who are believed to guarantee the success of a movie (though this belief is not always supported by box-office results). Hence many stars make the most of their fame, once they become popular, by making several movies simultaneously.
Only a very few non-Indian actors are able to make a mark in Bollywood, though many have tried from time to time. There have been some exceptions, one recent example is the hit film Rang De Basanti, where the lead actress is Alice Patten, an Englishwoman. Kisna, Lagaan, and The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey also featured foreign actors. There is also Emma Brown Garett, an Australian born actress, who is starring in a few Indian films.
Bollywood can be very clannish, and the relatives of film-industry insiders have an edge in getting coveted roles in films or being part of a film’s crew. Industry connections are no guarantee of a long career: competition is fierce and if film industry scions do not succeed at the box office, their careers… Continue reading
DIRECTORS who couldn’t top their first FILM
- farhan akhtar – dil chahta hai – don 2 is to be seen, but farhan akhtar hasn’t been able to churn out a film as well written and fully realized as dil chahta hai.
- aditya chopra – dilwale dulhaniya le jayenge – mohabbatein was ridiculously camp, rab ne bana di jodi started off brilliantly and then bit the dust hard, but DDLJ has proven to be not just timeless, but the longest running hindi film in indian history (yes, really. how could that possibly be?)
- karan johar – kuch kuch hota hai -
- nikhil advani – kal ho naa ho – for all the advani supporters that refute rumors and speculation that karan johar had to jump in as director to save the film, perhaps watching the half baked films advani directed post KHNH will allow the issue to finally rest
- maneesh sharma – band baaja baraat – the verdict is out and sharma’s second film wasn’t half as exciting as his flash-in-a-pan runaway first film, but he definitely packs promise so we’re waiting and definitely watching.
- imtiaz ali – socha na tha – on the fence on this one, but there are many who believe that while not as successful at the box office, socha na tha is ali’s best film to date. also, wtf was rockstar? a fantastic ranbir kapoor performance does not make a film good
- mira nair – salaam bombay – as amazing as monsoon wedding was, nothing touches nair’s first film. rewatch it and you’ll see.
- sanjay leela bhansali – khamoshi – hum dil de chuke sanam was great, and the only good things about black were brave performances and brilliant cinematography, but the rawness and honesty of khamoshi remains bhansali’s best film to date.
these are just our opinion…discuss and add.
Modern cinema
In the late 1960s and early 1970s, romance movies and action films starred actors like Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Sanjeev Kumar and Shashi Kapoor and actresses like Sharmila Tagore, Mumtaz and Asha Parekh. In the mid-1970s, romantic confections made way for gritty, violent films about gangsters (see Indian mafia) and bandits. Amitabh Bachchan, the star known for his “angry young man” roles, rode the crest of this trend with actors like Mithun Chakraborty and Anil Kapoor, which lasted into the early 1990s. Actresses from this era included Hema Malini, Jaya Bachchan and Rekha.[21]
Some Hindi filmmakers such as Shyam Benegal continued to produce realistic Parallel Cinema throughout the 1970s,[30] alongside Mani Kaul, Kumar Shahani, Ketan Mehta, Govind Nihalani and Vijaya Mehta.[17] However, the ‘art film’ bent of the Film Finance Corporation came under criticism during a Committee on Public Undertakings investigation in 1976, which accused the body of not doing enough to encourage commercial cinema. The 1970s thus saw the rise of commercial cinema in the form of enduring films such as Sholay (1975), which solidified Amitabh Bachchan’s position as a lead actor. The devotional classic Jai Santoshi Ma was also released in 1975.[31] Another important film from 1975 was Deewar, directed by Yash Chopra and written by Salim-Javed. A crime film pitting “a policeman against his brother, a gang leader based on real-life smuggler Haji Mastan“, portrayed by Amitabh Bachchan, it was described as being “absolutely key to Indian cinema” by Danny Boyle.[32] The most internationally acclaimed Hindi film of the 1980s was Mira Nair‘s Salaam Bombay! (1988), which won the Camera d’Or at the 1988 Cannes Film Festival and was nominated for the Academy Award for… Continue reading