”Bollywood jise kehte hain jaadu ka khilauna hai, mil jaye to mitti hai kho jaye to sona hai...”
Amitabh Bachchan and various elite members of this fraternity simply hate to address their Hindi Film Industry as 'Bollywood' and constantly insist that let it be this way only. But truth be told, Hindi Film Industry is known by this term the world over and continues to be searched on google and other search engines by this word only.
The word Bollywood may be a copy of Hollywood but is as original as the Yash Chopra's idea of his heroines dancing around the trees or Dilip Kumar's mannerisms full of Adab and Tehzeeb and Amrish Puri's satanical plans against the protagonist of the film.
The first film ever made in 'Bollywood' was Raja Harishchandra and that was way back in 1913. The film had no audio but still became the flavour of the season. Wish I were born in those times to believe it. Then the first talkie film was Alam Ara that came in 1931 and no one knew that an industry was about to be made that will entice the biggies from world over. And no one knew too that it will produce men and women like Dilip Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, Madhubala and Sri Devi.
I personally love Bollywood ooops our hindi film industry (Mr bachchan might be reading, apologies...though I host a show called Bollywood Reporter...Gustakhi Maaf.) I watch around 4 to 5 films in a week and also get to go through the pain of watching films like Ek Se Bure Do or other complete duds like Ram Gopal Varma Ki Aag.
I get subjected to my friends' envy as they say that I get paid to watch movies Ha Ha Ha... Little do they know what a pain it is to watch all of them together.
Anyway, during my 6 years spent in Mumbai which I terribly miss now, might I tell you that each Friday was euphoria at the box office. If you are a film buff, please do spend a few years of your life in Mumbai.
Just watch stars being made and see flop actors sit next to you in a theatre and curse their fate. Its destiny. One realises while being a film journalist that life is short and destinies can be made in just one Friday. Sometimes losers rule and many walking encyclopedias turn into living failures. Such is Bollywood...oops.
But since 1913 till date, I guess everything has improved, from the technology to the style and class to the feel but one thing remains static, and that is the unpredictability of the medium. In the beginning the redness of cheeks and fluttering of flashbulbs looks good but many a star bite dust.
Bollywood was not made in a day but it does make stars in a day.