Hollywood is the new Bollywood?

Is it Chinese? Is it Indian? NO, it is simply the new American Hollywood film. Are we throwing the traditional movies in the bin, in order for McDonaldisation to take over? I hope not, but it does look like it.

Hollywood is becoming Asianized by actors like Jackie Chan and Jet Li, as the world is getting smaller due to globalisation according to C. Klein (2004:362). Klein also says this is ‘the outcome of Hollywood earning most of their money outside the USA and executives now consider foreign audiences a primary’. (2004:364)

And the Asianization works. With the new income from Asian actors, their loyal followers and fans all over the World support the industry hiring them. ‘It’s a matter of seeing this talent that comes with a built-in audience which we are highly covetous of’. (an observer cited in Klein, 2004: p. 365).

Hollywood going Asian

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GLeFL6030Vc)

On the other hand, Asian film industries are in turn becoming Hollywoodized. If they want to be on the American market, there are several rules and selling propositions the provider ads in order for the best sale. ‘Miramax often modifies them by dubbing them, editing them, altering dialogue, changing titles and creating new soundtracks’ (Alliance, n.d.; Dombrowski, cited in Klein, 2004: p. 372).

In order to achieve the global market, the films must be global too. An example could be ‘Slumdog Millionaire’, a film based on the novel ‘Q & A’ about two people, who fights for their love through their young life in the slum. The movie is western produced by Danny Boyle, but takes place in India and the cast are Indians as well.

Some call it a classical Hollywood Paradigm, but it also has a lot of Bollywood effects like dancing and singing by big crowds in colourful clothes. It is a big mixture of western and Indian outcomes which all come down to one thing, that every one can relate to: love.

The denationalisation of this movie lies in a grey zone:

• ·      Is it supposed to be an English movie? I this is the case; the language is used along an English/Indian as main character.
• ·      Is it an Indian movie? Well, it has several main characters who are Indian, they are speaking Indian and the film takes place in India.

As it looks to me now, the Hollywoodisation is real, and so is the Asianisation. And it is showing us different traditions – not erasing them.

Top 10 of actors in India - A little out of date maybe?

(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lf6eGChwsb8)

Bib:

Klein, Christina 2004, ‘Martial arts and globalisation of US and Asian film industries’, Comparative America Studies, vol. 2, no. 3