Bollywood calling

Never would I have imagined that Bollywood would be interesting to a country like Germany where their own language is so dominant in every form of communication and are almost perceivably xenophobic. In fact it has become so popular that there is at least one Bollywood movie every month on some of the German channels.

Friday, when I was going home from office in the bus, the driver asks a friend and me "Have you seen 'Sometimes Sad, Sometimes happy'?". We then realized he was refering to Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. He went on for the rest of the 10 min ride about the movie and how he loved it. Kal Ho Na Ho(Indian Love Story) too was a big success. All the major shops have these DVDs. Based on the success of these 2 movies, a whole bunch of Indian movie DVDs are getting onto the mainstream shopping lines.

I was wondering why these movies are catching the interest of people in Germany. Asked a few people. An interesting comment that I got is the idea that India has managed to hold on to its culture (based on the movies) in the face of globalization [Sidenote: Dont know how much these 2 movies are really about Indian culture].

In fact, I think Germany is going through a difficult time of trying to hold on to their culture but losing out slowly to the American corporate invasion. Given their dilemma at this, they are appreciative of the strength of the Indian culture and tradition.

I just hope that is the case. I think it is just a matter of few years when we will be going through this conflict in India and our generation is the one which will have to really struggle especially when the next generation comes along. It is really important we are clear about our bearing or else in a few years, we will be in the same boat.