nly makes song-and-dance spectaculars, according to a British film scholar. “After Satyajit Ray there is hardly any Indian filmmaker whom people know of in the rest of the world, Europe in particular,” UK-based film historian and author Geoffrey Nowell-Smith said. He said Ray has been the most famous Indian filmmaker globally and now the general perception in the rest of the world is that India makes...
only song-and-dance spectaculars and a few adventure stories. He said Ray’s films like ‘Pather Panchali’ has the unique capacity to be universal and particular at the same time which makes his work popular even today in Europe. A recent retrospective of Ray’s films were a hit in London. According to him, best known representatives of Indian art cinema have been Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik Ghatak, all from West Bengal. “But now people think that Indian cinema is only Bollywood. Regional Indian cinema is hardly known outside,” Geoffrey said. On audience of Indian films abroad, he said those not of Indian origin hardly take any interest. Geoffrey, editor of The Oxford History of World Cinema, was here to deliver a talk on transnational cinema at the British Council. “The audience comprises NRIs and also people from Pakistan, Arab world and a few Europeans,” Geoffrey said. Indian cinema in Britain is, however booming, if one considers the ticket rates. “Tickets for shows of Bollywood films in the West End London cost 10 pounds, the same as for Hollywood. Tickets for live appearances of stars like Shahrukh Khan cost even more,” the scholar said attributing the commercial boom to the large immigrant Indian population in the UK. For popular Indian cinema the main market remains domestic, while for art house cinema it is all about international recognition which comes in the form of awards at Cannes, Venice or Berlin, he said, adding that Indian cinema is a long way from conquering the mainstream. “Indian films are rarely reviewed or advertised in the national (British) press. Indian TV channels draw the bulk of their advertising revenue from travel agents offering cheap flights to Mumbai,” he said. On his opinion of the so-called new wave of content oriented films in Bollywood, he said, “All I can say is that there is slightly more sex now in Hindi films than what used to be ten years ago. The dance movements, in particular, are much more sexier”.
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