Bollywood Conventions

Due to the fact that we are strongly considering making our coursework with a Bollywood inspired theme, or style, I decided to do some extra research on the typical conventions of a Bollywood film to see how they differed to traditional Hollywood. This is to see what codes and conventions we may need to include in our product to make it realistic. 

Bollywood Codes and Conventions

• Dominance of one or two actors (Usually a male and female)
• Using other forms of performance art such as playing an instrument, singing and dancing
• The presence of a religious figure that all the characters believe in, such as a God or Deity
• Romance is the main plot or subplot in the story (This might include love triangles)
• Large studio sets with elaborate design and decoration
• Films are usually set in Mumbai, India (However, some popular Bollywood films have been set in western cities such as New York City, and London
• Authentic and elaborate costumes, such as traditional clothing (i.e. saris and dresses)
• Other key themes include; melodrama, obsession, and kidnappings.

There are also some traditional gestures and symbols used in Bollywood films such as:

• Seeing someone tug on their ears – When someone tugs on their ears it is usually seen as an apology and the quivalent of saying sorry.

• Seeing someone touch another person’s feet - According to Hindu theology feet are the most polluted part of the body because they are the closet body part to the ground. So when a person touches someone else's feet it is a sign of great respect because they are honoured and touching their feet is a privilege.

• Someone waving their hands over another person’s head - Usually a person will do this to a bride. They will wave their hands over the bride and then make fists of their hands and crack their knuckles on each side of their own head. Whoever does this takes on any evil that may be sent toward the bride.

• A woman wearing red dye in her parting - This red dye is called vermillion and when a woman wears it in her parting, it signifies that she is married and her husband is still alive.

• Kohl is placed on someone’s cheek - When someone looks strikingly beautiful it is assumed that they will attract a lot of jealousy. Therefore, a black dot (kohl) is placed on their face as a blemish to ward off jealousy of a person's perfection.

• When someone presses their palms together - When two characters first meet, one of them will press their palms together and say “Namaste.” This is equivalent to the American/English handshake because it shows the possession of manners. However, it holds a higher level of respect than shaking hands.

Evaluation

After having done this research, I have gained a greater understanding into what codes and conventions of Bollywood films we might want to consider using in our product. We will want to combine some of these conventions with the conventions of a thriller film as well as look at what the audience would like to see in a Bollywood film in order to start planning our final product. We will have to consider carefully which conventions to include because we don't want to make our product to unique and different so it becomes distant to the audience. In addition we will have to think about our target audience when we consider whether or not we want to include some of the traditional gestures or symbols because they could be seen as difficult to understand to a foreign audience. On the other hand we will now be able to use some of the conventions of a Bollywood film to help structure and plan our coursework.