Bollywood Bites VII

First came ved and upnishad (which are "sung" in their original format). Then came shayari and many other forms of music. Then came the musicals (marathi musicals and their stars are famous).



Given the glorious tradition of Indian music and dance forms, it was but natural that the original Indian movie-makers would add song-and-dance sequences to their movies. Thus started the tradition of Indian song fests (with upto 14 songs in one movie. Remember, that's songs, not soundtracks)





When people started getting bored, the directors added "bonus" sightings in their movies, in the form of "item songs". Catering to the so-called front-seaters in the theatres (which are so different from front-benchers in the schools in their behaviour and expectations, but I digress), the item songs also provided an added incentive for people to watch the movies, in the form of their favourite attractive actors (the gender-neutral noun now being appropriate) even if just for 5 minutes or less.



But, it seems now people are not content with watching one actor dancing to a feet-tapping number. Or maybe, it is a very good strategy on the part of director, that almost every person who watches Bollywood movies will get to see their favourite star in this song. I mean, out of 30 actors in a song, every movie-goer should have at least one actor whom he/she likes to watch, right?



Update: I was almost sure that this news was really big enough for "International Herald Tribune" to report, but then I read the word "astronomers" and knew that it was something else (though equally newsworthy).





While we are on the subject of Bollywood, is it only me or does this headline suggest that Suniel (have I missed any e's or i's here?) Shetty is competing with Shakti Kapoor for the recipient of the dialog, "Bhagwan ke liye muze chhod do"?



Click "Bollywood Bites" for other posts in this series.

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