Five Major Influences for Bollywood
The format of most of Hindi movies or movies coming out of the Bollywood industry is considered to be almost the same. They will be love stories with certain complications and a happy ending. But the stories are capable of holding the attention of audience, that’s for sure. Here, in this article, let us see some of the things which inspire the world’s largest film industry.
a) Epics from India: The people of India are very much devoted to and influenced by the epic stories like Ramayana and Mahabharata. They are the base-stones which formulated Indian culture. The narrative idea of plots and subplots are certainly taken up from these epics.
b) Ancient Sanskrit Theatre: Almost all of the ancient dramas or theatre works in India gave prominence to one thing- spectacle. This is what held the audience onto the plays. Music and dance were supplementing factors to this spectacle. This ‘spectacle’ element is clearly visible in Hindi movies through Bollywood music and dance.
c) Indian folk theatre: With the slow decline of Sanskrit theatre, folk theatre began to emerge in various parts of India. Bollywood has taken inspirations from narrative techniques and style of these too.
d) Parsi theatre: Melodrama seen in Hindi movies is taken from the Parsi theatre style. Bollywood music has taken great inspirations from the Parsi and Hindustani styles of music. There are also many other things adapted from Parsi theatre to Bollywood like emotional dialogues, dance styles etc.
e) Hollywood: The musicals during the period of ‘Classic Hollywood Cinema’ are, even now an inspiration to Hindi movies. In Hollywood, the era of musicals is gone, whereas Bollywood, even now, follows this style. There are also many remakes of Hollywood movies in Bollywood. These days, there are crossover of talents being done between Hollywood and Bollywood.
a) Epics from India: The people of India are very much devoted to and influenced by the epic stories like Ramayana and Mahabharata. They are the base-stones which formulated Indian culture. The narrative idea of plots and subplots are certainly taken up from these epics.
b) Ancient Sanskrit Theatre: Almost all of the ancient dramas or theatre works in India gave prominence to one thing- spectacle. This is what held the audience onto the plays. Music and dance were supplementing factors to this spectacle. This ‘spectacle’ element is clearly visible in Hindi movies through Bollywood music and dance.
c) Indian folk theatre: With the slow decline of Sanskrit theatre, folk theatre began to emerge in various parts of India. Bollywood has taken inspirations from narrative techniques and style of these too.
d) Parsi theatre: Melodrama seen in Hindi movies is taken from the Parsi theatre style. Bollywood music has taken great inspirations from the Parsi and Hindustani styles of music. There are also many other things adapted from Parsi theatre to Bollywood like emotional dialogues, dance styles etc.
e) Hollywood: The musicals during the period of ‘Classic Hollywood Cinema’ are, even now an inspiration to Hindi movies. In Hollywood, the era of musicals is gone, whereas Bollywood, even now, follows this style. There are also many remakes of Hollywood movies in Bollywood. These days, there are crossover of talents being done between Hollywood and Bollywood.
