Film Industry - 2

                                            ****Continued from the last post****

As time progressed, the audience no longer cared for the histrionics of the people in movies. This generation comprised of actors and not artists, in the sense that they could somewhat act, but not effortlessly. The movies too grew thin on sensible stuff and all of a sudden they were accepted by the audience as well. The success of films in which a bike thief could turn a cop in the sequel to the same movie or where people felt entertained while watching a couple that sold Taj Mahal to a foreigner saying that it is their personal property bears witness to this. The most shocking of all was the one in which a dead mother on her daughter’s eighth birthday, endows her with the mission of getting her father married for the second time! The object of perplexion is that the mother died at the time of child birth and has NOT returned as a ghost either!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Heavens should be knowing how the letter with such an idiotic message landed in the girl's hand.........

The generation that came after this i.e the stars of today, are a bigger marvel. The actors can neither act nor are they exceptionally beautiful (except for a few). Today, all that one needs to do to become and actor is to head to Mumbai, walk the ramp and make sure that he/she appears in ads. Movies happen automatically. Gain footage in Mumbai ; the South Indian films happen on their own as the other way round is quite difficult. The real duty begins after becoming an actor. Whether or not, they like it, they need to do everything in their capacity to STAY IN THE NEWS! THEY CANNOT DARE TO LET PEOPLE FORGET THEM (very much like the politicians). Huge news about having refused to do a film and issuing ‘clarifications’ about not doing one, making “BOLD” statements about pre-marital sex and things of the sort, sporting new looks, walking out of parties or giving them a miss, fighting with co-stars or other colleagues or even changing boyfriends / girlfriends once in 6 months to 1 year are all some of the activities which our “STARS” are compelled to indulge in once they step into the film industry. They need designers to decide on what they should be wearing for a particular event and managers to confirm or deny the rubbish about them in the media. Besides managers, all stars need friends to act as “CLOSE SOURCES” to interact with the outer world. India has a section of the media which is all the time worried about people of this sort who are no better than politicians ; well some of them even step into politics if their innings in the film industry turns out to be a dud while others decently get married. This particular section of the media and the paparazzis must be penalized for having followed people who know nothing but to amass wealth by playing stupid roles or working as “AMBASSADORS” for certain brands. These people are of no practical use to the country or the film industry, either.

The other foolish trend was in assigning specific names to the film industries of each region. After the Hindi film industry turned out to be "Bollywood" the southern industries foolishly followed the suit. The Telugu film industry became "Tollywood", The Tamil film industry became "Kollywood", The Malayalam film industry became "Mollywood" while the Kannada film industry became "Sandalwood". It is said that late Hindi film actor, the legendary Amrish Puri always displayed intolerance towards the word "Bollywood". In his own words, "America has a town by the name Hollywood where films are produced. Hence those films are called Hollywood films. Does India have any town by the name Bollywood? It is a name which the westerners have coined to make fun of us. Please don't take pride in calling our industry as 'Bollywood' as it was meant to be an insulting term ". Even to this day, veteran actors of the industry like Om Puri, Naseeruddin Shah refrain from using the term "Bollywood". Among all the other "woods" in India, 'Sandalwood' makes some sense if not fully. The sandalwood is available in abundance in Karnataka and is of the best quality in the entire country. So taking into account, the term 'Sandalwood' makes sense ; else not.

Hardly anything can be said about the movies and the movie makers of today. They have several tens of millions of rupees to spend on making a movie that lasts for 2 hours but when it comes to paying taxes to the government, all are on the streets saying that taxes would increase the cost of film-making. They have a tendency to obtain the ‘A’ certificate for movies (which means that the movies are strictly restricted for adult viewing unlike ‘U/A’ which allows children beyond 12 years of age and ‘U’ which calls for unrestricted exhibition) in a bid to attract the teenagers! This certificate would tempt the youth to watch the movies with the intention of watching explicit scenes of sexual content. In short, adult certificate is obtained to draw the minors to watching movies and the technique used to obtain the 'A' rating is "REALISTIC PORTRAYAL OF CHARACTERS"!!!!!!!!!!

The mainstream actors have no respect for the people who slog behind the camera in the making of a film, especially the stuntmen. It is said that the stuntmen perform daring stunts, at times without much protection all for a paltry emolument. These stuntmen are needed in a movie because, the “HERO” cannot afford to perform stunts and risk his life as the producer has invested a lot of money on him! There have been reports saying that these people are not even served enough food on the sets while the “STARS” only need to order as to what is it that they need at their disposal. The “HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION” does not seem to have complaints when the stunts performed by unknown people appears to have been performed by the stars,  on the screen, without adequate recognition or payment to the real heroes of an action movie. The plight of these people is so bad that they dare not to ask for more emoluments or even food and security or protection on the sets even when they are hurt as they fear that the producers may refrain from hiring them for the next venture due to their “arrogance” . Absolutely no award such as the “Best Performer of Stunts” is conferred on them.

After having noted the harsh reality associated with the film industry I feel that it would be best to shut it once for all, as it would prevent fame and money from being trapped with unworthy people called actors or stars among them ( To hell with them all!!!). By doing so, the people are not being deprived of entertainment as one would still have a lot of options in the form of pubs, bars, restaurants or live bands ; these are certainly better than the cinema industry as they have no qualms in shelling out any amount of money in the form of trade license or excise duties which are a potential source of revenue to the government unlike the cinema people who land on the streets when taxes are imposed on them. The media certainly would get enough time to indulge in some productive work as a whole lot of unworthy people are wiped out of their scope. As a compensatory move, the government could step in to provide aid to the small time actors who really have been or are indeed struggling to make a living by reposing faith in the industry of fools. Animation films could be encouraged as they glorify the use of technology in entertainment without casting the ills of stardom on the society. Importantly, it would aid the youth in wasting time and money on visiting theaters to watch unworthy fools. We would no longer have people who would burn buses to exhibit their frustration when their iconic star is kidnapped or dead. Students would need not bunk exams to pray for their recovery when their superstars are being treated in hospitals. Everyone would just go about their work!!!!!!!