Bollywood embracing trash of the west: Tannishtha Chatterjee ‎

[1983-2011]

Actress Tannishtha Chatterjee, who has kept her distance from typical Bollywood potboilers, skin show and the glamourous look, feels the Hindi film industry is not adapting the right elements of western filmmaking. Several actors like Deepika Padukone, Bipasha Basu and Paoli Dam have recently dared to bare in their movies. Asked if she is comfortable with the idea of exposing on screen, Tannishtha told IANS: "I have nothing against pornography. Personally, I don't think I want to be a porn star." "But anywhere in a literate world in a cultured society, that is an alternative culture existing. Unfortunately, we are embracing the trash of the west and that's very sad." She says ignoring skin show is not the solution. "I am not saying that pornography does not need to exist. It has its own space, but I think you should make serious stuff for the mainstream," she added. However, she is very happy in her own space with projects like British film Brick Lane and Indian films Road, Movie and her next, Mangesh Hadawale's Dekh Indian Circus. She is glad that alternate cinema is now being appreciated by the country's audience. "I am very happy here. I think more interesting stuff is happening in this space and in the last two years, we need to question what is commercial because a lot of what we call 'other kind of cinema' is embraced and appreciated by our younger audiences," Tannishtha said. "Big examples are Paan Singh Tomar and Vicky Donor -- none of them is in the cliched Bollywood space. But people loved them despite the fact that there were no big promotions," she added.

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Entertainment/Bollywood/Bollywood-embracing-trash-of-the-west-Tannishtha-Chatterjee/Article1-866405.aspx

[Lurker]

Only Bollywood? Why not whole of India? Arent we all ready to become more Western than Indian? Be it from learning language to travelling. Bollywood surely aint the reason why more kids in India love McDonalds than their Mom's paranthas. Bollywood only reflects the larger society.

[Crookbond]

Does it have to be either OR? Can't we imbibe the western culture AND be Indian? I'm sure there are good things in the west too. :dontknow:

[Tiger-Don]

Not just in India but Bangladesh too, in fact the whole South Asia! Nowadays people dont even know how to speak their languages the right way....mixing their own language with english.....shame on us!

[Lurker]

Does it have to be either OR? Can't we imbibe the western culture AND be Indian? I'm sure there are good things in the west too. :dontknow:

Yes we can, but we don't. Lets not confuse the two. A quick example. It is fairly common in the West to see people use mass transit, bus/train etc. And in summers you will often find people biking to work. In India how often do you see a rich guy step into a bus, much less ride a bike? And if he does step on the bus chances are somebody else will say - Sir aap bus par? Sab khairiyat to hai . As odd as it may sound, we by and large pick the bad things of the people, or West. On principal I would agree with you that we should embibe good values from others. Heck there was a beautiful song written in yesteryears... Jo jis se mila sheekha humne, gairon ko bhi apnaya humne matlab ke liye andhe ho kar roti ko nahi pooja humne... (Hum us desh ke waasi hain, jis desh mein Ganga behti hai)

[Clarke]

A quick example. It is fairly common in the West to see people use mass transit' date=' bus/train etc. And in summers you will often find people biking to work. In India how often do you see a rich guy step into a bus, much less ride a bike? And if he does step on the bus chances are somebody else will say - [i']Sir aap bus par? Sab khairiyat to hai .

What's the exact benchmark of comparison ? You expect someone really well off to travel in a packed Mumbai local train or ride a bicycle on our roads to meet your standards ? Is the Delhi metro's popularity all nonsense ? Your larger point is somewhat valid in many cases, for instance the reality shows and 24/7 news media nonsense. But we didn't drop all of our clothes, there's still cut-throat competition for any IIT/IIM/AIIMS/IAS seat. Less than 5% of India must regularly eat western fast food. That's maybe because either parent doesn't have time to cook. You might say that its a western trait that's not desirable but is it because we adopted a desirable one i.e. more women at the workpace ? My point is society hasn't really gone that bad. Capitalism has brought in greed & stupidity along with prosperity to some but there's higher expectations of transparency and greater urge to combat the evils handed over by the past generations i.e. female infanticide, caste system, superstitions among others. Its a glass half full, and i'm hopeful for the future.

[Brainfade]

Yes we can, but we don't. Lets not confuse the two. A quick example. It is fairly common in the West to see people use mass transit, bus/train etc. And in summers you will often find people biking to work. In India how often do you see a rich guy step into a bus, much less ride a bike? And if he does step on the bus chances are somebody else will say - Sir aap bus par? Sab khairiyat to hai . As odd as it may sound, we by and large pick the bad things of the people, or West. On principal I would agree with you that we should embibe good values from others. Heck there was a beautiful song written in yesteryears... Jo jis se mila sheekha humne, gairon ko bhi apnaya humne matlab ke liye andhe ho kar roti ko nahi pooja humne... (Hum us desh ke waasi hain, jis desh mein Ganga behti hai)

Forget all this complex imbibing. Let's imbibe simple punctuality first. It's almost a given that - at any party - the PIOs are the ones sauntering in an hour late. And they make no apologies for it. Complete and total disrespect for time.

[Lurker]

Forget all this complex imbibing. Let's imbibe simple punctuality first. It's almost a given that - at any party - the PIOs are the ones sauntering in an hour late. And they make no apologies for it. Complete and total disrespect for time.

Yep, thats a favorite pet peeve of mine too. Have you ever read how John Wooden (the legendary basketball coach) landed at UCLA? If not do read it, you will enjoy it :winky: (it has to do with the punctuality thingy)

[Lurker]

What's the exact benchmark of comparison ? You expect someone really well off to travel in a packed Mumbai local train or ride a bicycle on our roads to meet your standards ? Is the Delhi metro's popularity all nonsense ?

I sense you getting overly sensitive here. Put it simply, do you see a mid 20s/30s half-decent chap in India biking to work? Yes or no shall do.

Your larger point is somewhat valid in many cases, for instance the reality shows and 24/7 news media nonsense. But we didn't drop all of our clothes, there's still cut-throat competition for any IIT/IIM/AIIMS/IAS seat.

Whats that got to do with what I have said??

Less than 5% of India must regularly eat western fast food. That's maybe because either parent doesn't have time to cook. You might say that its a western trait that's not desirable but is it because we adopted a desirable one i.e. more women at the workpace ?

Generally speaking an Indian who has travelled/lives abroad is fairly comfortable cooking, cleaning, laundry, doing chores when abroad, and when he goes back home it is back to dai-naukars, biwi/mummy doing for him/her. Agree/disagree?

My point is society hasn't really gone that bad. Capitalism has brought in greed & stupidity along with prosperity to some but there's higher expectations of transparency and greater urge to combat the evils handed over by the past generations i.e. female infanticide, caste system, superstitions among others. Its a glass half full, and i'm hopeful for the future.

Not sure where you picked that notion. My intent was clearly to show how we are aping West in many ways, some of which are bad. Somehow we havent picked the good traits. Do you disagree with this notion?

[Clarke]

Forget all this complex imbibing. Let's imbibe simple punctuality first. It's almost a given that - at any party - the PIOs are the ones sauntering in an hour late. And they make no apologies for it. Complete and total disrespect for time.

How did that get into our mindset ? The two things i recall from the earliest days are - Sarkari thing. A socialist society desired a stable govt job with pension as opposed to the few private sector ones. The sarkari job did not always demand punctuality & that basically creeped into other realms of life ? - Cant go early to parties, cant be seen as greedy to gobble free food. This was a common joke but was there some truth to the thought process of judging others ?

[Clarke]

I sense you getting overly sensitive here. Put it simply, do you see a mid 20s/30s half-decent chap in India biking to work? Yes or no shall do.

Mate, you don't see a big difference between using a bike in 2 cities of India & US/Europe respectively ? The avg temperature and Nitrous Oxide levels, the road quality & presence/absence of bike lanes, the general adherence to traffic rules. Why ignore the ground reality in each case by making a straightforward comparison ?

Whats that got to do with what I have said??

Some of our values are still around, just saying.

Generally speaking an Indian who has travelled/lives abroad is fairly comfortable cooking, cleaning, laundry, doing chores when abroad, and when he goes back home it is back to dai-naukars, biwi/mummy doing for him/her. Agree/disagree?

Fully agreed. But then NRIs are again a miniscule, rather trivial subset of the McDonalds crowd. What about the average Indian who has newly found prosperity in the recent decade or two ? I don't think this western fast food fad is about mimicing the west, just the massive amount of advertizing and exposure to consumables, the 24/7 television & the internet in our faces that has affected all of the planet. Even the increased consumption of fast foods and higher levels of obesity in the developed world is a relativelty recent phenomenon.

Not sure where you picked that notion. My intent was clearly to show how we are aping West in many ways, some of which are bad. Somehow we havent picked the good traits. Do you disagree with this notion?

Oh ok, i got a very negative vibe or something since the topic started with bollywood but got to society pretty fast. Yes, there's quite some to learn from the west, there's no two ways about it. They could learn a thing or two from us Asians, live within your means and don't drag the entire world into recession :hitler:

[rkt.india]

Only Bollywood? Why not whole of India? Arent we all ready to become more Western than Indian? Be it from learning language to travelling. Bollywood surely aint the reason why more kids in India love McDonalds than their Mom's paranthas. Bollywood only reflects the larger society.

There is nothing like Indianness actually. From 1000s of years, we have absorbed and accepted everything which has come our way, good or bad, from religions to traditions, from eating to drinking, apparels, science, agriculture, medical science, etc. No other civilization and country has that virtue and this is a virtue in a way because this makes this country a country even with so many diversities in not in just every state, but you will find at a every few 100 kilometers. This ability to absorb, tolerate, and accept others has made this country unite till now.

[Lurker]

There is nothing like Indianness actually. From 1000s of years, we have absorbed and accepted everything which has come our way, good or bad, from religions to traditions, from eating to drinking, apparels, science, agriculture, medical science, etc. No other civilization and country has that virtue and this is a virtue in a way because this makes this country a country even with so many diversities in not in just every state, but you will find at a every few 100 kilometers. This ability to absorb, tolerate, and accept others has made this country unite till now.

I appreciate your sentiment, really do, but in my humble opinion it is overly misplaced. The 1000 year intermingling and creation of a composite "Indianness" had something inherently at its core - mixing of people/cultures/traditions. That is not what is happening here. It is not exactly that a bunch of Americans have moved to India and Indian literature has become rich due to their presence. This whole concept of aping West, specially United States, is weird because a) It is a one way street. They dont ape us, we ape them. b) Nobody is coming here and sharing "ideas", in most cases we are blatantly plagiarising it (the subject at issue here). Mughals came to India, lived, died and are buried here. They made India rich. Tom Cruise and Steve Jobs did not. See the difference :winky:

[Lurker]

Mate, you don't see a big difference between using a bike in 2 cities of India & US/Europe respectively ? The avg temperature and Nitrous Oxide levels, the road quality & presence/absence of bike lanes, the general adherence to traffic rules. Why ignore the ground reality in each case by making a straightforward comparison ?

Fair enough. I suppose you have taken my comparison far too literally, or maybe I was not very clear. The intent was primarily to show that given a choice most people, specially well-off people in India would use their personal mode of transport. This is not something that I see in the West, and I appreciate that. It was just an example of a good thing that can be used as an example back home.

Fully agreed. But then NRIs are again a miniscule, rather trivial subset of the McDonalds crowd. What about the average Indian who has newly found prosperity in the recent decade or two ?

NRIs were picked as an example. Typically speaking an average Indian does not do his home chores, specially men. Heck I didnt do that myself. In my Mumbai days we had a maid who would show up to cook twice a day and clean. Well guess who started cooking and cleaning when I showed up overseas. That was the point really. This is not to suggest all is well with West, or all is bad with us. But that in this modern world we know a lot about India and West and we know exactly what is good and often we dont pick it.

They could learn a thing or two from us Asians, live within your means and don't drag the entire world into recession :hitler:

Oh I absolutely agree. West can learn a lot from us, I think they definitely understand and appreciate India today.

[CG]

Fair enough. I suppose you have taken my comparison far too literally' date=' or maybe I was not very clear. The intent was primarily to show that given a choice most people, [u']specially well-off people in India would use their personal mode of transport. This is not something that I see in the West, and I appreciate that. It was just an example of a good thing that can be used as an example back home. NRIs were picked as an example. Typically speaking an average Indian does not do his home chores, specially men. Heck I didnt do that myself. In my Mumbai days we had a maid who would show up to cook twice a day and clean. Well guess who started cooking and cleaning when I showed up overseas. That was the point really. This is not to suggest all is well with West, or all is bad with us. But that in this modern world we know a lot about India and West and we know exactly what is good and often we dont pick it. Oh I absolutely agree. West can learn a lot from us, I think they definitely understand and appreciate India today.

With the rising petrol prices it may well soon be reality ,By the way many well off people do travel by bus.

[punjabi_khota]

Wait, so Americans do their household chores because they like it ? :WTF: THE SOLE reason US people do their own chosres is that a middle class American cannot afford a housekeeper/maid, compared to middle class Indian family (or even bachelors) which can easily afford a maid. Nothing about values and shyte like that. What happens to the American values when people get rich ? A lot of them have maids/butlers etc, I personally know quite a few.

[Crookbond]

I will have to agree with PK here. I feel so too.

[beetle]

Wait, so Americans do their household chores because they like it ? :WTF: THE SOLE reason US people do their own chosres is that a middle class American cannot afford a housekeeper/maid, compared to middle class Indian family (or even bachelors) which can easily afford a maid. Nothing about values and shyte like that. What happens to the American values when people get rich ? A lot of them have maids/butlers etc, I personally know quite a few.

Agree with PK Why compare the bus ride in the west to a bus ride in a hot overcrowded country? How can a two wheeler ride be enjoyable in the summers?The temperature are as high as 44 degrees Celsius....the roads are crowed with bumper to bumper traffic.Why should people not travel in a four wheeler if they can? The only good public transport is the metro and it is always full during office timings.Even buses are full.

[vvvslaxman]

Most of our college students learn their western culture from movies which is not at all real. They watch the movie CASINO they decide everyone in america uses the word "F***" freely in everyday life. Sadly girls are the worst in this. Another wrong assumption in America everyone is liberal and they do whatever they want without any moral guidelines. Also they don't realize america has far more conservatives than India in parts of their country. Nowadays with tons of engineers coming to US they have somewhat better understanding. But still among college level there are lot of misinformed opinions about them even in this era. I have personally witnesses this.

[rkt.india]

I appreciate your sentiment, really do, but in my humble opinion it is overly misplaced. The 1000 year intermingling and creation of a composite "Indianness" had something inherently at its core - mixing of people/cultures/traditions. That is not what is happening here. It is not exactly that a bunch of Americans have moved to India and Indian literature has become rich due to their presence. This whole concept of aping West, specially United States, is weird because a) It is a one way street. They dont ape us, we ape them. b) Nobody is coming here and sharing "ideas", in most cases we are blatantly plagiarising it (the subject at issue here). Mughals came to India, lived, died and are buried here. They made India rich. Tom Cruise and Steve Jobs did not. See the difference :winky:

But you also need to see the difference. They did not mingle with us Indian that is the difference here. Even now if they come here, they wont accept our traditions, but if people form here go there, they do and will still have their own virtues intact. tell me how mughals made India rich. They just India's resources for their sumptuous lives. Other than several Muslim invaders robbed and marauded people and temples, etc.