Originally posted by: hotchoco
I'm not sure this is possible while still maintaining their Indian audience. Making content to woo a Western audience almost automatically means losing the regular BW audience. They are very very different. The entire format would have to change - from losing the singing and dancing to ending formula masala movies. But that would mean losing the traditional BW audience because this is what they like and want.
Salman's allure was not Salman himself (no matter what his fans want to believe) but the fact that he gave them the trashy masala movies they wanted and expected every time they walked into the theater. People *like* sitting and vegetating and knowing exactly what the story is going to be and there will be 3 fights and a hot girl is going to come and shake her ass to some rustic sexy song. If you remove that stuff for "international respect," nobody will watch the film in India anymore. And Americans already have their own industry - why would they care to watch some foreign brown people talking in a language they don't understand? There might be a fluke movie here or there that they like but there is never going to be a sustained interest. You cannot lose your home audience to cater to white people.
And frankly, these celebs are all so rich and make so much money that they don't need any American/European fashion brand contract. It makes no big difference in their life. The only issue is that Indians needlessly worship white people and seek their validation so getting this kind of brand contract would really inflate their ego and become something to brag about.
World cinema doesn't just include White cinema. I was thinking of Korean media for example. How widely popular those shows and movies are despite the language and cultural barriers. It can be done.
You can make stuff that cater to a wide audience without alienating your main audience. Life of Pi, an Indian story with Indian characters and actors, made like 60 something crores in India... and that lacked everything that the Indian public seemingly wants i.e song, dance, masala, hot chicks, etc. Underestimating the general audience is always a thing in BW...the producers, directors, writers, all seem to think no one will watch anything that doesn't feature those things. It's a severe lack of vision, foresight, and creativity, and a distrust in the public. Even the off-brand films they do make are "safe" and still formulaic. Granted BW couldn't afford to make a movie like Life of Pi, but imagine if it did, imagine if they had the gall to create something worthwhile that could generate that kind of respect, admiration, and viewership worldwide, the industry wouldn't be in the sad state it is in, it would instead thrive like it never has before. Catering to the White people isn't the only thing you can do. Be true to your people and stories but show some vision and creativity at least and let go of the formulas plaguing Indian cinema; it is a very narrow view and way of creating. All kinds of people in all kinds of countries watch all kinds of cinema in languages and cultures they don't know, saying people won't want to watch brown people speaking in their native languages is such a small-minded generalization when it's proven otherwise by the success of non-Hollywood content, eg. Korean media.
You're not wrong about Indian celebs not needing the money from brand contracts. And yet they all crave it. Desperately. Ranveer is always literally drowning himself in Gucci it's kind of embarrassing.
Anupamaa
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