Originally posted by: guftagoo
@Smitten: I have a genuine question? Why do you feel that regional film enthusiasts are the ones who want to call Bollywood as Hindi Cinema?
Amitabh Bacchhan has been the one who has been advocating against this term since time immemorial, I have been listening to this debate since a decade at least. Not just him, but I recall a lot of Hindi actors doing that since a long long time. There is nothing wrong with it.
Because I didn't think of it from another perspective, that the name sounds like a bad copy of Hollywood, and by extension it relegates the entire industry to a bad copy of Hollywood. Logically, it doesn't make sense but I can see how that can be a thorn in some people's sides -- people who take a lot of pride in their identity, etc.
I personally don't care cuz I think Bollywood is already a pretty well-known brand and a household name. People are gonna continue calling it Bollywood long after they switch to "Hindi cinema" even if they actually manage the name change. That's what usually happens when you suddenly overhaul a longstanding brand identity. Apart from that "pride" factor, which not everyone feels btw, I don't see any other logically sound reason to rebrand it and neither do I see how that would "benefit" the industry, commercially speaking.
Why do I think regional film enthusiasts bring their regional bias to these topics?
I've come across multiple posts from people I don't remember now, who prop up regional cinemas as being better and more deserving of recognition than Bollywood.
I also keep seeing threads taking unwitting turns to the age old Hindi vs Tamil vs Telugu debates ... which, again, extends to Hindi vs regional cinemas.
So I accounted for all of that and concluded that regional movie goers would rather have Bollywood limit its name to Hindi Movie Industry, so that people outside India finally stop confusing Bollywood for Indian Movie Industry, completely ignoring the existence of regional cinemas that are every bit as Indian as Bollywood.
My bad!
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