Can Indian pop culture ever be as famous as Korean? - Page 26

^^^ For example, I just watched Lust Stories 2 and in Nina Gupta’s short film, the daadi character speaks in Hindi but the granddaughter played by Mrunal keeps replying back in English. Not just a word or two but entire sentences. And this was supposed to be the norm? Why? What was the point of it? They were both characters born and raised in India. Why couldn’t she reply back to her daadi in Hindi? I just cannot wrap my head around inconsistencies like this when I watch Indian stuff.

Originally posted by: atominis

I would not say they are only there on Tik Tok.

I see videos on Korean skin care, make up, home remedies trending on YouTube, Instagram also. And their brands now launching or available to ship in India and FB ads recommending it.

I see newspapers and print edition of Indian magazines also talk of Korean food, remedies or hair and skin routine.

Something that I had not seen for any other nationality earlier except for brief obsession of Indians with Feng Shui in 2000s and Chinese food.

SSR bots are backed by a political party. I do not think one can compare them to BTS fans.

Or are you implying they are also probably politically backed IT cell bots?

I do not think even Indian channels interviewing K Pop idols is a fad. Korean stuff is not just on Twitter or Tik Tok.

I have seen Indian news channels also interviewing Korean stars. Why would they interview them if it was just some online hashtag or similar to SSR bots?

You're missing the whole point. Korean culture isn't dominating Sh*t all.

I just showed you an artist, Bad Bunny, who also doesn't sing in English and is the #1 streamed artist for the past 3 years worldwide. I bet you have never even heard of him. BTS doesn't even crack the top 5 in the US, UK & most English speaking countries & the other groups the less said the better.

Just because a couple of crazy people went to Korea. Tens of thousands of people travel to India every year to "Find themselves". This Glass Skin concept is a SM trend & does not reflect real life at all.

Korean Culture isn't dominating the world. Nowhere close to it. Yes, BTS & Squid Games have seen massive success but to turn that over to all K Pop & K Drama is inaccurate at best and dishonest at worst.

Btw, do you realize how big Yoga is? You'll find Yoga studios in the smallest town. And the craze for Indian supplements from Ghee to Ashwagandha. They're in every supplement store.

Once again your premise of this Korean culture dominance is extremely exaggerated & dramatized.

Let us not debate pageant winners.

Pageants are marketing gimmicks and a lot of Indians win because India is a HUGE untapped market for beauty industry and grooming, English speaking, fashion design etc, the whole baggage that takes to win pageants.

Whem Indians won Miss World or Miss Universe around the time India opened its economy and around globalisation, liberalisation, privatisation, it was to tap the market and it worked exactly as corporations intended as it led to rise of gyms, fashion design courses, beauty salons, specialised hair and skin care products, make up artists, jewellery designers, English speaking, grooming classes, public speaking classes, classes to teach even how to walk or sit, cosmetic dentistry, cosmetologists, dermatologists, hair transplant, plastic surgeons etc and whatnot.

It spawned a whole industry and now even small towners and older people are self conscious about looks.

I have seen people at even ripe old age get their teeth corrected, wear braces or get hair transplant or face lift, peels and whatnot and they are not even employed, but still just wanna look good.

Hyping of Anil, Sunil, Sanjay, Hema and Rekha as icons also serves market and older, married people are also self conscious about fitness and looks now.

Earlier only ones looking to get married or for jobs in glam industry were self conscious about looks. Now everyone is.

I agree on pressure on BW to take issues or judging them based on religion or politics. That does affect content and its promotion.

However I have not seen obsession in any part of the world with Indians or Indian make up or skin care or wanting to look like Indians.

The only Indian stuff which is LEGIT a worldwide phenomenon is spirituality, meditation, yoga, and to some extent Ayurveda, naturopathy, and some practices like langar and bhandara we have here. Our religious and spiritual stuff is the only one that can be said to have a worldwide curiosity, awareness, fascination and popularity.

It gives me pride to see foreign authors, psychologists refer to Indian philosophies in their books.

This was discussed in previous pages also.

Koreans, Chinese, Japs focus on own culture and look original and authentic doing their own stuff.

This is why people abroad get curious.

Unlike BW where our people copy Hollywood stars in looks or speak English or look wannabe in cheap remakes of HW films.

No wonder Aamir succeeded with Lagaan which was more rooted film but failed badly in poor remake like LSC.

Or our period films like Jodha Akbar, Bahubali series, PS series, Bajirao Mastani, Padmavat, Devdas were better received abroad.

Or earlier Mother India, Satyajit Ray films were better received abroad.

I have written several times how Indian spirituality is famous worldwide.

Yoga, Ayurveda, Vipasana, meditation etc.

How difficult it is to understand difference between pop culture and spirituality?

Our shows, food, literature, films, music are not that popular worldwide though.

For a brief while in early 2000s some had craze for Indian women's clothing and jewels and bindi, when some Indian films like Lagaan, Devdas and stars like Ash got noticed abroad.

Otherwise I have not seen Indian POP culture taking world by storm in recent times.

Though Indian subcontinent was a subject of fascination in ancient era which is why it attracted so many invaders and explorers back then.

The nuance should be clear by now.

It's not that hard to understand and admit that our movies, music, TV, web series, books, food, aesthetic, beauty or make up or hair and skin care stuff never attained much global traction and crazy fandom, the way Korean onw has managed to capture imagination.

So much so that recently an Indian newspaper had to publish an article with interviews of Indian dermatologists, telling youth that our skin is different and we cannot get Korean type glass skin. Desi doctors and cosmetologists have published pieces on papers and sites like Swaddle to educate youth that Indian and Korean race and skin etc are different and they cannot do any procedure that can make Indians have that kind of skin.

If it was just a fad that docs would not have to give inputs to media and media would have no articles on Korean beauty standards affecting youth.

Don't mind me but I find all Indian web series wannabe.

Except maybe Panchayat or Dahaad types.

Netflix especially has Indians trying to ape HW. No one in India talks like that at homes or to their elders the way these web series show.

Maybe they talk like that in metros. But not rest of India.

Originally posted by: Supari_khala

^^^ For example, I just watched Lust Stories 2 and in Nina Gupta’s short film, the daadi character speaks in Hindi but the granddaughter played by Mrunal keeps replying back in English. Not just a word or two but entire sentences. And this was supposed to be the norm? Why? What was the point of it? They were both characters born and raised in India. Why couldn’t she reply back to her daadi in Hindi? I just cannot wrap my head around inconsistencies like this when I watch Indian stuff.

Maybe because that's how it is. The new generation youth like to talk in English rather than hindi if I'm not wrong. Like in my country, the students who go to English medium schools hate Bangla and can't even communicate in Bangla properly. They love speaking in English with their parents too which is upsetting. They feel quite lowly of themselves if someone speaks Bangla. These kids are gonna forget about their culture one day if parents don't remind them about where do they belong from.

And I agreed with you about how Koreans don't do that. They hardly speak in English and gives more priority to their mother tongue.

Originally posted by: atominis

Don't mind me but I find all Indian web series wannabe.

Except maybe Panchayat or Dahaad types.

Netflix especially has Indians trying to ape HW. No one in India talks like that at homes or to their elders the way these web series show.

Maybe they talk like that in metros. But not rest of India.

Girl, just say you dislike India and move on..😆

@Atominis

Well I stopped taking your posts seriously when I read the same smooth skin, even skin, even teeth Jaap yesterday but couldn't control laughing today when I read the same thing today as well. Every country has these issues so no point in debating about it with you either.

Well in your main post and many other posts you wrote about "trends" mainly. Only Very later just like in last page only you are citing other sources for their global popularity and reach or how their music, entertainment, etc., took the world over storm.

I'm out of this thread now, will come back tomorrow to talk about" Akhand bharath" if I get time. Until then Tata 👋

Originally posted by: Socklet

Maybe because that's how it is. The new generation youth like to talk in English rather than hindi if I'm not wrong. Like in my country, the students who go to English medium schools hate Bangla and can't even communicate in Bangla properly. They love speaking in English with their parents too which is upsetting. They feel quite lowly of themselves if someone speaks Bangla. These kids are gonna forget about their culture one day if parents don't remind them about where do they belong from.

And I agreed with you about how Koreans don't do that. They hardly speak in English and gives more priority to their mother tongue.

Well if it is, it shouldn’t be that way. If someone is having a conversation with you in a language you understand and speak, it’s common courtesy to engage in the same language as best as you can. It’s really off putting when you see this being passed as the norm on screen especially when the characters are all Hindi speaking. No one is saying every word should be a non-English word but at least make the conversation flow naturally. There just seems to be no respect for the language at all. I don’t get it