Q. Why does world not recognise bollywood like kpop/kdramas? - Page 6

Thanks for adding his quote. That's what I feel too. Indians have highest ego. 

Ya I read somewhere Koreans refuse to give jobs to people who are 'ugly' according to them. They are pressured to get surgeries at young age. 

I know how hard it is for idols. That's why they face so much mental health issues.

But Indians are still arrogant. 

Indians who have spent their whole life in India definitely tend to be arrogant... Once you settle outside India then reality kicks in.. Nationalism goes out of the window if your colleague is a Pakistani..you can't afford to be bigoted...

. Same with koreans.. Koreans only recently opened their country for foreigners and that explains their rigid nature....Korean Americans are actually are way more nicer...

Also according to their faith a Goddess had landed in Korea so they believe that Koreans are superior to the rest of the mankind..... Similar to the chosen one concept of Jews

I believe in good content and quality acting which these days our regional cinemas are better at compared to bollywood movies. "The Great Indian Kitchen" is one fine example. I hope they get more exposure .

Because of netflix and other streaming sites becoming daily part of everyone's life there is so much content for the audience to choose from regardless of the language. We saw it with money heist then followed by squid game. When such variety of entertainment options are available, why would viewer settle for mediocre content ?

There are hardcore kdrama consumers like me and there are many who are discovering it now because of netlfix etc. I cannot say its mainstream like english shows but it is definitely gaining traction . Kdramas have wider reach compared to Kpop though. The korean movies or dramas which got popular worldwide were simply based on content and not looks of the actor which says a volume about what people are looking for. 

For those who say kdrama is only about rom com..here is the list for y'all😎 :beyond evil, sweet home, my mister , misaeng and so on..as I mentioned before in my previous post there is no dearth of genres..infact currently its cdramas which are leading for rom coms. 

Interesting topic. Here are my observations-

One reason why K-pop has gained so much popularity is because it is heavily westernised. The tunes, the costumes , the style is heavily western and only the language is Korean. It's not like they are promoting traditional Korean culture through their pop music! This is unlike India where we still follow our own traditional music style ..and people of the west don't exactly relate to it, and they are too wary to try to learn a new culture, hence they dismiss it off. 

Secondly, India's general image in the western world isn't really great. We are looked down upon as a third world country and people associate India with slums, poverty, snake-charmers etc which is a heavily stereotypical image ...sad but true. The same is not true for Korea. It is a developed nation, is posche, and is the hub of some technological giants (Samsung, Hyundai, etc). The image of the country matters a lot in how the world perceives it! We have failed to create a , for the lack of a better word, "polished" image of our country and culture..hence the ignorance of the world towards us. 

Thirdly, I don't agree that Bollywood has deteriorated in content ever since the 2000s (as many have been saying). Infact, it actually got a lot better and churned out much better cinema that would appeal to larger global audience after the 2000s. Please don't bring up DDLJ, K3G, HAHK as benchmark of great cinema that made Bollywood popular. Although I do agree that they were immense blockbusters, it's a fact that it was the NRI population mostly that made those films blockbusters and not the average white westerner. Films like these hardly had a genuine great story, great acting, etc which makes these appealing to a white population.. they were aimed at Indian diaspora in the west and were heavily "Indian" in nature , i.e., emotional quotient >>> logic. This hardly works for a westerner. He /She would get no head or tail of a film like HAHK /DDLJ and the entire thing will be lost on them (and it has been too.. as I follow a few reaction channels on YouTube and have noticed this) . 

     On the contrary, the films made more recently, like say TZP, 3 idiots, Barfi, ZNMD, English Vinglish, Queen, Kahaani, Dangal, Bajrangi Bhaijaan, PK, Uri, Gully Boy, Andhadhun, etc are much more "global" in nature...in the sense that they are genuinely good films with good story, good acting, direction, screenplay, etc which appeal to people across cultures. Infact Aamir 's films 3 idiots, PK and Dangal got Bollywood noticed and helped in the change of the general perception of the western audience that Indian films are all just mindless songs and dance. 

Here comes the problem. While we Indians love our "escapist" cinema, full of beautiful songs and dance sequences, high emotional connect, even at the cost of logic , Western audience don't appreciate it. Our culture is entirely different from theirs so the way we connect with our films such as DDLJ, KKHH, K3G, HAHK etc is something that they can never do. So to get a larger worldwide audience, we have to align our style of cinema with the west.. and that's the sad truth. While I miss that pure Bollywoodness in our films, I can't deny that it won't work anymore. 

So yes , while we are lacking original content and music in the recent years , I don't think our films have gotten worse with time as people say. There have always been up and down phases for our cinema, and currently we are going through a low. But I will say that we still manage to churn out one/two great films a year! 

I also don't think that we lack talent.  We may cry nepotism but Alia is actually talented and westerners really love her acting! The current mainstream actors Shahid, Ranbir, Ranveer, Nawaz, Rajkumar Rao, Ayushman are all equally if not more talented (talking purely about acting TALENT and not charisma, etc) than the older gen of SRK, Salman, Aamir, Ajay, Akshay, Hrithik. What they lack is the immense popularity and blind fan following that the latter enjoyed/still enjoy..which is not possible to replicate anytime in the future IMO as the age of superstars and megastars is gone. Our nostalgia is making us feel like everything at present is trash and everything "old was gold" .. 😆

I realised I only talked about BW in my previous post. 😪 so here's my perception of kdramas/kfilms- 

Kdramas offer an IMMENSE amount of variety in content. It's sad that only the fluffy romcoms, most of which are mediocre IMO like Boys over flowers, Heirs, DOTS etc have gained popularity. Even the recent Crash landing on you which became higely popular was mediocre to me coz I have seen so many better dramas than that! The underrated ones are actually the best. 

But I don't think kdramas in general have gotten huge popularity worldwide. A select few films/dramas like Parasite, Train to Busan, Squid games became popular but that's it. The western audience is still clueless about kdramas . It's only in India that kdramas have seen a surge in popularity and that too recently with the advent of Netflix in India. K-pop though, I agree has really gotten the Western audience curious thanks to BTS. 

P.S. I feel like the kdrama collection in Netflix is disappointing. Most of them are mediocre, while the actual brilliant ones are left out. This has led to this stereotype that kdramas are only fluffy, dreamy romance with leads acting cute all the time and it frustrates me 😐

Yes, we see get this in Kdramas

https://youtu.be/8FgMqpxtRK4

https://youtu.be/4HUQumLc2IQ

To clarify, I never said Bollywood deteriorated in content. There is no doubt that Bollywood has been producing higher-quality cinema lately. They may not be mega-hits, but there is something lovely about getting a wide range of simple story-driven films.  

That being said cinema can be an escapist medium. DDLJ and HAHK are peak escapism. Wafer-thin plots with larger-than-life characters, the whole colorful song and dance sequences - were something. When you look at popularity of Bollywood films in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and Southeast Asia - it is largely based on escapism. The song and dance routine appeal to them too because even they have cultural parallels to Indians. Today's content and story-driven cinema don't appeal to people who view cinema as an escapist medium. 

It just goes to show that people don't value the opinions of poorer and POC nations as much as white western nations. And to be honest, I perceive the whole western rejection of escapist cinema as ludicrous. Most people are trying too hard to be high brow. There was a whole era of musicals even in the west. What are the differences between something like Sound of Music and Bollywood films? Why does Slumdog Millionaire win an Oscar? Why is Mama Mia still a guilty pleasure? Why is even Spielberg remaking a classic musical? 

It often feels that western audiences won't embrace Bollywood escapism when it is Indians just being Indians and reveling in their Indianness - but will lap it up if there is an angle of poverty or overthrowing oppression.

Kpop and kdrama has gone much more ahead of bollywood in last 5 years in terms of international appeal and visibility. There's no to way about it. And it's not that every thing Korea produces is of exceptional quality. But they offer so much variety and have built a brand and fandom for themselves which is sure to check out their content.

Their shows do not drag for years with same actors and storyline. They are over in 16 episodes most of the times. And these show offers new faces and new stories. Even if you don't like 8 out of 10 shows,chances are that remaining 2 will catch your interest. 

They have utilized social media to maximum level. Plus they have these young, handsome / pretty, well packaged idols and actors/ actresses which especially appeals to teen and young audiences.

 Bollywood offers same 50 year old actors that we have watching from past 30 years. Even our so called younger actors are above 35. Kpop has tonnes of good looking idols in early 20s debuting every other month.It's anyones guess which choice is more appealing for a young girl.  Bollywood masala movies show 50 year old uncles getting pretty girls of 25 years of age. Kdrama sells the fantasy of an ordinary girl being wooed by 2-3 handsome and young male leads. So again it's anyone's guess what kind of story young girls and women would want to see on screen. Being Centre of attention of couple of handsome 25-30 year guys or being a side kick for a 50 year old. A new trending it girl and boy emerges like every 6 months which keeps things fresh and moving. 

Female idols follow latest trends and styles and kind of become a role model to take inspiration from in terms of styling. 

Kpop and kdrama is nothing exceptional or intellectual for  most part, especially the trending ones that have most fans. But it is well packaged, takes into account the taste of its core audience, is fast paced, offers variety, sells fantasy in a much more effective and appealing way. So no wonder it has left bollywood far behind which  has no newness and diversity in terms of looks or themes. 

In Korean cinema they are not ageist, older women if role requires act with actors who are younger then them. Like in Empress Ki, the actress was about a decade older then main ML, but they managed to work their chemistry was really good. It's not that all the content are good coming from Kdramas but some are really good to watch. 

I love thriller, psychological, scifi genre, which Kdramas and Chinese drama give me this content. Even USA has few of the best Scifi series I have watched, like Fringe, Stargate SG 1, Star Trek Voyager etc. Even HW is losing touch with this genre. 

This I am afraid is rarely seen in BW, where an older actress work with younger actors. Only the older actors work with actresses who are old enough to be their daughters.