Film Making School: Can Bollywood Replace Hollywood?

See if global film trends will affect your film making school experience.

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You've probably noticed that India's Hindi-language film industry, affectionately nicknamed Bollywood, has been rapidly gaining popularity in the United States over the last decade. Even before "Slumdog Millionaire" won eight Oscars, films like "Monsoon Wedding" and "Bend it Like Beckham" found significant U.S. audiences and/or won acclaim from American movie critics (though a couple of these films are technically British co-productions).

The Impact of Bollywood

Given this, and given that Bollywood typically churns out up to 1,000 films per year, will the U.S. soon be overrun with Bollywood-style films? Will film making school students be forced to abandon gritty hyperrealism and unresolved endings in favor of playful romantic musicals and escapist fantasies that generally end with some version of the princess finding her prince and waltzing off into the sunset?

Hardly. While Bollywood may inspire U.S. musical hits such as "Mamma Mia!", American cinema will remain as diverse as it always has.

For one thing, as Elham Khatami points out in the recent CNN.com article "Is Bollywood Coming to Hollywood?", Hollywood has long been influenced by international cinema without being overwhelmed by it. As she says, "In its early days, the U.S. film capital embraced European directors such as Fritz Lang and Jean Renoir. The 1960s saw the influence of French New Wave cinema. Japanese films inspired 'The Magnificent Seven' and 'Star Wars'; Hong Kong works inspired Hollywood blockbusters such as 'The Departed' and 'The Matrix.'

Quoting a variety of film industry experts, Khatami also argues that "Slumdog Millionaire," with its British director and male lead, is hardly standard Bollywood fare; that it's likely the "rags-to-riches" storyline that appeals to Americans; and that, in general, we're too cynical to want to incorporate more than small hints of Bollywood's playful innocence into our everyday film-going experience.

What Does it Mean for American Film Students?

What does this mean for U.S. film making school students? On the one hand, it means they should feel free to keep right on making classically American films, from hard-hitting indie documentaries to slasher flicks to the next version of "The Godfather". On the other hand, they likely won't go wrong by incorporating some of Bollywood's hallmark elements, such as lavish, brightly colored film sets, light-hearted plotlines, and, if the occasion calls for it, perhaps even a little song and dance.