Global Film Making School: Will Bollywood Replace Hollywood?

How will global film trends affect your film making school experience?

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Global Film Making School

If you're thinking about attending film making school, 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 2008's Slumdog Millionaire won eight Oscars at the 2009 Academy Awards, films like 2001's Monsoon Wedding, 2003's Bend it Like Beckham and 2004's Bride and Prejudice―as well as more obscure titles such as 2001's Lagaan, 2002's Devdas, and 2006's Rang de Basanti―have found significant U.S. audiences and/or won acclaim from American movie critics.

And then came Slumdog Millionaire. With over $140 million in U.S. box office receipts rave reviews from virtually every major U.S. news publication, and actors Dev Patel and Freida Pinto now regularly gracing the pages of American tabloid bibles, the widespread appeal of this movie made it clear that the American film-going public is ready to embrace Mumbai's cinematic charm.

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, dark themes 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 has almost certainly inspired such U.S.-made musical hits as Moulin Rouge, Dreamgirls and Mama Mia!, and while these types of titles will likely remain a significant trend in upcoming years, 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.

How Do Global Trends Affect American Film Making School 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.

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