ELITIST CULTURE

That ‘Bollywood’ makes “no sense” is echoed by acclaimed director Shyam Benegal, who was conferred with the prestigious Dadasaheb Phalke award in 2005. “The Indian film industry is the largest in the world. Why should we take a terminology that belongs to the industry of some other country? Whoever used it must have thought it’s a very clever idea. We have several film industries in the country, each language has its own,” says the 85-year-old.

Producer Pritish Nandy feels it is purely a semantic issue — calling yourself Hindi film industry or Bollywood is a matter of choice. But, he adds, “I think the main issue, they’re saying, is they’re distancing themselves from the culture of what is known as Bollywood, a culture run by elitist, nepotistic filmmakers and their families for years. It’s not entirely a professional environment, it’s never been.”

Onir, who has directed films such as My Brother ... Nikhil (2005) and I Am (2011) says even in the past, those not associated with mainstream cinema didn’t refer to themselves as being part of Bollywood. “It’s not something invented now, people like Shyam Benegal and Ketan Mehta have always preferred the term ‘Hindi’ or ‘Indian film industry’. Personally, I don’t like the word Bollywood, it sounds so much like Hollywood,” he says.

Indian cinema is huge, feels Anurag Basu. “Calling ourselves Bollywood is a feudal mindset, we have our own identity. We are Indian cinema, where films are made in more than 15 languages. There is no film industry like ours. We should not degrade ourselves by calling it Bollywood. When I go to international film festivals, I feel ashamed when we are called Bollywood. There is Korean cinema, French cinema, Italian cinema... why not Indian cinema?” says the Barfi! (2012) director.