What's in a name? Actors badmouth Bollywood

Mumbai: What’s the best word to address our film industry – Bollywood or Hindi film industry? Looks like the film fraternity is not too fond of the word Bollywood.

“I don’t like the term Bollywood. Hindi film industry sounds so much more sensible and sensitive,” said Priyanka Chopra.

Actor Dino Morea also agrees with Priyanka. “I don’t think we need to copy Hollywood. It should just be the Indian film industry, sounds so much better,” he said.

While actor Shilpa Shetty sometime back nearly threatened to kill those who refer to the Hindi film industry as Bollywood.

“Don’t call it Bollywood, I would kill you if you do that. It’s like calling French cinema Follywood!” she exclaimed.

Going by the reactions from the film fraternity it’s clear that they find the term Bollywood derogatory. But is it because in some way the word Bollywood implies that Hindi cinema is inferior to Hollywood or is it the guilt that filmmakers don’t like to face for the number of scripts they lift from Hollywood hits?

Well, whichever way the argument goes, there is no denying the popularity of the word. In fact, the term Bollywood was added in the Oxford Dictionary in 2003.

“It’s placed in the Oxford Dictionary. It has been perhaps very judiciously put into the dictionary. So, it will stay with us for eternity,” superstar Amitabh Bachchan said.

Though, most of the actors seem to have a problem with the term, we wonder why do they agree to be part of films that are copied from Hollywood.

And that’s not it, a perfect example of keeping double standards is how most of the top stars participate in stage shows abroad which are called ‘Bollywood Nights’ or ‘Bollywood World Tour’.

And just last month the team of actors playing a charity cricket match in Yorkshire for the IIFA weekend was called Bollywood 11.

In fact the term Bollywood is also used in film titles. There have been films named Bollywood Calling, Bollywood Hollywood and even King of Bollywood.

Last week actor Naseeruddin Shah and Om Puri also protested the use of the term Bollywood to describe the Indian film industry, saying it was perceived to be "derogatory" and "humiliating".

But why blame anyone for using this term, when a section of the industry seem to be using the word so casually.

“I suppose people mind it but it’s just a name. It doesn’t really matter,” actor Manisha Koirala said nonchalantly.

It’s time the industry gets together on this issue and comes to one conclusion, so that they practice what they preach.

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#Bollywood #actors #Priyanka Chopra #Shilpa Shetty #Amitabh Bachchan