The Impact of Bollywood

Cricket and Bollywood are two obsessions of India. In every aspect of our life,we can see how obsessed everyone in every age group is when it comes to these two, I am not much interested in cricket but being a Bollywood buff myself I have found that the impact of Bollywood extends to more than just watching movies-

1. There is a thin line blurring real and reel lives. All my friends, be they Bengali, Telugu, Tamil or Marathi, now want a wedding in Yash Raj movies style. I see parents everyday talking about doing sangeet and mehendi just like it was done in that or this movie. The trend of having choreographed dances just like in movies and having DJs has increased too. In fact, in my own family, a cousin is now planning her marriage and she has a full flow chart prepared based on her favorite Bollywood movies weddings!
2. The impact of Bollywood can be seen from the little kids itself. Earlier we used to watch Boogie Woogie show in the 90s where kids would dance on Vyjanthimala, Sridevi, Jaya Prada's classical songs but now little kids also dance on 'Chikni Chameli' and 'Munni' on all kinds of reality shows. 
3. Even in little kids' birthday parties there are theme parties being done in Bollywood style. Small kids dress up in designer gowns just like Katrina or Deepika and talk the way even I don't with my friends!
4. Ever since Dhoom movies released, there has been tremendous increase in bikes on the roads and often there is news of bike racing happening in the dead of night in long stretches of roads,leading to accidents too. Similarly, seeings our heroes indulge in goondagiri on screen leads to a lot of people believing that all that nonsense can be done in real life too without any consequences.
5. But the impact of Bollywood is not just bad. Often it is just the bad news that we get to hear and remember but many social issues like widow remarriage, family issues, need of education, poverty eradication, friendship, caste and religious issues etc. have been shown in many movies successfully that have made people think and revise their attitudes. Such an example is the movie 3 Idiots where such a nice case was made for our education system and today we do see quite a few changes taking place and our education becoming more practical than just theory based. Similarly, Chak De India has generated huge interested in sports other than cricket and we can see them coming into limelight too.

In the end, it depends on us how we want to see and observe this impact. Bollywood is a major force in India and now its popularity is spreading through the world. We must be careful of imbibing only the good and not the bad, to ensure that the right message goes to the next generation and to the world at large.

This blog post is inspired by the blogging marathon hosted on IndiBlogger for the launch of the #Fantastico Zica from Tata Motors. You can apply for a test drive of the hatchback Zica today.