"Indian ancestry doesn't mean they have to like Bollywood"

One would assume that an Indian heritage would be reason enough for anyone to love Bollywood, especially for those who have grown up outside India, to perhaps stay connected to their culture. But with a lot of second and third generation Indians, that is hardly the case.

“Watching movies is my favourite past time. And I’ve watched a lot of Bollywood movies as I was growing up – movies from my parents’ time in India. But back then the movies made sense. They had talented actors and produced original movies. So I find myself watching Bollywood movies only from the 60’s” says Rajdeep Kalra, 18, from Birmingham.

“I hate them because more often than not, the storylines are borrowed and the actors over-act. Also, I wouldn’t want to be associated with Bollywood movies, because a lot of people think it’s silly and to share that culture as a part of my ethnicity, is a little embarrassing” says Gurpreet Arora, 21,who is based in London.

Steven Baker, a London-based Bollywood reporter, who’s also studied Bollywood academically, says that for a lot of second and third generation British Asians, it brings back bad memories.

“Right now, it’s very easy to watch a Bollywood movie in a prominent British theatre, but 10-15 years ago, you had to go to the suburbs and watch Bollywood movies. So a typical scenario would be an outing with family and friends to a local theatre, with all the aunties and uncles, eating samosas. It probably reminded them that they were different than the others and nobody likes being an outsider!” he says.

However, in stark contrast, there is a section of the same generation of British Indians wanting to go back to India, to be able to work in Bollywood. Sarfaraz Manzoor, a British Asian journalist, who made a documentary about this trend, feels the reason for them going back to India has very little to do with any emotional  or cultural values.

“If they were to try to be successful as actors in Britain, they will just not be given the lead roles. There’s a typecast to people of Asian descent, and they are only able to do certain roles. In India, however, they have a real shot at becoming the main star in a movie. Besides Bollywood is huge in this country and the stars make good money. All this along with the glamour makes Bollywood very appealing” he says.

In both these cases, the common thing is that this generation that was born in the UK, do not hold on to Bollywood movies as their only connection to home, like perhaps their parents. Sunny Singh, an Indian author, known for her writings on Bollywood, thinks that there is unnecessary focus on this phenomenon.

Sunny Singh talking about second generation British Asians and Bollywood by ekta.v