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The Documentary: Bollywood Breaking Barriers

The Documentary: Bollywood Breaking Barriers: Episode 1

Bollywood film posters

Episode 1

Bollywood Breaking Barriers

BBC World Service - The Documentary, Bollywood Breaking Barriers, Episode 1

After 100 years of Bollywood, how are filmmakers dealing with India's diverging audience?

After 100 years of Bollywood cinematic magic, how are filmmakers dealing with India's diverging audiences and wildly different expectations?

As Bollywood reaches its centenary, Anita Rani travels to the heart of Bollywood in Mumbai to see how filmmakers are dealing with India's diverging audiences and wildly different expectations. Speaking to the old guard of Bollywood filmmakers, as well as the bright young things daring to be different, Anita unravels the complexities of making films for a continent that includes a multitude of religions, languages and moral values.
 
Will the cinema of the emerging middle classes make a global splash or will the typical Bollywood films that have traditionally been loved and cherished across India continue to reign supreme? Or can there be a market for both? 

In the UK, Anita meets the film lovers who are sustaining Bollywood ticket sales outside of India. She finds out what influence the Indian diaspora are having on the films coming out of Mumbai and how their tastes are dictating the sorts of films being made. Are they ready for a new type of Bollywood cinema, one that is more gritty, realistic and Western in its style? Or will Bollywood always have to represent the India they left, however mythical that image becomes? 
 
Anita also meets with Western film distributors desperate for a slice of the lucrative Bollywood pie and finds out whether Bollywood can work its magic in the West without losing what makes it so special in the first place.

(Image: Bollywood film posters, Credit: AFP/Getty Images)

BBC World Service

Anita Rani explores what the future holds for India’s film industry.

Anita Rani travels to the heart of Bollywood to find out what the future holds for India’s film industry as it approaches 100 years of cinema.

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