Bollywood Takes Center Stage

As part of Asian American Awareness Week, the Harvard South Asian Association hosted a presentation on Bollywood cinema last night to discuss the vast variety of films that encompass the Indian movie genre.

Richard S. Delacy, a preceptor in Urdu-Hindi who has worked in the Indian movie industry, gave an hour-long introduction to the Bollywood film industry. He discussed the perceptions and realities of Bollywood movies by using clips from popular films like “Sometimes Happiness, Sometimes Sadness” to demonstrate that some, but not all films, promote the Bollywood stereotypes.

“I wanted to show that there’s a variety of films being made in South Asia at the moment,” Delacy said. “It’s very hard to fit them into an overall understanding of particular formulaic mode of filmmaking.”

Riya Goyal ’12, the academic and political chair of the South Asian Association, said she organized the event as an opportunity for students to gain a greater understanding of Bollywood films in light of Asian American Awareness Week.

“The Bollywood industry is something people have heard of but don’t really understand,” Goyal said. “Through this event, you kind of learn what the perceptions versus realities in Bollywood movies are.”

Anuv Ratan ’14 said the presentation offered him a new perspective on Indian films. Having watched most Bollywood films with his family, Ratan said he decided to attend the presentation to learn about a different side of the industry.

“I thought it was really cool analyzing [Bollywood] from a different viewpoint, seeing what other people think about it, not just for entertainment value, but also representing...symbolic aspects of Indian culture,” he said.

The South Asian Association makes an effort to bring together students of all ethnicities, according to Co-President Punit N. Shah ’12, who is also a Crimson blog editor.

“There is some universality in stories that allow people, no matter what culture or background, to come together and experience that story,” Shah said. “I think this is an interesting workshop to try to see that.”