Motion Picture Reviews and Insights- Vaishali Adwant

Bollywood is going through a phase of awakening. From the evolution of sliding away from masala movies to meaningful cinema, Bollywood has a long way to go. The work culture, attitude, the recruitment, the brighter side, and the grimness; talking about individualism, are you a borrowed personality? Or do you have qualities of your own?

I spoke about ‘Individualism in Bollywood’ on my business Instagram profile, Faporazee a while ago. Why is working in Bollywood a herculean task, and you feel like you are walking on Egg shells when working with famous Bollywood personalities or superstars, dealing with their fragile egos, fearing your life? Those who have worked behind the scenes, can relate to what I am saying here. I have had only one experience of working with a scammer called Gajendra Singh of Antakashri fame, and then I hear grimiest stories, and then a few actresses have started opening up about their ‘bad experiences.’ Isn’t that substantial proof enough of how Bollywood has been functioning all these years?

PR Shapes Your Personality?

Why do you need a PR to shape your personality and tell you what to do to look good on screen? What about being good human beings and having good values? General public loves ‘good humans’ with a ‘good soul’ not personalities made up by PR who instill values based on what looks good on screen. The hoi polloi has awakened to the PR gimmicks and no more gives heed to made-up personalities. They too want good natured superstars who wouldn’t do impressive things to get brownie points from general public.

Grimmness of Bollywood – So Toxic, Dangerous, and Dysfunctional

Being a superstar is not easy, agreed, there is appreciation, criticism, trolls they have to deal with composure, and a whole lot of unmentionable things that never get written about. But what about making life difficult for those who work with you because you are a superstars, other have to go through the pressure of bearing your tantrums and bad behavior? Ethics are pretty much dead in the film industry, because exploitation and plagiarism rules! or rather this is what made to rule. There’s lot of talent wasted because a superstar decides to raise the bar based on casting couch, ouch ouch, and what not! Those who do not want to do it and follow and ethical path are made to suffer. That is the harsh reality of the film industry.

Grimness that exists in this industry is at it’s zenith. Those who work behind the scenes cannot breathe easy because they are working for some big production house or a host of superstars. Give us a break! There’s a reason Bollywood is being boycotted because hoi polloi have opened up their eyes to truth and reality of how ‘behind the scenes’ crew gets tormented in the name of working for famous people. Is this how you want those who work with you to feel and experience?

Recruitment Based On ‘Friendships’ Instead Of Talent

Since there is no sign of individuality, recruitment is not based on talent, creativity, or experience. It is based on how ‘friendly’ you are with the cream da la cream of Bollywood. That is also a reason why you only have a handful of movies with good content and story because most Bollywood films are made with crew who gets recruited from ‘friendships.’ This is so tacky, shady, and disrespectful to the entire thing about work ethic. Work ethic is non existent in the industry.

The Archetypes

There’s lot of original talent in Bollywood too and we have legends like Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Dilip Kumar and stars like Abhishek Bachchan, Ayushman Khuranna, Vicky Kaushal, Karan Johar, Kareena Kapoor, Priyanka Chopra, Kriti Sanon, and a long list of star who are not aping anyone. Their style is original. But then, there’s cosmos of stars who ape either stars from Hollywood or yesteryears’ stars and slide aping under the carpet in the ame of ‘showing respect.’ A copy is a copy, there is no respect copying anyone. You do not respect yourself if you are doing that, period!