I grew up with Indian Cinema, popularly known as ‘Bollywood.’. I prefer saying ‘Bollywood’ as I missed the golden era of Indian Cinema – me and my siblings saw ‘Bollywood’. I vividly remember the first day when I went to the cinema- the emotions were overwhelming and the impact was beyond words. It gave me curiosity, imagination and art of visualisation. I was able to see beyond the horizons because ‘Bollywood’ showed me there is one.
This Issue commemorates 100 years of Indian Cinema. In the words of Mihir Bose, “Bollywood is the most wonderful example of how India, living up to its description as a giant sponge, has taken a western medium and translated it into a wholly Indian product. The result is today the Mumbai based film industry is the biggest in the world, outranking Hollywood in the number of films made.”
In this Collector’s Issue, we also celebrate the art of the minimal movie poster- where the artist distils the essence of a movie into one clean metaphorical image, usually with no more than two or three colours. These posters lend themselves perfectly to Indian cinema, where at the heart of bombastic Bollywood song and dance epics, amidst the convoluted plots and many twists and turns, there usually lies a simple, timeless story.
Tracing the ways in which Indian cinema has both responded to and added to the commentary of social upheaval at every level, we examine how Bollywood has gone from being mere pop culture to symbolic of India’s international rise itself.
Speaking to both veterans of Indian cinema, as well as young and rising stars, we hope that this issue will offer a fascinating look at Indian cinema as it enters its second century.
This issue also focuses on the new leadership of South Korea and the legacy and challenges of the new president- Park Guen Hye. We celebrate storytelling as always and have asked Craig Jenkins- to talk about his storytelling journey as a storyteller and Ravikumar Kashi – to tell us his journey of storytelling using the medium of paper-making.
This is a collector’s issue and the team has put all the efforts to make it one. Your thoughts and feedback on
ramita@agimagazine.com
