The Brand Bollywood Business

Shobha De
What's going on in Bollywood? Beyond Bipasha snogging Ronaldo in Lisbon, I mean. Our Bollywood stars seem to be here, there and everywhere... Which is great for their personal publicity. But does very little to enerate big bucks for the country. Or enhance Brand Bollywood in real terms.

Unlike in the past, the recent phoren accolades being showered so generously on our stars are linked to assorted government recognitions, titles, degrees, medals, doctorates, these are being cleverly doled out to our gullible glam brigade, most of whom happen to be school dropouts. When our actors aren't posing with their waxen doubles at Madame Tussaud's, they are being declared Knights of various orders in European capitals that have suddenly started dishing out these (meaningless) honours in a manner so indiscriminate, I suspect a choooha somewhere.

Brand Bollywood is likely to get bigger than Brand Hollywood somewhere down the line. That's a given. Our numbers, audience-wise, already outstrip Hollywood's biggest blockbuster. More Indians watch Krrish than Pirates... Any desi film shot in an exotic destination ensures a good tourist run for the place.

This was something the Swiss discovered decades ago when they invited Yash Chopra to shoot his mushy romances in and around Zurich. The Government of Mauritius had already set the trend. The Aussies cottoned on to the Swiss story... So did the Irish, French, Brits… and soon there was an avalanche of attractive outdoor shooting options available. As of now. Malaysia, Thailand, Dubai and the Maldives have stretched the red carpet all the way to Film City, in order to woo our filmwallas. Trust our canny producers to get their paisa vasool. They've, in turn, managed lucrative deals with these guys, demanding the most unreasonable privileges from tourist boards of countries inviting our unwashed masses to come visit via dhoom dhadaka Bollywood hits.

It has turned out to be a win-win situation for both. Or... has it? Well, this was last decade's story. The gears have shifted. Forget the obvious perks of fleeing the hot summers in India to shoot overseas. Stars these days want "official" recognition along with an all-expenses-paid summer holiday…. errr... shooting schedule… in Europe (avec famille, naturally).

Perhaps it's a quid pro quo… but it seems a little too cosy and convenient for comfort. Is it merely a coincidence that the only stars being honoured by governments internationally are those whose movies have been shot there? Or, who have made sure a widely telecast film awards function is hosted by a little-known city (think Yorkshire) in need of some glitzy exposure? The latest to jump on the bandwagon is Kabir Bedi, who has been given a prestigious Italian award recently. Kabir's is a unique case. He doesn't really rate in Bollywood. And has been living mostly overseas. Indian movie-goers might know him as Pooja Bedi's hunky dad. But that's about it.

However, it's a completely different story in Italy, where Bedi is a demi-God, believe it or not. I have been going to Italy these past two years for my own book promos (hey... where's my award?). My most recent trip was in June, and I was there to talk about Bollywood since it was an Italian translation of my early novel, Starry Nights, that was being launched with much fanfare by my publishers. I was prepared to respond to countless questions on Bollywood and our superstars... mainly Bachchan or Shah Rukh Khan. SRK, I can tell you from personal experience, is huge in Germany. I naturally presumed the Italians would have heard of him, too.

Imagine my shock when a senior journalist asked earnestly, "Is that a man...?" at the end of my impassioned pitch for the actor. Nobody had heard of him. And listen to this... Amitabh Bachchan's name rang a bell only as Aishwarya Rai's father-in-law. There was just one small (rather unflattering) reference to him in a news mag which talked about the Barabanki scandal.

On the other hand, Rajnikanth got full page coverage in La Stampa, even though journos hesitantly expressed their bewilderment that someone who looks like Rajni could be such a megastar in Asia. It was back to Bedi. Kabir was the only actor the Italians were genuinely curious about. They could not believe it when I said most Bollywood fans would not have heard of Bedi, and that he is certainly not in the "A" or even "B" list of stars in the Indian film industry's pecking order.

However, in Italy, it is no exaggeration to say that Bedi is a bigger name than B, SRK and Aamir Khan put together. How come? Well, the Italians still talk of Bedi's hit television series, Sandokan, which aired decades ago. Plus, he is hosting a brand new TV show currently that's racking up the numbers. The mesmerised-by-Bedi Italians have made Kabir a larger-than-life cult figure, with swooning women stalking the handsome star each time he visits. When I told interviewers who asked whether I'd ever met him, that I did indeed know the man, they looked very, very impressed and my stock went up instantly. After sharing that nugget, they forgot all about my book and bombarded me with questions on Kabir's love life (hectic and exciting, I assured them).


Would you believe it, there was zero interest in Sonia Gandhi... and each time I tried to get the discussion back on track (The India Story), interviewers would sneak Bedi's name into the conversation and change the subject.

I have been tracking the inroads made by Brand Bollywood internationally for a while now. I still see it as an NRI-driven phenomenon. Let's face it, who supports our music and movies overseas? It is largely fat cat desis, nostalgic for home. Bollywood has left the West (and East), pretty cold. So, let's not delude ourselves on that score.

Unlike Hong Kong, Mainland China or Japan, which have broken through the Hollywood stranglehold on mass entertainment by coming up with their own genre of cinema, our films have failed to leverage Bollywood's current brand value sufficiently. We'd like to believe our galaxy of stars are famous and worshipped by fans worldwide. Wherever there are Indians and Pakistanis, there are cheering crowds. But the all-important crossover we keep talking about has not yet happened.

Even seasoned journos in the UK (supposedly our big stronghold), remain ignorant and indifferent to our movies. They talk of Mira Nair and Deepa Mehta as being representative of Bollywood. I've given up trying to point out the fallacy of such a belief. Meanwhile, Bollywood dreams on... Maharashtra's chief minister, the ever-smiling Vilasrao Deshmukh, has just come back from his American junket, which included a trip to Hollywood. While there, he promised to make Bollywood into Hollywood. Like they care.

But then we, in Mumbai, are still waiting for him to make Mumbai into Shanghai (a city he has never visited, by his own admission). I genuinely believe we are sitting on unimaginable wealth. It's called Brand Bollywood. The time to view it as a national asset and protect the interests of stakeholders, is now. We can do for our movie industry, what we have successfully pulled off in the IT sector.

To get that right, we need to identify the Premjis and Narayana Murthys of Bollywood. Do they exist? I believe they do... it's time for the oldie goldies to move on and make way for new players. People who understand the dynamics of the movie business worldwide and, most importantly, have figured out the vast potential of this untapped goldmine we are sitting on. Till such time, I guess we'll have to make do with doctorates and medals, from shrewd international governments who stand to make much more from us, than anything they might dole out to our filmstars, whose names they barely know, but are eager to honour regardless.

(The author is a leading columnist. Views are personal.)