Russian Bollywood - Sepia Mutiny

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May 5, 2005

Russian Bollywood

Amitabh Bachchan said on The Charlie Rose Show last week that Bollywood has crazed fans in Africa and Russia:

… very surprisingly… the entire northern belt of Africa. So Morocco, Algeria, Ethiopia, Sudan, down to Egypt… And Russia. Massive. Massive… When I first went to Moscow for the first time, I was received by Russian female fans, who were actually dressed in our Indian dress and wore the bindi and the jewelry and everything, and spoke Hindi… and said that they were going to university to study the language so that they could follow our films. Remarkable.

When I visited Mockba, a young couple I had dinner with proudly opened a video drawer with nearly a hundred Hindi movies filed meticulously.

Short

POSTED BY manish @ 3:13 PM

10 comments

1 · Anil on May 5, 2005 3:21 PM · Direct link

And has anybody recorded that show?

2 · Manish Vij on May 5, 2005 3:39 PM · Direct link

Not I, but full transcript here.

3 · Andrea on May 5, 2005 4:12 PM · Direct link

Indian films are HUGE in Africa.

I watched a documentary from Cameroon this semester entitled "Afrique, je te plumerai" (like the Alouette song) about the influx of foreign books and films into Africa. The director, Jean-Marie Teno, speaks with nostalgia about his childhood, where he would watch Indian films (the poster was in tamil but the song was in hindi... silly Teno) and always wanted to marry the beautiful Indian girl from the films with the voice of an angel.

Likewise, my friend Yuddie from Nigeria saw Bollywood films long before she ever saw one from Hollywood.

Usually these films come for free or low cost to the theaters of cities and towns, and that is why they are so popular.

4 · Rishi Sharma on May 5, 2005 5:18 PM · Direct link

Wow that is sooo cool. I heard they have a cult following in England as well. I guess when oprah said bollywood fils reach so many people she was onto something. Who would've thought?

5 · juhiet on May 5, 2005 8:07 PM · Direct link

yep. in fact, i once had a conversation with a guy from chad. he didn't know much english. i started to speak to him in french, but it turned out that he could also speak hindi b/c of growing up on bollywood fillims. i had a reality check that day.

6 · Ennis on May 6, 2005 12:13 PM · Direct link

Alternate title:

Russian Bachchan

7 · Moustapha Malloumi on October 21, 2005 12:26 AM · Direct link

Juhiet is right. In Chad many youngesters are able to speak fluently in Hindi. They learned it through Bollywood films which are broadly available throughout our country. In the following wedsite address, you can read an article I wrote in French on one of the Chadian Hindi speaker. His name is Bechir Abdelkerim alias Kumar. Go down on the last article:http://www.tchadien.com/portrait.html

Sincelery yours.

8 · Shajahan Noor Mohammed on October 25, 2007 1:18 PM · Direct link

Here is the link: http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2005/04/19/2/a-conversation-with-indian-actor-amitabh-bachchan

9 · Bollyarm on March 16, 2008 2:38 AM · Direct link

hey bollywood actress armpit lovers please visit

www.bollyarmforum.com

10 · sandhya on March 16, 2008 2:41 PM · Direct link

This is true. I wrote about my experience in Morocco here.

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