Why Red Carpet??

Recently I was looking at winners of the 54th Film Fare awards and was startled to that Bollywood called pre-show interviews as Red carpet interviews. I don’t know why they have to do that. It seems like the Hollywood bug has bitten the Film Fare awards too. Film Fare awards are the finest in Indian cinema and its unfortunate that it’s lost its originality. I am not sure who the organizers are trying to impress here. They are not increasing their viewership in America as they are not interested in knowing which Bollywood movie is the best of 2008.

Yeah there are few Americans who watch Bollywood movies but that’s about it. They are not going to be interested in the awards in India. Are we trying to impress the Indian Audience? I am not sure because how many Indians in India do actually watch the Oscars to know what Red carpet means. The actors and actresses behave as if they are in Hollywood with their dressing and interviews. I hardly saw anyone wearing Indian costume in an Indian award. None of the actors give interviews in Hindi which seems to be out of fashion.

So by talking in English they are already cutting out more than 50% of our own people watching the show as they don’t understand what’s going on most of the times. Unfortunately the quest to gain International attention seems to be affecting Bollywood big time. They have to realize that the NRI’s are not Americans but they are Indians who have settled in America. We don’t care about the Red carpets and the fashionable dresses which the actresses wear. We see it already in the Golden Globe and the Oscars and I don’t think we need to see the same in Film Fare in India.

An Indian award needs to be Indian that’s what everyone wants. The shows on Television and awards need to first cater to the Indian audience and then to the International community if they actually watch the show. By aping Oscars in Film Fare awards Indian movies don’t become world standard. To get International recognition India need to make movies which are world standard rather than doing such ridiculous things which aren’t going to impress anyone but the Bollywood themselves.

I am really happy that the south awards are still maintaining the traditional approach and yes we don’t call it Red carpet yet. I hope that it remains this way. Indian film industry needs to be Indian first which I guess is a message lost on most of the actors and organizers. India has the talent to make an impact on the world stage but that can only be achieved by quality in cinema.

It’s unfortunate and saddening to see that we copy everything that happens in Oscars and none of the legends in cinema seems to talk about it. Recently Amitabh said that he thought calling Hindi cinema Bollywood is a derogatory as its copied from Hollywood but its seems like copying the Oscars doesn’t seem to affect anybody. Red carpet is just one of them. I guess in few years time the Hindi audience will turn their back on their own awards as it would seem alien to them. I hope that the organizers realize the same and maintain some Indianness in these functions.

IPL good but ICL better

We have seen so many articles in past couple of years about ICL but there have been very few based on the actual action on the field. The so called “Rebel” league enjoys very less space on the media due to its status. Well keeping the political standpoint aside lets for once concentrate on the actual cricket. I have watched two editions of ICL and the inaugural edition of IPL earlier this year.
While IPL is all glamour and glitz, ICL is more about cricket. Even though I loved watchin IPL’s first edition earlier this year I would rate ICL higher in terms of action on the field. ICL provides more close contests than what I saw in IPL earlier this year. We might put that down to IPL being in its first season and ICL has already completed 2 editions. IPL was enjoyable but there was a overdose of bollywood stars in the first edition. It was exciting in the beginning but later in the tournament it became little bit irritating and annoying.

Every four or a six from the Kolkata Knightriders was followed by the camera focussing on Sharukh khan dancing on the stands with his esteemed bollywood friends. The purpose of the league was lost on the same. The cricket was good but it was unable to sustain the hype for too long. ICL on the other hand does not have the burden that IPL has, its sans hype and media attention. Not many high profile bollywood stars are involved which shifts the focus on cricket. I have seen few bollywood stars here and there but none dancing in the stands regularly for all the games.

The franchise system is a good attempt in cricket and it was highly successful in the first edition of IPL. But the organizers need to be careful as the focus can easily shift from cricket and the league can become one big budget bollywood movie. The stars are fine as they own some of the teams but while there is a cricket match going on, the focus should remain on the ground rather than on the stars in the stands. IPL was good as an overall entertainment package but as Kapil put it ICL is definitely better in terms of quality of cricket.

Sargam - An experiance to remember

When I saw that my company is conducting its annual day I wanted to participate as a singer in the same. When I enquired about the same I was forwarded to the right contacts and thats how I got associated with Sargam (The name given to our Orchestra). When I decided to sing for Sargam my agenda was two fold, first to obviously sing and the second one was to make some new friends. Being in a very small team comprising of just myself and my colleague I do not get to meet too many people. So making some new friends was also a part of this exercise.

So everything was set and I was called over for the first day of practice by the event organizer. The meeting was to pick and download the karoake for the songs to be sung by each person. Before even going there I was pretty much set with mine as I kind of played safe by opting to sing a song which I had performed during my college's International night. From that day onwards the entire excercise was a joy ride for all of us. For the first time since I came to Bloomington in Nov of 2007, I had something to look forward to when I left from work.

Every meeting was total fun with all of us taking pot shots at each other and at the same time the atmosphere was totally professional. There were totally 7 singers in the team including myself and the practice sessions were a total blast. The entire team was really great and we really cared for each others performance. There was few hiccups here and there but overall the experiance was totally worthwhile.

The actual event itself with the grand stage and Sizable audience was kind of overwhelming for me atleast but I think we all did a great job. Well all of us put up a great effort and the outcome was fantastic. As far as I am concerned I made some new friends along the way and also got to perform in front of a decent audience.

Being part of Sargam was really a great experiance and hopefully the same team can get together again next year.