Bollywood. With its classy dance numbers, intricate plots, and well trained actors, it proves top par enough to earn the title of the movie making capital of the eastern world. Everyone from all parts of the middle east, all over Asia, and Africa know the workings of Shah-Rukh Khan and Kajol. Starting in the 1960’s bollywood has been jump started to a global empire that has been evolving and growing. According to the blogger culture trip, “Since early beginnings, India’s film industry has continued to flourish, growing in popularity, size, and reach.” It has all the workings of an empire; a few people who are the top dogs (the actors), the backbone of the adored actors (the directors), and the people who support and keep the empire running (the movie watchers and fans).
This empire is the kind that doesn’t have one dictator, but is rather more like the empire of the United States with various stars that are equal in power. It is important to note, however, that entertainment empires unlike other empires don’t typically experience complete ups and downs, usually they continue in popularity. However, certain figures within bollywood have experienced their career highs and lows. Actors like Katrina Kaif had a few lows and has built up to be one of the biggest actresses of all time. Aishwarya Rai was on a career high when she decided to leave stop acting and make a comeback later on. Shah- Rukh Khan has kept his career high as the prince of Bollywood.
These actors and this movie industry helps indian people all over the world connect to their culture. I grew up here in America, and I went to Orange County School of the Arts and studied acting. It was so difficult being the only Indian girl in the acting conservatory wondering if there were any way that I could ever be on the big screen. But knowing that there is a whole movie industry out there for me gives me such endless opportunities to pursue any dream I would want to follow. Lauren Fox said in an article that “the gratitude comes in the doing, not the thinking of it.” In acting I can just be, take risks and inquire about a new part of my soul that I didn’t know before. It has also brought my closure to my homeland of India.
99 percent of movies take place in India, seeing the customs, traditions, and scenery helps me understand my relatives better, as they experienced that culture while they were growing up. It helps me understand a truth of my life that I could have experienced in an alternate life. If my parents made one different decision to stay in India, my life would have been so different. I couldn’t have been writing this blog, I may not even know enough english too either. But because of that decision I get to have best of both worlds. I get to live in a beautiful place, go to a prestigious university, and experience all the luxuries of living in a first world country while learning about and getting to experience apart of my motherland through bollywood movies.
“Movies touch our hearts, and awaken our vision, and change the way we see the things.”
Movie Mania 
This is similar to how I feel since my parents also immigrated to the United States from India. However, I feel that many Indian movies are Westernized nowadays. Many Indians look toward America as being cool and modern, and this shows in Indian movies because they want to be seen as modern. Indian movies are usually more conservative, but lately they are growing more and more sensual. This can be an influence of Orientalism.
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What you wrote about towards the end of your post really spoke to me. My parents immigrated here from Korea and if they made the decision to stay there, my life would also be totally different. Since I grew up in America, I have had many problems with learning about my own culture, but Korean media has helped me embrace it and feel connected to it. Since there is not much representation for Asians in Western media, it was hard to learn about myself and accept myself, so the fact that I have access to Korean media is something I am so grateful for. Although, hopefully there will be more representation for us in Western media because it is unfortunate that we are not represented/represented correctly. Also, connecting Bollywood to empires is extremely interesting. I have never thought to connect movies to empires, so it really opened my mind on how I should analyze certain things. It made me think about Korean media and how that could be seen as an empire.
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