WHEN Brad Pitt, George Clooney and Tom Hanks start making deals with Bollywood, you know it’s a force to be reckoned with.
The irresistible charm of India’s film industry is seducing not only A-listers such as Pitt, Clooney and Hanks - who have signed lucrative finance deals with a top Mumbai production company - but also a growing army of Australian movie-goers as Bollywood goes global.
Melbourne audiences are heading to the multiplex for a dose of all-singing, all-dancing Bollywood action, lured by the colour, romance and upbeat appeal of a genre once relegated to the DVD shelves in Asian grocery shops.
"When we started out, Indian films were really confined to church halls and community centres," says Mitu Bhowmick Lange, director of Swish MG Films, which distributes Bollywood films through Hoyts Cinemas.
"You had to scan through the shelves of old Indian grocery stores to try and figure out where the films were releasing. Now our audiences are a cultural melting pot. They’re popular with Greek, Italian and Lebanese audiences and the whole Indian subcontinent. The gay community loves them, too. There’s an innocence and charm about these films."
In Victoria, Hindi film buffs can see their favourite Bollywood stars at selected Hoyts, Village and Greater Union cinemas, which screen new films every two or three weeks depending on the availability of prints from India. Most are romantic comedy romps featuring Bollywood’s biggest stars with lush backdrops, decadent costumes and high-energy song and dance sequences. It’s not unusual for audiences to clap, cheer, whistle, boo and even dance in the aisles, says Bhowmick Lange.
"You don’t watch them in a detached way like you would a Western film. You’re allowed to get completely swept away and it’s not frowned upon to make a lot of noise."
While Bollywood has always held a kitsch appeal, in the past two or three years the genre has crossed over from mainly Indian audiences to a broader slice of the community, says Hoyts programmer Fiona Pulford. "It’s an emerging market that’s developed rapidly across Australia."
