Essay: Exploring the Popularity of Bollywood in Asian Cultures

This essay delves into the increasing popularity of Bollywood movies across various Asian countries, examining the factors that contribute to their widespread appeal. The author highlights the vibrant storytelling, use of songs and dance sequences, and the relatable nature of Bollywood films as key elements that distinguish them from other film industries, particularly Hollywood. The essay also explores the commercial viability and cultural impact of Bollywood, including the influence of the Indian diaspora and the portrayal of social messages. While acknowledging the criticisms related to the representation of women and potential stereotyping, the author concludes that Bollywood's unique content and entertainment value have established it as a prominent cultural force in Asia. The essay suggests that addressing the shortcomings and introducing quality content will further boost Bollywood's popularity worldwide.

Running head: EXPLORE ASIAN POPULAR CULTURE
Explore Asian Popular Culture
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Bollywood industry represents the film industry in Hindi language from India. Currently,
bollywood is one of the leading and prominent film industries around the world. Moreover,
bollywood is having the record of producing highest number of movies every year. However, the
key distinctive aspects of bollywood are something else which are creating waves in the Asian
regions and around the world. The south Asian regions are already being covered by the craze of
bollywood movies. The popularity of the bollywood movies is now expanding in other Asian
regions. It is rapidly evolving as the popular culture in the Asian countries (Daspit and Weaver
2012). In the recent years, newly released bollywood movies are earning huge money from
several Asian regions and they are going to prove as money spinner in various countries. Now
the there are various concepts and debates being held to determine the reasons behind this
popularity of bollywood movies in the Asian regions. This essay will discuss about the probable
reasons of gaining popularity of bollywood movies along with discussing various theories being
given by different authors. It will help to identify the core competitive advantages of these
movies which help them to stay ahead over other competitors.
According to Roy (2012), the key reason for the bollywood movies in becoming the
popular culture in the Asian regions is the vibrant nature or approach of the movies. According
to him, the approach of storytelling of the bollywood movies is much different than that of the
approach of the movies from other countries. The film industry from America which is popularly
known as Hollywood is the leading the film industry in the world. However, they are trailing
behind the bollywood movies in terms of vibrancy. He also stated that bollywood movies involve
more extensive use of colors and festivals which increase the aesthetic value of the movies.
Thus, they are being more attracted by the people from various Asian regions who are not
accustomed with these types of movies.
Related to this concept, another author also added some more aspects which further help
to identify the reasons for the bollywood movies for becoming the popular culture in different
Asian regions. Mukherjee (2012), stated that involvement of songs in the movies is one of the
key reasons for the bollywood industries to gain momentum in the Asian countries. This is due to
the reason that, involvement of songs helps to gain more attractions towards the movies.
Moreover, the songs normally used in the bollywood movies involve synchronized beats and
tunes which feels pleasurable to hear. The songs and dance sequence being used in the

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bollywood movies is one of the unique features which helps to attract foreign audience. Thus, it
helps to gain the instant attraction from the side of the audience. In the Asian regions, countries
such as China, South Korea and Japan is also having prominent film industries but they are more
influenced by the Hollywood culture and thus, bollywood movies are getting the market place by
offering something different and unique to the audience.
According to Willis (2013), bollywood movies also involve different genres in one single
movie. Thus, audience has the choice of enjoying various genres in one single movie. Majority
of the Hollywood and movies from other countries follows a single genre, whereas in the case of
bollywood movies, action, romance, climax, songs and dance are all being involved in a single
movie. This is also one of the key reasons of growing popularity of the bollywood movies in
different Asian regions. Bollywood films have the perfect blend of all the genres in their
mainstream movies which increase their attractiveness to the audience (Morcom 2017). This type
of concept is new to the countries in the Asian regions expect the Indian subcontinent. Thus,
bollywood is having large untapped market to grow by offering distinctive films.
According to Roy (2016), the pattern and design of the story being portrayed by the
bollywood movies is much easy to connect to the audience compared to other film industries.
This is due to the reason that, bollywood movies involves the stories having social messages and
the struggle of the masses in the daily life. Compared to this, Hollywood and other major movie
industries convey more complicated story through their movies. Thus, the audience is finding
easier to understand and relate with the bollywood movies compared to other movies. Another
aspect that can be added here is the commercial viability of the bollywood movies which is more
than that of other movie industries. The entire approach and design of the movies is being
initiated keeping in mind the commercial viability of the project. Thus, the movies are being
made according to the taste and preference pattern of the audience. It helps to attract the
audience more effectively by serving them the product that they will enjoy.
Buga and Meyer (2012), stated that the migration of the Indian population is growing by
leaps and bound and majority of the Asian countries are having large number of Indian
population. Thus, this is another influencing factor for the gaining of popularity by the
bollywood movies in the foreign countries. More people are being influenced by the Indian
population living abroad and the culture of bollywood movies is gaining market penetration.

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According to Matusitz and Payano (2012), bollywood is slowing evolving as popular culture in
major Asian countries due to many reasons. He also stated the catchy sound track of the
bollywood movies is one of the key reasons of attracting foreign audiences. Moreover, according
to him, bollywood movies are being perceived as the mode of entertainment only rather than the
broader perspective of the Hollywood movies. Thus, this commercial factor is more influencing
the popularity of the bollywood movies in the major Asian countries.
However, there are various opposing views being given by different authors regarding the
effectiveness of the bollywood movies. This is due to the reason that portrayal of bollywood
movies is having various implications in the lifestyle of them. According to Ganti (2012), it is
the time for the bollywood movies to look beyond the song and dance sequences and come out
with more practical stories rather than portraying larger than life characters. It is also been stated
that the portrayal of the characters in the bollywood movies are far away from the practical
situation. Therefore, this shortcoming of the bollywood movies may have adverse effect on the
audience.
Another issue being stated by Tere (2012), regarding the bollywood movies is the
representation of the females. Bollywood movies are notoriously known for representing females
as sexual means. The dance and the movie sequence are being plotted in such way that it will
represent the female characters as sexual objects. Moreover, according to the author, bollywood
movies are accused for numerous times for wrong portrayal of the characters which often lead to
misconceptions. Due to the reason of the rising bollywood culture, various social cultures based
on caste, creed and religion are being type casted and stereotyped. Moreover, the art content of
the film is being sacrificed for inducting more commercial elements. This cause quality reduction
not only for the movies but also the audience is being deprived from having good content in the
movies.
However, with rise of the popularity of bollywood culture in different Asian countries
and accepting it as the popular cultures by the major section of the populations is providing
mileage for the soft power democracy for India (Blarel 2012). This is due to the reason that with
the increase in the market of the bollywood movies, the business opportunities of the Indian
Diaspora is also increasing. In addition, the influence of the bollywood movies on the common
people will also help to expand the Indian culture in other Asian countries. More number of

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people will be attracted towards the Indian culture. Therefore, the soft democracy and bargaining
power for India will rise in the Asian regions.
Having analyzed the various aspects of the bollywood movies being transforming in to
popular culture in majority of the Asian countries, it can be concluded that the content and the
commercial elements of the bollywood movies are attracting more number of audiences.
Bollywood movies are providing the instant and short term entertainment which is not being
provided by movies from other leading film industries. This factor is further influencing the
audiences to accept it as the popular culture. However, the drawbacks of the bollywood movies
are also being critically analyzed in this essay. Thus, it s being recommended that overcoming
the issues and introduction of good and healthy content will help bollywood movies to gain more
popularity not only in the Asian regions but also around the world.

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Reference
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