Bollywood calling

Festivals, dance studios, auditions... the Indian film industry is becoming a big draw in the West.

In his book Brideless in Wembley, author Sanjay Suri mentions some of his conversations with the students of Diva Entertainment run by Honey Kalaria, also billed as Bollywood's ambassador to Britain.

A young girl tells Suri, "Bollywood films are melodic, colourful, about some ideal... you can get transported into a different world." A mother present at one of the classes tells him, "We enjoy the music... In this country it is a form of socialising."

What Suri offers in his book is really a tiny reflection of how the Indian film industry is perceived in London. I remember meeting Saira Hussain, lead vocalist of London-based band Trickbaby one afternoon. She was beaming after director Inder Kumar called her to compose and sing a special song for his forthcoming film Pyare Mohan.

"Bollywood is so huge," she told me, "my parents were very proud when I told them I was singing in a film called Bluff Master that starred Abhishek Bachchan.

My mum said, 'When we were young we wanted to just shake hands with Amitabh Bachchan; you've ended up working with his son'."

In her view, "India has completely changed for my parents. Our relatives also went away to other countries. To be frank," she said, "the only constant that remains is Bollywood."

A recent e-mail was a reminder of how Bollywood continues to grow in the West.

Subject: FROM 'YASHRAJ FILMS' CASTING

Hello there!!
We are casting for YashRaj's new film starring Rani Mukherji and Saif Ali Khan. The casting call will be held on Wednesday (June 28th, 2006) in Queens from 12-8pm. We are casting mainly Hindi-speaking roles... Please pass this on to all your friends/ family... We are looking for the following roles:

10-yr old, fluent Hindi speaking girl

12 men, 20-35 years old, Hindi speaking

3 typical Punjabi-looking elderly men (60-70 years old), Hindi speaking

Young mom (30-35 years old), Hindi speaking

One woman, Hindi speaking, 50-60 years old Hope to see you at the audition!! Thanks!

Pooja Narang laughs when I mention this e-mail to her. "A lot of my students keep trying for these auditions and do end up getting bit roles here and there," she says.

Some auditions may turn out to be humbugs, but a majority of these auditions, she says, are genuine. The latest success story in Narang's New York dance studio revolves around Vicki Aubin, a dance student who plays Amitabh Bachchan's nurse in Karan Johar's forthcoming Kabhi Alvida Na Kehna.

A bit role in the big banner film seems to have worked in her favour, especially as other directors have started offering her roles too.

"Some of my students are chosen as dancing extras for Indian films," she explains, adding, "Since an increasing number of Indian films are being shot in the US, a majority of my students even get to act."

Twenty nine-year-old Narang has been dancing for 18 years and has included bharatnatyam, kathak, odissi, jazz and hip-hop in her repertoire. Besides, she has taken classes with Shiamak Davar's Institute of Performing Arts (SDIPA) in Toronto and India and trained under film choreographer Saroj Khan.

She started Bollywood Axion in early 2002 and admits that the number of people wanting to learn "Indian film dance" continues to swell. Films like Monsoon Wedding, Bend It Like Beckham, Bride and Prejudice and Broadway shows like Bombay Dreams have, according to her, raised awareness of Indian films and music in a way that a lot of non-Indians and NRIs can relate to.

"The music, the colours, the dances are all very intriguing for Americans here. They love it. In fact, one can hear a lot of Bollywood music mixed into American music too," she says.

Narang's love affair with Indian films and music started at a fairly young age. Born into a Sikh family, she was surrounded with the music and culture of India.

If she extended her Bollywood trappings with a dance institute, in Canada Jyoti Rana and Abhishek Mathur are welcoming a deluge of youngsters and Hindi film fans to their oddly titled four-day festival, M!M!M! (read: Mehndi!Masala!Masti!) that has been running successfully for the past five years.

"The Indian film industry," feel the duo, "has become a huge cultural force in North America and Canada in particular." The growth of the festival justifies the statement. When M!M!M! was first introduced, it opened its doors to 20,000 people.

Last year, the numbers were swelling to over 1,00,000. This time, when the fest starts on July 26, 2006, the venue will accommodate more people and will have, besides other attractions, Shiamak Davar and his dancers performing at the fest. The festival is free of charge and over 75 performances and events spanning the days are accessible to anyone at no cost.

"Our philosophy is to educate all in the effort to present and share our ancient heritage in its glorious traditional and sexy contemporary formats," says Mathur.

Narang is quick to agree that Bollywood is "such a huge deal and the awareness and interest is growing very quickly and is definitely here to stay".

That explains why others are inventing permutations to sell Bollywood. So there's Sarina Jain promoting Masala Bhangra aerobics in LA, New York and San Francisco, and Arvind Manocha who is organising a Bollywood Night this Sunday at the annual event Hollywood Bowl, LA, to include biggies like music composer A R Rahman along with other well-known Indian playback singers.

Another festival, Midsummer Masala, in Toronto, will showcase performances by Bhangra singer Malkiat Singh.

Mathur and Rana credit the increasing presence of Indian films in festivals like the Toronto International Film Festival. M!M!M!, according to them, is a contemporary, hip event that accommodates flamenco-kathak fusion, Japanese sitar players, Ukranian Bollywood dancers, Western musicians performing Indian classical music-inspired jazz, Urdu rock bands sharing the dais with mushairas and what have you.

Of course, M!M!M! didn't get a green signal too easily, not from some of the "elder members of the community who had been presenting their version of South Asian culture before us", Rana says, "We were really discouraged. Newspapers trashed us too but we stuck to our convictions and here we are, well into our sixth year." The duo now hope to bring the fest to India some day.

Narang, meanwhile, has started directing her first "Bollywood-ish film that will have a lot of dancing involved with Indian songs".

She laughs, "I always thought if belly dancing could sell, why couldn't Bhangra and Bollywood?" Obviously she, Mathur and Rana and others from their ilk are now taking Bollywood to another level altogether.