Is Bollywood corrupting the youth?
Can our generation identify the bridge between the real life and the reel life?
For the past hundred years, Bollywood has been one of the most dominant and distinctive features of the Indian culture. Indian cinema is one of the most influential and powerful tools to address various social issues through the medium of screenplay. It is the world’s largest film industry in terms of the number of films produced, but not in terms of its financial returns.
To satisfy the 14 million Indians who go to the cinema every day, the Indian film industry produces more than 1,000 films every year. Since its inception in 1913, film has been a vital medium for the communication of social insights and conditions, while continuing to function as an important mode of entertainment for the masses. It’s very intriguing to understand, sometimes, whether the movies are shaping the society or vice versa.
But Bollywood is not a linear content-driven industry. From mythology to comedy to thriller and horror, Indian cinema has been experimenting with different genres to create a successful formula that works well with audiences and makes a mark in the box office. The Indian Cinema has unveiled a great deal in recent years, not limiting itself to being a source of mere entertainment, but, by experimenting to stride towards showcasing social and responsible cinema. Due to such diverse topics, Bollywood is able to connect with a large variety of audience in the subcontinent as well as foreign countries.
With the passage of time, cinema has evolved and left a profound impact on people’s minds, and through the different dimensions of film, documentary and advertising, cinema has now become an integral part of people’s lives. They feel connected to the films and the actors who work in those films, not only this, but movies have become a psychological stimulus that can inspire, guide, motivate, rule the mind and even sometimes can mislead the people.
The cinema is a very impactful kind of entertainment, which can leave an impression on the masses. The section of the people that is being the most affected and influenced by it; is the Youth. Bollywood deeply impacts the Indian youth not only because of the movie scenes but the profound influence of the actors and actresses of the movies on their life. Youth account for 32% of the population and more than 15% of their population has the access to mass media. Bollywood portrays their actors and actresses in the most fascinating and mesmerizing ways in front of the youth that make them believe that they are the perfect human beings, for some they become the role models and even the idols.
Bollywood is a multi-million dollar industry that produces a whole array of movies. Some exemplary movies like Rang De Basanti, 3 idiots, Iqbaal, Chak De India, Dangal, Mary Com and etc., have tremendously motivated the youth to bring improvement and good spirit in their lives. These kind of movies are really interesting, knowledgeable but unfortunately they are not money spinners and thus are produced by a handful of producers and thus we see fewer number of these movies. Since they lack entertainment factor, they are left behind by mediocre movies.
But these kind of movies are the ones which really portray our society and thus should be watched and promoted by the masses. If such movies are given a preference, then our youth would have good role model to look upto from the cinema industry and would inculcate good etiquettes leading to a good generation of our young adults.
Movies are no more the source of entertainment but they actually rule over the minds of the youth, the lifestyles, thinking patterns, ideas and thoughts of the youth are now very much moved and altered by the movies of the Bollywood. And it is also not deniable that in the recent times Movies are no longer a source of entertainment, but they actually rule over the minds of the youth, the lifestyles, thinking patterns, ideas and thoughts of the youth are now very much moved and changed by the Bollywood movies. Nor can it be denied that, in recent times, Bollywood has begun to serve a different kind of cinema that has given rise to many unhealthy impulses among the youth. The characters sometimes influences the audience in a negative way. He feels that’s its fine to tease, hit, harass and assault a woman.
For most films, women are usually depicted as sexual objects and are never anything more than a second fiddle to a hero or ‘item numbers.’ Social psychologist Craig Anderson found that even short-term exposure to violent media dramatically raises the likelihood that children would participate in physical and verbal violence as well as hostile thoughts and emotions.
Children learn through the process of conditioning, social cognition or model observation. And as a child, we are never taught the difference between the real world and the reel world. We’ve never been told about the real purpose of a movie and thus we often see it as a real world. Even the roles played by the actors seem real to us and we forget that acting is their profession.
It is good for Indian cinema to portray the actor’s creativity and to highlight the practical aspects of society and humanity, but it should also try to maintain a balance between what needs to be catered for and what should not be served to the audience. The young generation of the country should be directed in the right way, and they should be served with a cinema that exalts their inner spirit, stimulates their great ideas and thoughts and inspires them to act in the way of the improvement of the nation as well as of society.
Written By- Mani Gupta
Literary sources: Shodhganga, Indianexpress, Newsbix
Image source: Studiobinder, Insidesport, Tribune, Indianexpress
