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Why can't Bollywood produce quality?

KingKhanWC

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I was on a 10 hour flight so decided to watch 'Tiger Zinda hai' because I read it was an anti-Pakistan film so wanted to see if this was true.

Before this I haven't watched a Bollywood film in over 15 years. I read this is a blockbuster film where a lot of money was spent with spectacular action scenes.

After an hour I questioned my sanity watching this absolute piece of trash. The acting was pathetic, the story line was more on par with Austin Powers than James Bond and stunts were mediocre at best.

It got me thinking Indian film industry has a lot of money so why cant they produce half decent quality. Even Korean movies such as 'Train to Busan' or 'The Raid' were real quality. Of course Hollywood and British movies are way way ahead.

For those who spend their lives watching 3 hour Indian movies, please explain why the quality is so pathetic or perhaps I watched a terrible film, if so please name one with is on par with other world cinema?
 
Watched "Drishyam" about a year back - Good movie if you are a fan of "Suspense Thriller" genre.
 
I was on a 10 hour flight so decided to watch 'Tiger Zinda hai' because I read it was an anti-Pakistan film so wanted to see if this was true.

Before this I haven't watched a Bollywood film in over 15 years. I read this is a blockbuster film where a lot of money was spent with spectacular action scenes.

After an hour I questioned my sanity watching this absolute piece of trash. The acting was pathetic, the story line was more on par with Austin Powers than James Bond and stunts were mediocre at best.

It got me thinking Indian film industry has a lot of money so why cant they produce half decent quality. Even Korean movies such as 'Train to Busan' or 'The Raid' were real quality. Of course Hollywood and British movies are way way ahead.

For those who spend their lives watching 3 hour Indian movies, please explain why the quality is so pathetic or perhaps I watched a terrible film, if so please name one with is on par with other world cinema?
Because every audience deserve the movie they get.When you can make crap like this and get in 100 crore club, why would someone will work their brain cells.
You can watch regional movies such as Malayalam industry where audience demand much more quality and hence much better movies.
 
Because every audience deserve the movie they get.When you can make crap like this and get in 100 crore club, why would someone will work their brain cells.
You can watch regional movies such as Malayalam industry where audience demand much more quality and hence much better movies.

I dont understand. Indians want to watch rubbish therefore rubbish is made?
 
Outside of Hollywood, very few countries produce consistent quality content.
 
Outside of Hollywood, very few countries produce consistent quality content.

Actually Hollywood of old has become a shell of itself lately. Only a handful of new movies each year are worth watching. The big studio auteur movies, which Hollywood was famous for back in the late 60’s and 70’s are no where to be found. A few directors are still able to make more or less what they want but compared to the amount of trash that is being made i.e. Marvel movies, franchise movies, dumb comedies and silly rom-coms, those great movies are getting more and more hard to find.

Unfortunately, Hollywood has become like any big corporation and more than that, the audiences seem less and less interested in good movies. They have successfully managed to infantilise the culture, keeping us happy in a perpetual child like state, never wanting to grow up. I feel Korean, French and South American cinema is producing much more daring, innovative and genuine movies then Holloywood is nowadays and this will continue to be the case in the future.
 
It's all about the money. Don't think they would care much about quality as long as their movies are making the bucks.
 
Indian stars just don't have screen presence or heartthrob appeal, the biggest heroes get offered roles only as terrorists or crazed villains in Hollywood. Even the Chinese have leapt ahead with this year's surprise blockbuster, Crazy Rich Asians, which has took America by storm. Following the Black Panther film they have now crossed over and have established a presence not just as minorities but equals in the big screen productions, leaving American Indians trailing firmly in the shadows.
 
Actually Hollywood of old has become a shell of itself lately. Only a handful of new movies each year are worth watching. The big studio auteur movies, which Hollywood was famous for back in the late 60’s and 70’s are no where to be found. A few directors are still able to make more or less what they want but compared to the amount of trash that is being made i.e. Marvel movies, franchise movies, dumb comedies and silly rom-coms, those great movies are getting more and more hard to find.

Unfortunately, Hollywood has become like any big corporation and more than that, the audiences seem less and less interested in good movies. They have successfully managed to infantilise the culture, keeping us happy in a perpetual child like state, never wanting to grow up. I feel Korean, French and South American cinema is producing much more daring, innovative and genuine movies then Holloywood is nowadays and this will continue to be the case in the future.

Even the worst of Hollywood such as the likes of Jumanji are far superiour in quality, in terms of production than the best of Bollywood.

Maybe it is the case , the Indian audience like cheesy, silly films where one punch sends the villain into Mars and hero always get the girl in the end.
 
Even the worst of Hollywood such as the likes of Jumanji are far superiour in quality, in terms of production than the best of Bollywood.

Maybe it is the case , the Indian audience like cheesy, silly films where one punch sends the villain into Mars and hero always get the girl in the end.

Jumanji, the latest one, wasn’t the worse of Hollywood. It’s actually a decent movie. I have watched a few Indian movies over the years, last one being Amir Khan’s Dangal and quite frankly the production quality is pretty good and up there with the rest of the world. It’s the typical story line, one dimensional characters, cheesy dialogue and over the top songs which make them subpar.
 
Watched "Drishyam" about a year back - Good movie if you are a fan of "Suspense Thriller" genre.

Very good movie and like all South Indian blockbusters, Bollywood copied it. South Indian cinema is waaaay ahead of it's northern counterpart when it comes to originality and actual good old quality film making (they have their crap films too but overall in drama I think they're way ahead). Really dislike the super duper mega superstar and what not attached before the names of Mamooty, Mohanlal etc-
 
Outside of Hollywood, very few countries produce consistent quality content.

Not true at all. Hollywood is full of trash as well. Check out some classic Japanese, Swedish, Russian, South Korean stuff. There are even more countries
 
Because of the audience. Indians and Pakistanis don’t care about quality. Our film industry is even worse though. Bollywood has made some really really god movies over the years amongst the trash. We only make trash
 
Indian stars just don't have screen presence or heartthrob appeal, the biggest heroes get offered roles only as terrorists or crazed villains in Hollywood. Even the Chinese have leapt ahead with this year's surprise blockbuster, Crazy Rich Asians, which has took America by storm. Following the Black Panther film they have now crossed over and have established a presence not just as minorities but equals in the big screen productions, leaving American Indians trailing firmly in the shadows.

I feel Crazy Rich Asians is a one off. Don’t think this is the start of a trend, just like Black Panthers success doesn’t mean most black movies will now become mainstream.

As for Indian stars not having screen presence, I think it’s more to do with Hollywood’s failure to utilize them and only using them in stereotypically roles. Not that any current Indian star has a huge screen presence but even among American actors, who does have screen appeal anymore. Brad Pitt, once a huge movie star, made a movie for Netflix not long ago and it hardly got a mention. Same goes for Will Smith, who was once considered box office gold. Tom Cruise might be the only actor left who has been able to maintain some status of a “Hollywood Star”. No one is going to the movies because so and so is starring, it’s the franchise which attracts them. The ongoing storyline like in the Marvel Universe or Star Wars.
 
Jumanji, the latest one, wasn’t the worse of Hollywood. It’s actually a decent movie. I have watched a few Indian movies over the years, last one being Amir Khan’s Dangal and quite frankly the production quality is pretty good and up there with the rest of the world. It’s the typical story line, one dimensional characters, cheesy dialogue and over the top songs which make them subpar.

I thought the first one with Robin Williams was much better but my point was this is a fun movie not a great masterpiece such as Shawshank, Seven, Goodfellas , Casino etc. Ive just watched the trailer for Dangal which you have mentioned and just from the trailer you can see the direction is average-poor with the angles all wrong in the shots. I guess some people love Bollywood which is fine and will forget about quality production as long as they are enjoying the movie, which is also fine.
 
Quality is subjective. If the masses think that movies like Race, Tiger, etc are quality and will fill the movie theaters to watch it then that is all that matters in the end. The majority of the population is deeply impressed by those slow revolving in the air bad guys when punched by the hero and if the general population thinks that's quality then it's quality.

However Bollywood has produced a lot of quality, mainstream ones like 3 idiots, PK, Dangaal, Lgaan, Rang de Basanti etc (all by Amir btw although not necessarily just by him as am just mentioning these from the top of my head) and not so mainstream ones like Kahani, Maqbool, Shahid, Haider, most of Anurag Kashyap movies like Gangs of Wasseypur, Ugly, Udaan etc (again this is just off the top of my head).

Having said that South Indian cinema has much better movies when compared to Bollywood, will make a list someday when I have a bit more time to recall all of them.
 
Because of the audience. Indians and Pakistanis don’t care about quality. Our film industry is even worse though. Bollywood has made some really really god movies over the years amongst the trash. We only make trash

Such as?

The couple of films I have watched, which you have recommended in the past(not Bollywood) have been top quality Are you sure because you also like Bollywood you are not comprising the quality of production? e.g Will they ever be able to make a series such as breaking bad? It wouldn't be expensive at all as there is little way of special effects or huge casts but do they understand great scripts, direction, sound, production etc?
 
Quality is subjective. If the masses think that movies like Race, Tiger, etc are quality and will fill the movie theaters to watch it then that is all that matters in the end. The majority of the population is deeply impressed by those slow revolving in the air bad guys when punched by the hero and if the general population thinks that's quality then it's quality.

However Bollywood has produced a lot of quality, mainstream ones like 3 idiots, PK, Dangaal, Lgaan, Rang de Basanti etc (all by Amir btw although not necessarily just by him as am just mentioning these from the top of my head) and not so mainstream ones like Kahani, Maqbool, Shahid, Haider, most of Anurag Kashyap movies like Gangs of Wasseypur, Ugly, Udaan etc (again this is just off the top of my head).

Having said that South Indian cinema has much better movies when compared to Bollywood, will make a list someday when I have a bit more time to recall all of them.

Quality is not subjective. Great acting is great acting, great script is a great script and excellent direction is just that. Like I said earlier some who enjoy watching Bollywood are pretending it's fine because they enjoy watching them, which fine but to suggest it's quality film when compared to US and UK productions is plain wrong.
 
They produced quality during the 60-80's that was the golden era. Complete westernisation of Indian culture is the problem here. No one is gonna remember today's Bollywood repetitive movies in 50 years time. "Padmavati" was an interesting watch for sure although it upset many Hindu people.
 
Quality is not subjective. Great acting is great acting, great script is a great script and excellent direction is just that. Like I said earlier some who enjoy watching Bollywood are pretending it's fine because they enjoy watching them, which fine but to suggest it's quality film when compared to US and UK productions is plain wrong.

You just compared Bollywood movies to Breaking Bad which is a TV series which is just :facepalm:. You cannot equate TV to cinema as you have more time and artistic license to unfold the plot, create relocatable characters etc there India is just breaking into the TV series market and their first venture "Sacred Games" is a very good one. it's not Breaking Bad but the acting, plot, character development etc is top notch.
 
You just compared Bollywood movies to Breaking Bad which is a TV series which is just :facepalm:. You cannot equate TV to cinema as you have more time and artistic license to unfold the plot, create relocatable characters etc there India is just breaking into the TV series market and their first venture "Sacred Games" is a very good one. it's not Breaking Bad but the acting, plot, character development etc is top notch.

Not to mention that TV is a writers medium whereas movies are directors medium.

I only caught the 1st episode of Sacred Games, seemed interesting but the character I was really into died at the end of that episode so my inclination to watch it further got hampered down. Does the storyline holds up along the series?
 
BB is of course a series but the debate here is regarding quality of production. A movie 3 hours long will have a larger budget than one episode and my point was one scene of a series such as a BB will be far better qauilty than any Bollywood production, movie, series.

Bollywood fans seem to be just like the movies.

I wont be watching this rubbish ever again.:inti
 
Not to mention that TV is a writers medium whereas movies are directors medium.

I only caught the 1st episode of Sacred Games, seemed interesting but the character I was really into died at the end of that episode so my inclination to watch it further got hampered down. Does the storyline holds up along the series?

Which character was that? You can put it in the spoiler tags as to not spoil it for anyone else. The story line definitely holds up apart from a few fillers here and there as expected in a TV series but Kashyap and Motwane are really breaking new ground (not for them but for Indian TV).


Also Just saw that the German name for this series is "Der Pate von Bombay" which translates to The Godfather from Mumbai which is alright on its own but I don't get this fixation of comparing Kashyaps films like TGOW and now Sacred Games to The Godfather, as it it is actually condescending and a disservice to quality content. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is on top of his game as usual but the real surprise was Saif Ali Khan and also the supporting cast is very good.
 
Which character was that? You can put it in the spoiler tags as to not spoil it for anyone else. The story line definitely holds up apart from a few fillers here and there as expected in a TV series but Kashyap and Motwane are really breaking new ground (not for them but for Indian TV).


Also Just saw that the German name for this series is "Der Pate von Bombay" which translates to The Godfather from Mumbai which is alright on its own but I don't get this fixation of comparing Kashyaps films like TGOW and now Sacred Games to The Godfather, as it it is actually condescending and a disservice to quality content. Nawazuddin Siddiqui is on top of his game as usual but the real surprise was Saif Ali Khan and also the supporting cast is very good.

Wait, did Nawazuddin Siddiqui character not fatally shoots himself at the end of the first episode

Saif has really matured into a decent actor. I was surprisingly impressed.

The Godfather reference doesn't make any sense to me. Godfather is a very old school mafia movie. Its not stylized and gritty as Kashyap's works. I think his style is more akin to the Brazilian movie "City of Good". The squalor of Mumbai being adequately depicted in the Crime/Mafia genre like it did in City of God.
 
Wait, did Nawazuddin Siddiqui character not fatally shoots himself at the end of the first episode

Saif has really matured into a decent actor. I was surprisingly impressed.

The Godfather reference doesn't make any sense to me. Godfather is a very old school mafia movie. Its not stylized and gritty as Kashyap's works. I think his style is more akin to the Brazilian movie "City of Good". The squalor of Mumbai being adequately depicted in the Crime/Mafia genre like it did in City of God.

Oh yeah, I forgot. :facepalm::

Actually that was the most intriguing part for me since the main character (you know, did that). Most of the story is basically told in flashbacks only coming back to the present when Saif and the other agents were involved. Also there is a very prevalent Hinduvata theme going on regarding Gurus and cycles etc and is very relevant to current times. If you have seen the first episode you know its an end of the world scenario, which it is somewhat by the last episode, but it leaves more questions than answers. Nonetheless, awaiting season 2 eagerly.
 
Wait, did Nawazuddin Siddiqui character not fatally shoots himself at the end of the first episode

Saif has really matured into a decent actor. I was surprisingly impressed.

The Godfather reference doesn't make any sense to me. Godfather is a very old school mafia movie. Its not stylized and gritty as Kashyap's works. I think his style is more akin to the Brazilian movie "City of Good". The squalor of Mumbai being adequately depicted in the Crime/Mafia genre like it did in City of God.

Saw City of God a long time ago and then like 4 years ago again but still forgive me if I get something wrong. The thing is unlike The Godfather there is no organized crime head of the family type succession in the City of God, its basically one wannabe Gangsta riding his luck after another.

Hopefully you have seen both Elite Sqaud movies and Cell 211.
 
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Saw City of God a long time ago and then like 4 years ago again but still forgive me if I get something wrong. The thing is unlike The Godfather there is no organized crime head of the family type succession in the City of God, its basically one wannabe Gangsta riding his luck after another.

Hopefully you have seen both Elite Sqaud movies and Cell 211.

I was talking more in terms of style and atmosphere than story.

No I haven’t see either of the movies. Will give it a try when in mood for gritty crime drama, which I assume is the genre they belong to.
 
I was talking more in terms of style and atmosphere than story.

No I haven’t see either of the movies. Will give it a try when in mood for gritty crime drama, which I assume is the genre they belong to.

Watch them, especially if you like gritty crime drama, will change your life. Also Elite Squad stars the ever cool Wagner Moura which is why he got his part in Narcos as Escobar.
 
Its a psychological effect. Now a days, people go for movies which are fantasy and no where related to real life which could remind them of the problems they are going through. That's why, making a movie on real life will attract less audience as people don't want to see their reflection of their own life in a silver screen. Going through the painful experience day by day is enough for them.

I watch trash movies. Not because I want to but because I don't want to question my sanity by watching the heavy ones. You can call it as a mass denial.
 
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Its a psychological effect. Now a days, people go for movies which are fantasy and no where related to real life which could remind them of the problems they are going through. That's why, making a movie on real life will attract less audience as people don't want to see their reflection of their own life in a silver screen. Going through the painful experience day by day is enough for them.

I watch trash movies. Not because I want to but because I don't want to question my sanity by watching the heavy ones. You can call it as a mass denial.

It's a reflection of the society, whatever sells will be produced. When the majority of society struggles as a whole to make a basic wage naturally they'd want to escape this reality. They escape it by watching movies that are pure fiction, they have enough realism in their own lives to contend with.

Bollywood and Hollywood use movies to make money whilst a lot of foreign filmmakers use money to make movies.
 
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What a surprising thread,saw one of the lamest movie on flight which no one ever recommended on PP ever and talk about quality of bollywood lol.
 
Bollywood has produced many good movies in the past although most of the recent 'mainstream' movies are honestly crap.
 
Such as?

The couple of films I have watched, which you have recommended in the past(not Bollywood) have been top quality Are you sure because you also like Bollywood you are not comprising the quality of production? e.g Will they ever be able to make a series such as breaking bad? It wouldn't be expensive at all as there is little way of special effects or huge casts but do they understand great scripts, direction, sound, production etc?

Watch Guide from 1965. It’s a masterpiece from more than 40 years ago. Or better yet watch ship of Theseus. That was amazing and only came out a few years ago. I cannot even fathom a movie like ship of Theseus being made in Pakistan right now. Or watch a few Anurag kashyap movies. A lot of mainstream Bollywood is trash but you have movies like Swades that are still really good
 
Bollywood has produced some very good movies. I dont mind watching them. Although I dont like Salman Khan movies. They are rubbish. Although I watched Bajrangi Bhaijann. And I quite liked it.
 
I think last 4/5 years have been particularly bad.

Bollywood movies these days are mainly about producing movies which will have great wedding dance songs, chessey or cliche story lines and mostly with a love story heavily involved.

In the past Bollywood movies I felt were a option to make people feel good and laugh heartily. Sadly IMO I feel they moved away from that sensation.
 
The problem is clear on this thread.

Quality and taste are subjective. You have some people who want to hark back to the 80s and 90s where the production was poor, the acting worse, and storylines even cheesier.

And then you have others who want to compare Tiger Zinda Hai against the mythical cinematic masterpieces coming out of Hollywood....like what Iron Man 2,3,4,5???

I haven't watched a good movie in years....everything seems to be Marvel. The last really good Hollywood movie I thoroughly enjoyed was the Dark Knight.

Tiger Zinda Hai on its own was a poor movie. But, for the millions of Pakistanis and Indians (i.e. the mass market), who can't comprehend depth in a storyline, and just want to escape in fantasy cinema, its fine and sells.

Until and unless the Sub-Continent develops economically, and peoples tastes change, there will simply not be a big enough market to sell though provoking cinema. And if you can't sell it, why make it.

On Dangal, Amir Khan movies are like Pizza Express pizzas. They are dressed up well, with the pretence that there is more to them than the likes of Pizza Hut and Dominos. But in the end, its the same melodramatic stuff.

For real high quality content, I am not sure that Bollywood produces it.
 
If you want great Indian cinema you need to move away from Bollywood. Otherwise known as Parralel cinema, it's where the likes of Naseeruddin Shah, Smita Patil, Om Puri, Shabana Azmi etc cut their teeth.

Also absolutely anything by Satrajit Ray, or Aparna Sen currently.
 
I have stopped watching these garbage movies long ago. They just don't know how to make movies.They have resources but they just don't want to produce quality movie cause people are satisfied with masala movies.
 
I feel Crazy Rich Asians is a one off. Don’t think this is the start of a trend, just like Black Panthers success doesn’t mean most black movies will now become mainstream.

As for Indian stars not having screen presence, I think it’s more to do with Hollywood’s failure to utilize them and only using them in stereotypically roles. Not that any current Indian star has a huge screen presence but even among American actors, who does have screen appeal anymore. Brad Pitt, once a huge movie star, made a movie for Netflix not long ago and it hardly got a mention. Same goes for Will Smith, who was once considered box office gold. Tom Cruise might be the only actor left who has been able to maintain some status of a “Hollywood Star”. No one is going to the movies because so and so is starring, it’s the franchise which attracts them. The ongoing storyline like in the Marvel Universe or Star Wars.

Crazy Rich Asians and The Black Panther are considered breakthrough movies because they are made by Chinese/black ethnics for those of that ethnic group both at home and abroad. It's quite surprising that more haven't been made considering the size of the potential audience. If they do turn out to be a one off what would that say about audiences? Only whites are seen as lead role material? I consider this brown sahib mentality, and I have more faith in the US born ethnics who will be more demanding than the previous immigrant communities. Although I think US Indians probably might be more in line with your views as they are probably less established than the black or Chinese groups, and are probably happy enough with Bolly masala.
 
Crazy Rich Asians and The Black Panther are considered breakthrough movies because they are made by Chinese/black ethnics for those of that ethnic group both at home and abroad. It's quite surprising that more haven't been made considering the size of the potential audience. If they do turn out to be a one off what would that say about audiences? Only whites are seen as lead role material? I consider this brown sahib mentality, and I have more faith in the US born ethnics who will be more demanding than the previous immigrant communities. Although I think US Indians probably might be more in line with your views as they are probably less established than the black or Chinese groups, and are probably happy enough with Bolly masala.

My point is based on stats not any kind of inferiority complex or brown sahib mentality. A movie has to be good, not just made by or consisiting of certain racial group to be successful not only among them but globally.

Black Panthers worked because it was a Marvel movie, one of the biggest franchise in movies currently whose every movie pretty much gaurentes success. In case of Black Panthers, there was an enormous hype and publicity associated with the movie. I’ve read that the percentage of white audiences that planned to watch Black Panthers before it was released was higher than any other Marvel movie at that time. Infinity Wars may have taken the title now cause the hype and buildup for that movie probably surpassed anything. It’s the Marvel juggernaut coinciding with the “Black lives matter” social movement plus the unprecedented enormous hype that was generated by the media that made it successful.

With Crazy Rich Asians the first week box office numbers showed a higher percentage of Asians buying tickets from ten percent to forty percent, after all how many big budget purely Asian movies get wide release in the US but it’s the second week which tells you the real story when around 70 percent of the audience consisted of caucasians, mostly females. Plus globally, where the real money lies nowadays, Crazy Rich Asians have done well. Again, even though the success of this movie in America is heartening, its not just because it’s made by Asians and is starring Asians, that will only get you so far. Its gotten 93% on Rotten Tomatoes, a big number for a rom-com plus it filled the space of that “girls night out” movie, previous hits being Mamma Mia, Bridesmaid etoc.
 
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The ratio of quality movies that come out of Bollywood are no more or less than the ratio of quality movies that come out of Hollywood, which is all about Marvel/DC crap these days.

Also the fact that a muscle-head like Dwayne Johnson is among the highest paid actors in Hollywood today sums up the quality of American cinema these days. A trash actor who has no worth outside generic action and popcorn movies. Anyway, Netflix is the present and the future. They are producing better quality than both Hollywood and Bollywood.
 
The ratio of quality movies that come out of Bollywood are no more or less than the ratio of quality movies that come out of Hollywood, which is all about Marvel/DC crap these days.

Also the fact that a muscle-head like Dwayne Johnson is among the highest paid actors in Hollywood today sums up the quality of American cinema these days. A trash actor who has no worth outside generic action and popcorn movies. Anyway, Netflix is the present and the future. They are producing better quality than both Hollywood and Bollywood.

Dwayne Johnson is surprisingly decent as an actor considering his profession was WWF, although that in itself could probably be described as acting of sorts. He's the main star in Ballers, a tv show about a an agency for American football stars and he's great in that. Granted it's probably his level, but he's miles better than his Bollywood equivalent Salman Khan.

I am getting bored with all the attempts to equate Bollywood quality with Hollywood. Yes there are bad American films, but their successes are so much more varied and original than Bollywood it isn't even close. Most Bollywood producers will slavishly watch what comes out of the US then try to do a Hindi copy. How many American films will try to rip off Indian ones?
 
A big budget Indian movie simply means a serious amount of money spent on the cast, always consisting of a big name such as the three Khans (Shah Rukh, Amir and Salman), and the best actresses such as Katrina, Deepika, Anushka or Karina Kapoor.

Now, each of these big stars (Male) completely control the script. They choose the kinds of sets, dialogues, costumes, screen time for other actors. I was so shocked to hear the Mastan brothers completely destroyed their Series (Race) simply because they wanted to cast Salman Khan to make more money on the box office , yet Salman Khan singlehandedly changed everything that was connected to the series and its plot just so that he could cater to his image of being a family friendly actor.

These Khans dictate the box office, they have it all planned and the public wants to see them. People want to see Salman Khan make selfish movies about his egos. People want to see Shah Rukh Khan paint himself as something bigger than reality. People want to see Amir Khan drop some moral lessons in December once a year.
 
Originally a Tamil movie with Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar but being dubbed in Hindi. Supposedly spent whooping $75,000,000 on this movie.
 
Dwayne Johnson is surprisingly decent as an actor considering his profession was WWF, although that in itself could probably be described as acting of sorts. He's the main star in Ballers, a tv show about a an agency for American football stars and he's great in that. Granted it's probably his level, but he's miles better than his Bollywood equivalent Salman Khan.

I am getting bored with all the attempts to equate Bollywood quality with Hollywood. Yes there are bad American films, but their successes are so much more varied and original than Bollywood it isn't even close. Most Bollywood producers will slavishly watch what comes out of the US then try to do a Hindi copy. How many American films will try to rip off Indian ones?

Hollywood and Bollywood are the two biggest film industries in the world so a comparison is only natural. As far plagiarism is concerned, it happens in Hollywood as well, but they don't steal stuff from Bollywood because most Bollywood scripts are not suited for American/international audience.

This is where Bollywood has to catch up with Hollywood, but the discussion was about why Bollywood was not producing quality, and I don't think using Hollywood as the gold standard works anymore. It is not what it is used to be, and I they get over their 2010s obsession with superhero crap and start producing high quality, intellectual works again, where CGI and other effects are not integral to the success of the movie.
 
The ratio of quality movies that come out of Bollywood are no more or less than the ratio of quality movies that come out of Hollywood, which is all about Marvel/DC crap these days.

Also the fact that a muscle-head like Dwayne Johnson is among the highest paid actors in Hollywood today sums up the quality of American cinema these days. A trash actor who has no worth outside generic action and popcorn movies. Anyway, Netflix is the present and the future. They are producing better quality than both Hollywood and Bollywood.

Marvel may be cheesy for kids or cult movies but they are still way ahead of any action movie Bollywood can ever make. To say they both produce rubbish is so much off the mark even Indian posters haven't agreed with but someone who defends India blindly will do so.

The answer has been given and makes sense, Indians want to see rubbish therefore get it.
 
Netflix is killing hollywood soon it will take over bollywood aswell. I think people are still gonna watch Khans well into their 70s
 
Marvel may be cheesy for kids or cult movies but they are still way ahead of any action movie Bollywood can ever make. To say they both produce rubbish is so much off the mark even Indian posters haven't agreed with but someone who defends India blindly will do so.

The answer has been given and makes sense, Indians want to see rubbish therefore get it.

Only someone suffering from Indophobia will use a movie like Tiger Zinda Hai to have a go at Bollywood.
 
Only someone suffering from Indophobia will use a movie like Tiger Zinda Hai to have a go at Bollywood.

Their films are load of tripe. You claimed both Hollywood and Bollywood equally produce poor movies suggesting they are on par in terms of quailty but have failed to back this up. I have nothing to fear from India or Indians as I live with them. But you are as usual defending India but here very foolishly unless you can show , list some productions where both have produced equal quality and equal poor quality. Please go ahead. :)
 
India doesn't have visionary directors who can handle big scale movies specially sci-fi and fantasy action genre.
Budget is also big issue because there is greater risk involved in this genre if audience completely reject a movie.
It will take long time to catch up in this segment.
But there is no reason that Bollywood movie can not match Hollywood movie in other genres.

There are lots of quality movies available find out your self or tell us what Hollywood movies you really loved so that we can suggest movies according to your test.

Please don't generalize whole industry based on unapologetic commercial masala movies which never claimed or intended to be a path breaking movie.
 
Their films are load of tripe. You claimed both Hollywood and Bollywood equally produce poor movies suggesting they are on par in terms of quailty but have failed to back this up. I have nothing to fear from India or Indians as I live with them. But you are as usual defending India but here very foolishly unless you can show , list some productions where both have produced equal quality and equal poor quality. Please go ahead. :)

I do not have to back up anything. As I said, you cannot use a terrible movie like Tiger Zinda Hai to pass judgements on Bollywood, just like you cannot use the awful movies that Hollywood produces yearly to pass a judgment on Hollywood.

I am not implying in any way that Bollywood's best is equal to Hollywood's best. That is something that you inferred from my post, and if you look at post #48, you should note that I have explained why Hollywood does not need to steal scripts from Bollywood and the latter has to catch up.

Bollywood produces very good movies as well. Both Bollywood and Hollywood have declined in recent years, the former because of weak scripts and the latter because of superhero and CGI obsession, but just like you cannot use Hollywood's worst to judge Hollywood, you cannot use Bollywood's worst to judge Bollywood.

I do not defend India blindly and I am not a big fan of Bollywood to begin with, but I find it laughable that after watching Tiger Zinda Hai on a plane journey, you have concluded that Bollywood cannot produce quality.

Anyway, neither Hollywood nor Bollywood are gold standards today. Netflix is rapidly leaving both industries behind.
 
I was on a 10 hour flight so decided to watch 'Tiger Zinda hai' because I read it was an anti-Pakistan film so wanted to see if this was true.

Before this I haven't watched a Bollywood film in over 15 years. I read this is a blockbuster film where a lot of money was spent with spectacular action scenes.

After an hour I questioned my sanity watching this absolute piece of trash. The acting was pathetic, the story line was more on par with Austin Powers than James Bond and stunts were mediocre at best.

It got me thinking Indian film industry has a lot of money so why cant they produce half decent quality. Even Korean movies such as 'Train to Busan' or 'The Raid' were real quality. Of course Hollywood and British movies are way way ahead.

For those who spend their lives watching 3 hour Indian movies, please explain why the quality is so pathetic or perhaps I watched a terrible film, if so please name one with is on par with other world cinema?

I agree that most of what Bollywood produces is trash.

That however is the nature of mass media, and Hollywood is no exception. British movies, I didn't know there was actually such a thing!

Hollywood is dominated by pederasts like Polanski, rapists like Weinstein and druggies like Sorkin. The movies superficially look good, with the outstanding technical effects. But the messages in them are far more destructive than anything Bollywood produces, whose storylines still have a strong element of family loyalty in them.
 
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Hollywood is dominated by pederasts like Polanski, rapists like Weinstein and druggies like Sorkin. .

Bollywood is the same if not even more so. The only reason they don't speak up is due to the public shaming. Even in the US it is only now coming out due to the #metoo movement and they are way more acceptable as a society on issues such as rape, casting couch etc than the SC. Just because they don't speak that much about it, doesn't mean it does not exist. There have been many instances where actresses have died under mysterious circumstances in Bollywood, either for not agreeing to something or being shamed into it. Thing is with Bollywood, the underworld is also very much involved.
 
Bollywood is the same if not even more so. The only reason they don't speak up is due to the public shaming. Even in the US it is only now coming out due to the #metoo movement and they are way more acceptable as a society on issues such as rape, casting couch etc than the SC. Just because they don't speak that much about it, doesn't mean it does not exist. There have been many instances where actresses have died under mysterious circumstances in Bollywood, either for not agreeing to something or being shamed into it. Thing is with Bollywood, the underworld is also very much involved.

It appears you agree with the statement "Hollywood is dominated by pederasts like Polanski, rapists like Weinstein and druggies like Sorkin" but believe that Bollywood is even more so.

We can both agree that both industries are wretched. Deciding which is worse is a tough.

You are naive if you think #metoo is going to make any difference. The reason why the casting couch exists is that men are attracted to beautiful women, and many beautiful women willingly get on the couch for the sake of professional success, though 20 years later they complain about it. There has been no change in the structure of Hollywood, so whatever happened in the past will continue, though in more secrecy.

Do all these things happen in Bollywood? Maybe. However I can say with confidence that Hollywood is far worse in the messages it conveys through its stereotypes. 1) if you are a man older than 50 then you are stupid 2) if you are an uncle then you are probably a pederast 3) if you are a villain you are probably a middle-aged white man 4) if you are Russian then you are probably a spy and so on and so forth.
 
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Industry delivers what public wants. South Asians, even the rich and educated ones have no taste, Bollywood and the other '__woods' cater to that. 50 years back we used to have a greater proportion of good movies but I feel we are getting dumber and dumber with every passing generation. You still have good/great films here and there but for such a huge industry 5-10 high quality movies per year is too less.

This is merely a symptom of a larger problem. Forget movies or culture for a moment. Think where this region with greater than 20% of world's population lies in the spheres of education, R&D, technology, health, environment, sports, infrastructure, economy? We suck hard plain and simple, we have been in a downward spiral for many years now and the future looks dark.

When the quality of film industry improves rest assured we will improve in many other aspects because that means we are on the right path. When Bollywood masterclasses become a norm that age we will also win Fields/Abel/Nobel Prizes and Olympic Golds by the dozen. We aren't 50-60 years behind the West or East Asia like some believe, we are not even on the track. First we need to get on the track and persistently improve over a span of many decades and may be one day after 2-3 generations countries like India, Pakistan, Bangladesh will deliver world class products. Long journey ahead.
 
I do not have to back up anything. As I said, you cannot use a terrible movie like Tiger Zinda Hai to pass judgements on Bollywood, just like you cannot use the awful movies that Hollywood produces yearly to pass a judgment on Hollywood.

I am not implying in any way that Bollywood's best is equal to Hollywood's best. That is something that you inferred from my post, and if you look at post #48, you should note that I have explained why Hollywood does not need to steal scripts from Bollywood and the latter has to catch up.

Bollywood produces very good movies as well. Both Bollywood and Hollywood have declined in recent years, the former because of weak scripts and the latter because of superhero and CGI obsession, but just like you cannot use Hollywood's worst to judge Hollywood, you cannot use Bollywood's worst to judge Bollywood.

I do not defend India blindly and I am not a big fan of Bollywood to begin with, but I find it laughable that after watching Tiger Zinda Hai on a plane journey, you have concluded that Bollywood cannot produce quality.

Anyway, neither Hollywood nor Bollywood are gold standards today. Netflix is rapidly leaving both industries behind.

Please try reading carefully before you reply in future.

I wrote in the OP "perhaps I watched a terrible film, if so please name one with is on par with other world cinema? "

You say both industries produce bad films suggesting both are equal but have failed to back this up and are now trying to change your tune. Just name 3 top quality bollywood films and 3 top quality hollywood you feel are on par with each other?
 
I agree that most of what Bollywood produces is trash.

That however is the nature of mass media, and Hollywood is no exception. British movies, I didn't know there was actually such a thing!

Hollywood is dominated by pederasts like Polanski, rapists like Weinstein and druggies like Sorkin. The movies superficially look good, with the outstanding technical effects. But the messages in them are far more destructive than anything Bollywood produces, whose storylines still have a strong element of family loyalty in them.

Interesting viewpoint. I agree some of the Hollywood movies message can be 'destructive' but so can the Bollywood ones which now use women as sexual ojbects which wasn't the case 25 years ago(in general). You accept Bollywod is trash which is fine.

As for British movies there have been many great movies. Try East is East for an Asian theme, great movie.
 
Please try reading carefully before you reply in future.

I wrote in the OP "perhaps I watched a terrible film, if so please name one with is on par with other world cinema? "

You say both industries produce bad films suggesting both are equal but have failed to back this up and are now trying to change your tune. Just name 3 top quality bollywood films and 3 top quality hollywood you feel are on par with each other?

No, the fact that both industries produce bad films does not mean that both produce equally good films. I am not sure what “change of tune” you are referring to, when I explicitly stated in post #48 (before you replied to my post) that:

As far plagiarism is concerned, it happens in Hollywood as well, but they don't steal stuff from Bollywood because most Bollywood scripts are not suited for American/international audience.

This is where Bollywood has to catch up with Hollywood.


Does this sound like I am implying that Bollywood’s masterpieces are equal to Hollywood’s?

If you pick Hollywood’s three greatest films and compare them to Bollywood’s three greatest films, the former will fare better, and that is not for debate.

My point was/is that you cannot pick on Bollywood’s worst films to make your point, because you can make any industry look bad by highlighting the shoddy works, and Hollywood is certainly not behind Bollywood when it comes to producing rubbish.

Anyway, thank you for asking me to read your OP again. I had missed your statement that this was your first Bollywood movie in 15 years.

So let’s put this into perspective - you haven’t watched a Bollywood film in 15 years, but you are comfortable in making statements like Bollywood cannot produce quality based on one commercial film that you watched in a plane Lol.

If your thread had any credibility to begin with, it has zero now.
 
No, the fact that both industries produce bad films does not mean that both produce equally good films. I am not sure what “change of tune” you are referring to, when I explicitly stated in post #48 (before you replied to my post) that:




Does this sound like I am implying that Bollywood’s masterpieces are equal to Hollywood’s?

If you pick Hollywood’s three greatest films and compare them to Bollywood’s three greatest films, the former will fare better, and that is not for debate.

My point was/is that you cannot pick on Bollywood’s worst films to make your point, because you can make any industry look bad by highlighting the shoddy works, and Hollywood is certainly not behind Bollywood when it comes to producing rubbish.

Anyway, thank you for asking me to read your OP again. I had missed your statement that this was your first Bollywood movie in 15 years.

So let’s put this into perspective - you haven’t watched a Bollywood film in 15 years, but you are comfortable in making statements like Bollywood cannot produce quality based on one commercial film that you watched in a plane Lol.

If your thread had any credibility to begin with, it has zero now.

lol. There was nothing to be credible about. I watched a film, found it to be rubbish and asked if there are better movies out there. Many of the Indian posters have stated Bollywood industry is poor in terms of quality productions but you ran to the rescue of all Indian as per usual. :)

You believe Hollywood produces better quality but both produce poor quality, which is a fine, a good answer. Well done.
 
It appears you agree with the statement "Hollywood is dominated by pederasts like Polanski, rapists like Weinstein and druggies like Sorkin" but believe that Bollywood is even more so.

I never did disagree with that to begin with as they are well known facts. I am not here to put Bollywood down neither to raise Hollywood to some saintly level. My point was the same as yours that this a business of narcissistic arshshlochs, including the ones in charge and the ones getting inducted into it and will almost do anything to achieve their goal. You probably took the Bollywood example a bit too much to heart but that was not my intention.

I don't even know how to begin to reply to your last paragraph. So I won't.
 
Anyway, thank you for asking me to read your OP again. I had missed your statement that this was your first Bollywood movie in 15 years.

So let’s put this into perspective - you haven’t watched a Bollywood film in 15 years, but you are comfortable in making statements like Bollywood cannot produce quality based on one commercial film that you watched in a plane Lol.

If your thread had any credibility to begin with, it has zero now.

Not only this, OP completely ignored when other posters mentioned some good quality movies that were made by Bollywood in recent times. When I mentioned Dangal being a decent movie from Bollywood, OP watched the trailer and pontificated on how all the shots are from wrong angles..hence it’s a crap movie. Just goes to show the more than obvious bias and vacuousness of his whole argument.
 
I never did disagree with that to begin with as they are well known facts. I am not here to put Bollywood down neither to raise Hollywood to some saintly level. My point was the same as yours that this a business of narcissistic arshshlochs, including the ones in charge and the ones getting inducted into it and will almost do anything to achieve their goal. You probably took the Bollywood example a bit too much to heart but that was not my intention.

I don't even know how to begin to reply to your last paragraph. So I won't.

Aren’t most if not all artists flawed in some ways. If one wants to take the moral high ground than that’s their perogative but to me art is about aesthetics not ideology. If we start judging all art with one eye on the artists moral character than there will hardly be anything left to see.
 
As for British movies there have been many great movies. Try East is East for an Asian theme, great movie.

If you are comparing Bollywood to Hollywood, then you are discussing movies made by big industries. It appears a movie like "East is East" is a smaller art house/indie movie and therefore does not belong in this discussion. There are lots of art house/indie of movies from India, they however do not have the commercial success of Bollywood movies.
 
Interesting viewpoint. I agree some of the Hollywood movies message can be 'destructive' but so can the Bollywood ones which now use women as sexual ojbects which wasn't the case 25 years ago(in general). <b>You accept Bollywod is trash which is fine.</b>

It appears you are agreeing that Hollywood is trash too and no longer defending your earlier statement "Of course Hollywood ... [is] way way ahead."
 
Aren’t most if not all artists flawed in some ways. If one wants to take the moral high ground than that’s their perogative but to me art is about aesthetics not ideology. If we start judging all art with one eye on the artists moral character than there will hardly be anything left to see.

That was my point. I see the art not the artist. Everyone is flawed in one way or another. Just because someone was a Pedo, Rapist, Murderer etc doe not make their art redundant, maybe even adds to it. I am not condoning whatsoever the acts of the artists but am only suggesting we look at the art objectively, without dwelling so much on the source as it will not be art then but just some tabloaid ragtag. I believe almost all art comes from a very human, raw, truthful, sad place of being but we should not judge it according to society's moral compass.
 
As for British movies there have been many great movies. Try East is East for an Asian theme, great movie.

Did you even watch the movie or just randomly pick out a movie from a British movie google list? One of the sons was a homosexual. How great was that for you?
 
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Interesting viewpoint. I agree some of the Hollywood movies message can be 'destructive' but so can the Bollywood ones which now use women as sexual ojbects which wasn't the case 25 years ago(in general). You accept Bollywod is trash which is fine.

As for British movies there have been many great movies. Try East is East for an Asian theme, great movie.

East is East had a great line when the white lady says we may be half breds, but at least not in breds like your family.
 
Only someone suffering from Indophobia will use a movie like Tiger Zinda Hai to have a go at Bollywood.

There is no such term as Indophobia of course, but this does raise an important point as to how language is important in this sphere. Bollywood has some soft power over neighbouring countries only due to language which is shared across the region which is a mixture of Urdu/English. Beyond that it is a dying industry.
 
That was my point. I see the art not the artist. Everyone is flawed in one way or another. Just because someone was a Pedo, Rapist, Murderer etc doe not make their art redundant, maybe even adds to it. I am not condoning whatsoever the acts of the artists but am only suggesting we look at the art objectively, without dwelling so much on the source as it will not be art then but just some tabloaid ragtag. I believe almost all art comes from a very human, raw, truthful, sad place of being but we should not judge it according to society's moral compass.

Cannot agree more!
 
There is no such term as Indophobia of course, but this does raise an important point as to how language is important in this sphere. Bollywood has some soft power over neighbouring countries only due to language which is shared across the region which is a mixture of Urdu/English. Beyond that it is a dying industry.

Indophobia is a word actually, although not commonly used.

I agree that language plays a part. English is pretty much the de facto global language which is why Hollywood is more widespread than European cinema. The British industry have struggled to compete as well because of smaller scale and less money.
 
It often perplexed me as to why so many Pakistani posters were defensive over Bollywood, especially those who are ultra critical of their own country. At first I thought it was just their geedhar nature but having given it some thought, I have to confess I was probably wrong.

We foreigners are comparing to Hollywood so obviously the Indian film industry will look cheap and tasteless in comparison. But lapsed Pakistanis are comparing to their home product, and that as we all know is on life support - an absolute travesty of an entertainment industry. So in comparison Bolly tamasha must almost seem magical. They must watch these cheesy flicks with tears in their eyes on what they left behind when Jinnah and Nehru drew the line which divided India. :(
 
Bollywood has been producing a lot of gems as of lately. If you guys just focus on the main stars the quality of what your watching wont be great. Watch irrfan khan ,nawazuddin, rajkumar and ayushman. You guys will see some great quality of movies.
 
Havent watched a Bollywood film so would be wrong of me to comment on the quality, though saw a clip of one set in Ireland and it was steaming garbage and that was an extremely successful film IIRC.

Commenting more so on the Hollywood discussion developing. While it absolutely is true Hollywood is pumping out more and more Marvel soullless generic crap nowadays, its wrong to say its totally dead. There are always thought provoking films, or films which tackle different material to be found, they just wont be as popular or common sadly as money rules the roost. Applies to TV shows too, Better Call Saul and Black Sails were two of the best written pieces of entertainment I've ever had the fortune ot watching, truly fantastic shows where every scene has you on the edge of your seat even when not much is actually happening, yet neither of them generate any real interest, won no Emmy's etc, meanwhile The Walking Dead, which has garbage writing, sweeps home the money and prizes.

From what I've seen on Bollywood the films all seem to be really long, love focused and music focused, the latter two features being features I abhor in films hence my lack of interest. In contrast I've found many Korean, German etc films to be fantastic so I can certainly enjoy non Hollywood stuff.

That being said films often reflect society. In the West we live in an age where everyone wants to be deemed special in some way, a warrior for some cause, a special little flake in an ocean of conformity, hence these superhero flicks are all the rage focusing on one superpowered person rising above the rest. In India well, weddings, music (based on relationships) and consumerism seem to be rampant from my outer perspective, hence the films reflect that.

Also gonna shamelessly pitch a new Irish film, Black 47, which I saw last week. Was bloody excellent and far as I know the only Famine film made to this day. *inner pride swells*

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1W1DLwg3lk
 
There have been some many fantastic Bollywood films over the years.

I would recommend some Amitabh Batchan and Amir Khan films to you for instance.

I do agree many films can be trash but that can be said for Hollywood as well though Bollywood will produce some really awful stuff. I think budget plays a role and especially nowadays when everything is about hype and money and less about quality.

But at the end of the day read the reviews from reputable sites like IMDB - there are many decent films if you are prepared to have an open mind to watch them.

I myself watch a few select Bollywood films but select is the key word.

However if you have a view that the whole industry is trash because you can not get into such films then just be honest with yourself and say it doesn’t interest you rather than just watching 1 film over 15 years and then basing your view to paint the whole industry.
 
It often perplexed me as to why so many Pakistani posters were defensive over Bollywood, especially those who are ultra critical of their own country. At first I thought it was just their geedhar nature but having given it some thought, I have to confess I was probably wrong.

We foreigners are comparing to Hollywood so obviously the Indian film industry will look cheap and tasteless in comparison. But lapsed Pakistanis are comparing to their home product, and that as we all know is on life support - an absolute travesty of an entertainment industry. So in comparison Bolly tamasha must almost seem magical. They must watch these cheesy flicks with tears in their eyes on what they left behind when Jinnah and Nehru drew the line which divided India. :(

Looks like someone saw your post :))


<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">In next two years We ll make Film industry significant revenue generating industry. Overaeas Pakistanis come on invest in Film and drama I assure you you wont be disappointed <a href="https://t.co/pqLfudbHZT">https://t.co/pqLfudbHZT</a></p>— Ch Fawad Hussain (@fawadchaudhry) <a href="https://twitter.com/fawadchaudhry/status/1040665971843842049?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 14, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
 
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More fool you for watching a Bollywood movie, what else did you expect?

Bollywood still big on stealing stories and tunes from around the world?
 
There many trash movies that Bollywood produves but some are good.

1. 3 idiots
2. PK
3. Dangal
4. Drishyam etc.
 
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