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Bollywood Embraces Kazaa Movie Downloads
MaximusTheGreat writes "While Hollywood tries to debate how to tackle P2P movie downloads, Bollywood the world's largest film industry has decided to embrace it. This could usher in a new era of legal movie downloads like iTunes for music, as Bollywood, the Indian film industry produces 1000 movies a year and outstrips hollywood by almost 3:1. Theaters worldwide sold some 3.6 billion tickets to Bollywood films last year, compared with Hollywood's 2.6 billion. In revenue terms Bollywood is already larger than the British, Hong Kong, Japanese and Italian movie industry and is growing at a very fast rate."
Hollywood has been slow to embrace downloads
Understatement of the year.
Trolling is a art,
A good analog would be if iTunes only offered JPop.
Hooray for Bollywood
That screwy, ballyhooey Bollywood!
Where any office boy
Or young mechanic
can be a panic
With just a good-looking pan
And any barmaid
Can be a star maid
If she dances with or without a fan
Hooray for Bollywood!
Where you're terrific
if you're even good!
Where anyone at all from Shirley Temple
to Aimee Semple
is equally understood
Come on and try your luck
You could be Donald Duck
Hooray for Bollywood!
Hooray for Bollywood!
That phony, super Coney, Bollywood
They come from Chilicothes and Padukahs
with their bazookas
To see their names up in lights
All armed with photos
From local rotos
With their hair in curlers
and legs in tights
Hooray for Bollywood!
You may be homely in your neighborhood.
Still, if you think that you can be an actor
See Mister Factor
He'd make a monkey look good!
Within a half an hour
You'll look like Tyrone Power
Hooray for Bollywood!
India is truley a rising nation, it remind s me very much of the United States. Both are very similar countries in some ways, exploited by the british for all their worth, but when the US won its indipendence is grew to become a major world power.
India won indipendence only 55 years ago, and is fast turning into an intelectual and finincial world power. They have a space program, nuclear wepons and huge investment from global companies such as IBM and Dell.
It looks as though American and European jobs are being outsourced there in droves.. I think in another 50 years that India will be beside the US in terms of being a world superpower. In a hundred it will be the most powerful nation in the world.
There is no god
at least SOME films that come out of Hollywood show traces of originality and thinking outside the box. Every Bollywood film i've seen on TV could've been created with some sort of VB app.
Well... since they have them beat on quantity, they must have them beat on quality.
They say the first thing to go is your penis. Well, it's either that or your brain. I forget which...
from new dehli, said every bollywood movie has the same plot:
;-P
2 boys, separated at birth, fall in love with the same woman, except one is rich/ powerful/ a cop and the other is poor/ a farmer/ a thief... they fight each other for the woman, and there is much singing and dancing throughout
he said that is basically every movie made in bollywood
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
From the taking on titanic link: My guess is that at 8 per cent of the cost we can achieve 90 per cent of the production quality of any of their movies. The last mile will cost us more, given the current status of the technology available here-but even that we can achieve at, say, another 8 per cent. This is why Bollywood will ultimately fail. Sure, they have a bigger market, and they make more movies, but Hollywood knows the cost (and value) of western movies. The Indian distributers can flood Kazaa with as many Bollywood movies as they want, and they can expend that extra 8% of effort, but very few people in the west will spend money on this.
Training monkeys for world domination since 1439
It looks like the tech industry isn't the only one being outsourced to India.
There is nothing so silly as other peoples traditions, and nothing so sacred as our own.
What have I seen that they've done? This is interesting and great news indeed if I can get films I actually like. Quality over quantity, remember. Looks like I'll be doing some googling this afternoon.
Either way, it IS a good step, and great news.
Damon,
http://actionPlant.com
Sounds like this Bollywood thing bas a buge and beroic future abead.
Bollywood Embraces Kazaa Movie Downloads
Just when we thought the typos and lack of editing on slashdot couldn't get any worse, we get 'Bollywood' in the title. This is a sad, sad day for slashdot. (Note I did not RTFBlurb before posting.)
Good Bollywood movies you should look into are.. Kuch kuch hota hai, khabi kushi khabi gham, american desi, koi mil gaya, etc...
Man, would I like to know what goofy kind of file format they're using for that one. Probably some variant of DRM. Anybody know?
Batou: Hey, Major... You ever hear of "human rights"? Major: I understand the concept, but I've never seen it in action
Troy: Apu living with the Simpsons?! It happened. And here's a scene you didn't see.
Apu: I'm hoping you enjoy this movie. It made every Indian critic's top 400 list.
Woman: [singing] Love love love love love! I'm in love with lovely Johnny.
[an Indian man breaks through a window and curses in Hindi at three sitting men]
[they all start dancing]
Bart: This movie you rented sucks.
Homer: No it doesn't, it's funny! Their clothes are different from my clothes. [laughs] Look at what they're wearing! [laughs more]
Only if I was fluent in Hindi and enjoyed musicals.
'Same speed C but faster'
99% of the stories in Bollywood have this same plot line and seriously, it's amazing they chalk up 3.6 billion tickets.
How do you know you don't want to see them?
Name 5 of those thousands of movies that came out of Bollywood this year without doing a web search.
You can't, can you? So STFU.
For those of you not familiar with Bollywood flicks, you kind of have to watch them in a similar way you watch Hong Kong kung-fu flicks. You have similar cheeziness factors, recurring themes (boy meets/loses girl and singing and dancing in one, "you killed my father..." and fighting in the other), and so on. It's good fun actually...
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
What can I say....it's a really slow day at work. :-)
Free your ecomony and enact the FairTax
It almost seems as though Bollywood's perception is that their core Indian market won't be affected by offering the movies online-the original article quotes something like 1 million out of 1 billion people in India have Internet access. So from their point of view, putting movies online can't really parasitize their existing market because it isn't connected. So they can only win-even if somebody finds a way around any protection on the movies, it still can only increase their customer base to reach people they haven't been able to in the past. In other words, even if only 1 out of 100 people actually buy the movie rather than watch any cracked version, that's still 1 more customer than they would have had otherwise.
In contrast, Hollywood seems to perceive their customers as more connected Internet-wise, and so putting movies online will parasitize their existing market. Using the same 1 out of 100 people idea, Hollywood sees it as losing 99 rather than gaining 1.
I'm not saying either or both is right or wrong, it just seems to me to be a difference in how each sees their core market.You probably should have. RTFBed, that is.
Batou: Hey, Major... You ever hear of "human rights"? Major: I understand the concept, but I've never seen it in action
it was meant to be funny... of course bollywood makes lots of different kinds of films, except that in the past they have tended towards operatic song and dance numbers, so thus my roommate's joke rings funny
but it wasn't meant for you to draw some stupid ignorant racist conclusion
consider yourself a provincial backwoods hick on a global cosmopolitan website
then maybe you can adjust your opinions accordingly before you post
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
well said. i just discovered that my local cable channel actually runs an indian film movie preview program. if you're not indian or a serious film buff, the likelihood of knowing of any indian films is somewhere very near 0.
but just b/c you don't know it doesn't mean it's noise, not signal.
ed
I'm not saying this is a bad idea...I'm just saying it won't work with Bollywood movies.
But on the other hand maybe movie distribution will become the killer app for broadband in India :)
of course bollywood makes lots of different movies
but an indian can make fun of his nation's movie industry if he wants to, just like americans like to say hollywood is too liberal/ too gun crazy, when the truth is of course more complex
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Maybe they should outsource to America.
Bowie J. Poag
"India produces as many as 1,000 movies each year with revenues of more than $1 billion." -- The Globe and Mail
This indicates revenue of a million a movie; that's a paltry sum which no American movie house would bother with.
"Bollywood's global annual revenues, estimated at $1.3 billion this year, are small change compared with Hollywood's $51 billion." --Business Week
This shoots down the other misdirection in the article. Sell all the tickets you want, Bollywood. You're still pulling less than 1/39th the cash that Hollywood takes in.
A lot of people watch these movies. I have seen a few. To a film, they were insipid. Do yourselves a favor and avoid the musicals at all costs.
But don't worry. They're not going to take over the film industry.
REM Old programmers don't die. They just GOSUB without RETURN.
Introducing Things You Would Never Know Without Watching Bollywood Movies
You may think bollywood movies are awful(and a majority of them are), but this could be a testbed for Hollywood movie downloads.
The US refuses to change while the world is changing all over. Best example is the tech industry. While jobs are moving overseas, ppl are fighting main companies to keep them here. Instead they should be trying to start their own companies and do their own work (Personally, I will be taking the opposite tack and simply locating the best coders throughout the world; OSS has shown that distributed works well).
Hollywood should be embracing the change, but they will not until it is too late. Hollywood needs to think about the fact that they can cut out the middle man.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
A number of people around here seem to think that all indian movies have the same plot.
Perhaps that's true for many of them, but in doing so you're painting them with the same sort of brush that people use against Anime - "Oh, it's all animation!! That's for kids" turns into "Oh, it's all about singing and boys and girls. I couldn't possibly enjoy that".
Yes almost all Bollywood movies seem to enjoy musical numbers. But that's part of the style. There are some movies that are really great - one example I'd give that's very approachable to a western viewer is Lagaan, a sort-of-true story about villagers fighting the british through a cricket match (visit the link, it explains it much better than I can). Even if you don't care for cricket or sports much (I didn't and don't) it's still a great movie and the story is well done.
In the same way that you need to work up through Anime to enjoy the more esoteric stuff, you need to start easier with Bollywood movies and find ones that are a little more western in tint.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
I'm a Yank but have been living in Europe for 10 of the last 11 years.
But I know why you thought I was from the UK ;-)
People say I'm crazy, I got diamonds on the soles of my shoes...
Ever look around and notice how many Indian folks there are in the US, working in Tech with access to the Internet?
Ever seen a Bollywood movie in a theater in the US?
Supply meets Demand and there are some people who like these movies here in the US where they can't (easily) see them in theaters.
I'm sure that lots of folks will take advantage if this if for no other reason than to have something from their culture for their children (born here) to watch.
Good luck to them!
42 - So long and thanks for all the fish.
Does the fact that Bollywood makes 3 times as many movies as Hollywood, but only sold 38% more tickets suggest anything about the quality of the movies?
A modern day witchhunt.
Here is a thriving industry (The Indian and Pakistani film groups) offering their goods online to make them available to those who live in geographical areas that would not normally be accessible. It eliminates videotape piracy which is rampant in this marketplace and allows fans access to the content. Why have the Bollywood chiefs picked this up and the American and British Music Industry dropped the ball. Was it pressure from their distributors? Lack of knowledge of the internet? No method of micropayments?
I would really like to know why it took a hardware manufacturer to bring in a system of legal digital content delivery (Apple and iTunes).
It also is good to see one of the largest and most productive media producers embracing digital video distribution. This completely jumps the gun on Hollywood and leaves the North American producers playing catch-up.
So tell me, what was the #1 downloaded movie off Kazaa? I mean besides 'Orgy Party 5'... Something tells me it wasn't a Bollywood production regardless of how much more money they make. And go figure; the population of India is over 1 billion with the US lagging behind at only 300 million. Call it a stretch, but somthing tells me it's not international demand fueling their movie industry. They only have about 700,000,000 more potential viewers... Go figure.
You need a FREE iPod Nano
They do know that they can't count the Fanta movies right ?
2b2b2b415448300d
Just a thought... How many Bollywood movies were there movies near to you? These movies could entice pretty many people given the popularity of Broadway musicals. The newest A. Lloyd Webber production was partly influenced by Indian scene. It is just that Bollywood films are not really heavily distributed to the West.
Moderating 101
The file was programmed to self destruct after being viewed and could not be copied.
I'm sure that's going to be really effective. Go to suprnova.org and you can download a Hindi movie every couple of days.
What these morons never seem to realize is that trivial restrictions may work with 99% of the population but it only takes one person to circumvent it and upload it for everyone else.
Most Bollywood movies suck. PERIOD. For every 20 good Hollywood movies, there is gonna be a decent Bollywood movie. Hell i even hate saying Bollywood : how's that for creativity eh?. That wasn't always the case but now the directors/producers/writers have run out of plots and they have copied enough material from Hollywood, French and Italian cinema that they need fresh material (the joke is that a director in Bollywood takes about 10 years to remake a french movie in Hindi because he has to learn French first). There is no comparision between Hollywood and Bollywood.
Yes i am an Indian.
lots of bickering going on here...howz about the story?
seems like an excellent idea.
- The Film Ms and Mr. Iyer is not a bollywood movie (not a single song in it...) more a movie about Hindi/muslim differences see http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0329393 for IMDB info
- there is no price for best asian film at the Locarno film festival, this film got second prize from the youth jury...
my 2 words...There are countries like Canada, which helped make the first nukes, pioneered nuclear research, and yet do not aspire to have nukes of their own. Why are nukes such a big deal?
--
Marc A. Lepage
Software Developer
Self-destructing, "uncopyable" files? I don't understand how that's possible.
Well yeah, the self-destructing part, but copy proof?
I think this will really take of with xpat indians world wide. I'd say that 90% or more of bollywood dvds and video sold outside India are pirates. So any way the studios can extract a bit of money from the xpat market is a bonus. $2.99 for one viewing is fair enough but how about $9.99 for something burnable to a vcd and $15.99 for something burnable at dvd quality.
And while we're at it get hollywood doing the same. Sunday I wanted to watch about schmidt but not badly enough to go to the video store. They have taken a few quid off me if I could have downloaded it there and then. P2P isn't at threat it's a distribution method. With or without DRM there are plenty of people willing to pay for the convenience of media downloads.
If anyone has ever been to the street-markets in Bombay (or any other major Indian City) - you'll see VCD peddlers selling movies for less than $2.99. Most of them are bootleg and "screeners".... coming out 1 day after the official movie release in theatres. Don't think this won't stop that activity. In fact it might cheapen the price of VCDs to deal with this new "competitive threat"....
===> An eye for an eye makes everyone blind - MG
I don't get Indian movies either. I get a lot of exposure to them, but I can't say I enjoy most of them. Of course, I don't like classical music, musicals, or old movies, even though those genres were very popular at one time. And I don't understand daytime tv at all!
My point is that as (mostly) Westerners, we have a hard time understanding how anyone could like those movies, because our culture is so different. I'm sure they have a difficult time understanding why some of the most popular shows on TV now (Survivor, Fear Factor), have contestents routinely eating bugs and worms!
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
These movies are like days long. There just isn't the bandwidth. It's the end of P2P!
Bow, nigger. h
I second that nomination; perhaps this should be a poll...
Any spoon would be too big.
Its been pointed out that most readers of /. know nothing about Bollywood movies. Could some knowledgable people point out some links to reviews of Indian films that have subtitles or are in English?
Yes, those numbers are ticket sales -- still means that any Bollywood flick is getting a fraction of the penetration of a Hollywood flick. The Hollywood tickets cost more, too. :-)
liberals hate guns
so it's a contraction i was trying to show: either hollywood is too liberal in which case there are no war movies, all problems are solved without violence, and no one carries a gun (not true at all), or it isn't liberal
so hollywood clearly is not liberal
hollywood is what it is: an industry maximized to project to americans what they want to see, so whatever you call hollywood is twisting the truth of what it is
you cannot blame hollywood for sex and violence in their films, you have to blame the amercian public: that's what they want to see, they vote with their pocketbooks
hollywood makes movies to make money, not political statements
you can't move into hollywood, change how it works, and suddenly change humanity. humanity is in control of hollywood through their pocket books, not vice versa.
but certain segments of society think they can control hollywood and therefore change ugly sides of humanity, because they think that hollywood is somehow in control of what people think. that's a logical fallacy of not understanding how the cause and effect relationship between the movie and the audience actually works.
conservatives complaing about the liberal media went out of vogue as soon as fox news grabbed ratings, so your complaint against "liberal" hollywood is outdated and contrived
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
First things first, the 1000 films figure is wrong as far as Bollywood is concerned. There are 1000 films made in India, but Bollywood (based in Mumbai) is not the ONLY film industry. The South has its own highly prolific industry.
Coming to your point, Indian film tickets and rentals don't cost anywhere close to tickets here. So, Bollywoods sells more tickets per film even if the revenue in USD is lower.
World's largest film industry? They make porn?
http://www.talknerdy.org
... as Bollywood, the Indian film industry produces 1000 movies a year and outstrips hollywood by almost 3:1....
Well, Bollywood does not make 1000 movies a year. Indian film industry does make 1000 movies a year. The difference is that Bollywood (based in Mumbai earlier known as Bombay) is focussed primarily on Hindi movies. However, this constitutes maybe a third to a half of the 1000 movies a year. There are other languages / locations which make movies by the dozens and that make up the rest of the numbers. Most of the Southern states, which incidentally do not have Hindi as their primary language, have factories chruning regional language films. Tamil, Telugu, Malyalam and (I think) Kannada movies are made to the tune of 50-100 per year. There are other languages contributing a smaller share.
Irrespective of whether the movie is Hindi, or one of the regional movies, they all do have similar formulaes. 95% of the movies adopt romance / action formula, with maybe less than 5% movies trying to do something different.
However, Hindi movies are the ones which are known globally historically and people get the mis-impression that all Bollywood is Indian Movies (which is right), and all Indian movies are Bollywood (which is wrong).
From the Reuter's Article:
"The deal means that Bollywood producers can now distribute movies, music and other large, rich media files online that would be too large and expensive to host on a traditional Web site," the statement said.
"We are starting with promotional content but we are in the process which will allow movies and songs on a pay-per-view mode in the new year," Saleem Mobhani, co-founder of IndiaFM, which is run by Virtual Marketing India, told Reuters.
Correct me if I'm wrong (I don't even need to ask for that), but isn't the driving idea behind Kazaa that the downloading becomes distributed over the many computers that have already downloaded the file? I mean, I know that it would be going through altnet, which I guess is different content, and specifically hosted from a corporate server, but if they're saying that they want to do it this way rather than host it off a website, aren't the "seeding" altnet servers going to continually be hit as hard as if one had hosted a website with the movies? The files won't become distributed among other Kazaa users because anyone that downloads loses the file after they watch it.
for someone who is so certain of their opinions, your "anonymous coward" posting choice has a sly ring of truth to it ;-)
o st site. So I can say pretty much whatever I want. And what I've said earlier has a ring of truth in it.
;-)
Last I recall, Slashdot isn't a post-only-when-circletimessquare-thinks-you-can-p
of course slashdot has nothing to do with what i think should be posted or not... maybe your paranoia is tricking you into thinking i have more power than i actually do? maybe that is why you are an "anonymous coward"?
why else would someone who thinks "I can say pretty much whatever I want" still be afraid enough to hide behind the anonymous coward tag?
the truth: if you weren't ashamed of your racism, you wouldn't post anonymously... you are ashamed of what you think, rightly so, so you post anonymously
the truth: there is no ring of truth to your comment, only the stale taste of tired, contrived racism
lose your racist thinking my wayward friend, and then you won't be ashamed anymore to post anonymously
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
I remember reading an interesting article in the Econimist a few years ago.
97% of movies shown in Africa were Indian moview dubbed in the local languages. An increasing percentage of foreign filmes being screened in the Middle East, Israel, Australia and now England and the US are Indian movies.
You could argue that the success of Indian movies in England and the US is because of large immigrant population from India. However, the other countries mentioned have few Indians.
When interviewed, most people said they loved Indian movies because there was an emphasis on family bonds and respect for elders - these are the foundation of Indian society - and had much in common with the societies in these countries.
They all watched Hollywood movies too, and definitely enjoyed them, but they said that something about Indian movies struck a chord in their heart.
Indians love Hollywood movies, Indians love Bollywood and all the other regional language movies - Indians LOVE movies, period. There is a long standing tradition of film in that country, and not all the output is song-and-dance.
Satyajit Ray, Shyam Benegal, Amol Palekar to name a few are extremely gifted directors and made some of the best movies ever. So, one shouldn't make sweeping statements about an industry.
Mainstream Bollywood, like Mainstream Hollywood is all a world of make-believe...it's just the ingredients that are different.
I hope you weren't serious with your question.
:-) To be a "first world power", you need nuclear weapons. I am not passing judgement as to whether or not that is in the interest of long-term wealth creation all I am saying is that it is what it is. If India is to be taken seriously with respect to math/science/engineering/technical/etc, then a nuclear program is one way of doing that.
But, I'll bite anyways.
I believe it was Alfred Sauvy ( A Frenchman ) who coined the phrase Third World ( but in French, I presume )
-- "I know that this is vitriol, no solution, spleen-venting, but I feel better having screamed, don't you ?"
# The hero cannot fall in love with the heroine (vice versa) unless they first perform a dance number in the rain.
# Once applied, make-up is permanent, in rain or in any other situation.
If you decide to start dancing in a field, everyone you bump into will know all the steps, and will be wearing coordinated outfits.
# A heroine will have time to change outfits several times in one song, however short.
You might remember this description from the film GREASE featuring John "Go Clear" Travolta and Olivia Neutron Bomb!
What is the impact of each film industry outside their home market?--that strikes me as a better measure of the global influence of each film industry. My sense is that the what the Indian film industry has really done here is acheive a significant degree of cultural independence for India. What remains to be seen is if the Indian film industry can start to get real impact outside of India and the community of Indians abroad. I suspect in time, the Indian film industry _will_ start to have serious impact outside its core market. Frankly, a lot of stuff produced in the US just aren't very good films by any measure.
My guess is that the route by which the Indian film industry will have global impact will be through use of computer technology/animation/set production so that "Indian" films don't necessarily appear "Indian". Basically the Indian film industry will be the means by which any national elite can establish a film industry to their liking that appears "local" and is technically at or near the level available from the US/EU.
on the kazaalite (but i still like the grim poodle basher theorie)
Hollywood:Bollywood::Milk:Mulk (With Vitamin R)?
so you are saying the majority of bollywood is garbage? fine, i won't argue with you. american hollywood does not have the monopoly on creativity in the world, but i don't think that is what you are saying. i think you are saying a lot of bollywood movies stink: your opinion is fine by me. just as my original joke was making light of that observation.
but what you are saying is not what the guy i am responding to is saying. you'll notice the poster i was responding to questioned the creativity of indians in general.
we are both fine in our opinions, but the guy i am responding to has clearly digressed into racist territory, something neither you nor i did. so you should support me as i attack his clear racist nonsense, instead of accusing me of being overly pc, when i am clearly not being so
there is attacking racism when you see it, and then there is being overly politically correct in your opinions
i am guilty of the first, but not the second
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Yep, sounds like a typical Hollywood movie you're describing there.
this sig has intentionally been left blank
Aside from the dancing bits, the same is true for Hollywood movies.
For god's sake people! Fire in bursts! And MP5's don't have clips with 100 rounds!
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
Well, this is pretty much like Hollywood 40 years ago, isn't it? That's why people like it.
This is not a new thing with Hollywood as far as your largest blockbuster titles go; however - these movies appeal to the masses in much the same way that the popular Indian movies appeal to their masses.
We do actually have an independent film culture in the US, and movies of very high quality and creativity can be seen almost anywhere in the country because, as someone else commented way above me, the Hollywood film culture and the independent film culture happen to involve a lot of the same people and they are at the very least familiar and friendly with each other. This seems to allow for wider distribution than one would expect for movies which are not likely to make very much money.
Agh! The shame of it!
A deep unwavering belief is a sure sign you're missing something...
I was told by someone from India that the main purpose of Bollywood is to sell music.
Also, in a culture where arranged marriage is almost always the case, the story is usually about finding true love.
So what Bollywood provides is catchy music and forbidden (fantasy) stories. That is what makes it popular some parts of the world, but probably not in the Western world.
THAT GODDAMN TREE!
Y'know, the flirting dance scene where the hero and heroine would play hide and seek behind trees/light poles/bushes, which consists of poking one's head from side to side and lip-synching to a song which has lots of reverbs and echos. The couple would suddenly be teleported to a completely different location where 100 people would join them in synchronized dancing movements.
Sure $1 or $2 for a Hollywood movie doesn't sound bad, but why would they possibly want to do that when maybe a fourth or even an eight of those people are willing to buy the DVD in a store for $20.
Could a 1+ billion person local market have anything to do with those sales figures?
The US is funding this explosion by allowing H1B's from india to send paychecks back thus multiplying 1000x their family's disposable income.
Big suprise this.
It seems the entire discussion wandered off to somewhere else. The point was that a larger film industry is embracing P2P downloads whereas Hollywood is reluctant in doing so. Of course we all know that films in all languages suffer from common and repeating plots. Since Bollywood makes more of the movies it is more noticeable. Only the unique ones stand out in the crowd and for me those matter the most. Cheers and happy holidays!!
No one works for free. If you don't pay at the box office or to rent a legit copy, you pay in advertising. Not to mention how lousy the film quality is.
Hollywood formula:
1.Love
2.Inspiration
3.Weirdness
All story develops by reemphasizing love and inspiration to undeline it.
Weirdness ofcourse is weaved in the plot to wake up audience..
Besides , Why dont u think abt the weirdness in Hollywood films?
Boy u know u simply will exceed slashdot space for you if u write...
see the good and bad in everything
Pick the best
follow
and u will be fine
Hello , this is my way.
Which way is yours ?
btw there is no right way
it does inifinite popups on mozilla as well, all praise ctrl-q
Unfortunately, rules #1, #2, #4, #6, #7 and #9 also apply to most Hollywood films :-)
I appreciate your post of the article. I hate clicking on links. I think every first post should include the article. Fuck those haters.
Slashdot Eds Link Anonymous Posts With Logged Posts
They Are Vermin Feeding On Each Other's Feces.
I Hate \.
Technically, yes, we are responsible for what we watch. However, the entertainment industry has slowly been lowering the bottom line for years. What happens now is that people that are appauled by this stop watching movies and TV altogether, so the dissenting voices take themselves out of the debate altogether.
This is like vegetarians who are speaking out against unfair treatment of animals. By taking themselves out of the market, they're increasing the percentage of meat eaters that are "ok" with skinning the cows alive, letting them wallow in their own feces, etc. The best way to fight this is to buy free ranged meat, not adopt a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle.
It's exactly the same with entertainment media (especially music). Don't just turn off the tube, continue watching the "good" channels. Even some of those are getting lame; start sending letters to the Biography channel that their material is getting stale and/or lame. If you want to speak with your vote, don't make yourself a non-voter.
Slashdot: Where people pretend to be twice as smart as they really are by behaving like children.
Dude, I'm a really bored philosophy major on Christmas break and your argument against Hollywood being is not cogent. I just tried to break it down symbollically (A * B * C) v ~A therefore ~A. This post really has no point, I'm just really bored at break so I'm reducing arguments symbollically :)
I'll tell you what is not the correct answer to P2P movie downloads; those freaking red dots that they put right in the middle of the film. I saw them in the past three weeks while watching all three Lord of the Rings films in theatres, and they pissed me off like no other. Here I am trying to enjoy these wonderful, beautiful films-- definitely among my all-time favorites-- but every ten seconds or so, BAM! Five red dots right in the middle of Galadriel's face. Or BAM! Four red dots in the middle of an intense battle scene (noticed because everything on the screen is moving swiftly except the stationary dots).
Has anyone else been noticing these? Once you start seeing them, it's just about impossible to stop. I found myself trying to consciously numb my mind or blur my vision or something just so I would stop seeing these red idiot droppings. It actually sort of worked sometimes, but I don't think I ought to be forced to practice doublethink just to enjoy a movie. Even so, I still felt myself tense up during every scene with bright light, and quite a bit near the ends of scenes (since those were when I most noticed the dots).
The thing that pisses me off most is that this idiocy is not a solution. It's not even a deterrent. It doesn't stop people from downloading illegal copies of movies. It doesn't even slow them down, except making them wait a little longer for the download to complete. All it does is annoy legitimate consumers. Alas, that seems to be the trend these days in both the film and music industries.
What can we do about this? Anything? Who can we write? I'm guessing the movie studio would be the one to write (New Line in this case).
Use Ctrl-C instead of ESC in Vim!
Best of all, most Slashdotters who aren't Indian could show up in Bombay and easily get paid to be an extra in a movie. Or several movies. If they like your look they might offer you a monthly contract. Tell them you use Kazaa and support their industry and they'll be foaming at the mouth. The movie culture in India is very different than Hollywood!
"So, you are interested in one of our acting positions are you?"
"Yes, I saw your advert in the Bollywood supplement..."
(Ob. Monty Python Reference)
At the turn of this century, when the country was poised for major social and political reforms, a new entertainment form dawned in India-the Cinema. The first exposure to motion pictures which India received was in 1896, when the Lumiere Brothers' Chinematographe unveiled six soundless short films at Watson Hotel, Esplanade Mansion, Bombay on July 7. And the first exposing of celluloid in camera by an Indian and its consequent screening took place in 1899, when Harishchandra Bhatvadekar (Save Dada) shot two short films and exhibited them under Edison's projecting kinetoscope.
Hiralal Sen and F.B. Thanawalla were two other Indian pioneers engaged in the production of short films in Calcutta and Bombay in 1900. Around 1902, J.F. Madan and Abdullah Esoofally launched their career with Bioscope shows of imported short films. In 1912 , N.G. Chitre and R.G. Torney made a silent feature film Pundalik which was released on May 18, and it was half British in its make.
Dhundiraj Govind Phalke, more generally known as Dada Saheb Phalke was responsible for the production of India's first fully indigenous silent feature film Raja Harishchandra which heralded the birth of the Indian film industry. The film had titles in Hindi and English and was released on May 3, 1913 at the Coronation Cinema, Bombay. In 1917, Bengal saw the birth of its first feature film-Satyabadi Raja Harishchandra made by Madan's Elphinstone Bioscope Company. In Madras, the first feature film of South India Keechaka Vadham was made by Nataraja Mudaliar in 1919.
After stepping into 1920, the Indian cinema gradually assumed the shape of a regular industry. The industry also came within the purview of the law. The new decade saw the arrival of many new companies and film makers. Dhiren Ganguly (England Returned), Baburao Painter (Savkari Pash), Suchet Singh (Sakuntala), Chandulal Shah (Guna Sundari), Ardershir Israni, and V. Santharam were the prominent film makers of the twenties.
The most remarkable things about the birth of the sound film in India is that it came with a bang and quickly displaced the silent movies. The first Indian talkie Alam Ara produced by the Imperial film company and directed by Ardershir Irani was released on March 14, 1931 at the Majestic Cinema in Bombay; The talkie had brought revolutionary changes in the whole set up of the industry. The year 1931 marked the beginning of the talking ear in Bengal and South India. The first talkie films in Bengali (Jumai Shasthi), Telugu (Bhakta Prahlad) and Tamil (Kalidass) were released in the same year.
The thirties is recognised as the decade of social protests in the history of Indian Cinema. Three big banners-Prabhat, Bombay Talkies and New Theatres gave the lead in making serious but gripping sand entertaining films for all classes of the wide audience. A number of films making a strong plea against social injustice were also made in this period like V.Santharam's Duniya Na Mane, Aadmi and Padosi, Franz Osten's Achut Kanya, Damle & Fatehlal's Sant Thukaram, Mehboob's Watan, Ek hi Raasta and Aurat. For the first time Ardeshir Irani attempted a colour picture in 1937 with Kisan Kanya.
The decade also witnessed the release of the first talkie films in Marathi (Ayodhiyecha Raja 1932), Gujarathi (Narasinh Mehta-32), Kannada (Dhurvkumar-34); Oriya (Sita Bibaha-34); Assamese (Joymati-35); Punjabi (Sheila-35) and Malayalam(Balan-38).
The decade during which the second world was fought and Indian independence won, was a momentous one for cinematography all over India. Some memorable films were produced during the forties such as Shantharam's Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani, Mehboob's Roti, Chetan Anand's Neecha Nagar, Uday Shanker's Kalpana, Abbas's Dharti Ke Lal, Sohrab Modi's Sikander, Pukar and Prithvi Vallabh, J.B.H. Wadia's Court Dancer, S.S. Vasan's Chandralekha, Vijay Bhatt's Bharat Milap and Ram Rajya, Rajkapoor's Barsaat and Aag.
The first International Film Festival of India held in early 1952 at Bombay had great impact of Indian Cinema. T
the terrorist
As popular as that formula may be, Sholay doesn't follow it to the letter. Your college roomate should see Sholay. Since it is probably the most popular Indian movie of all time, it is likely he has already seen it. There is singing, but it is not too obtrusive. There are two men main characters (Veeru and Jai) and they are thieves, but they aren't fighting for the same woman (these two men have a good song early on). The cop in the movie has been done wrong and seeks revenge, neither Veeru nor Jai are cops.
Many of the elements your roomate names could be found in American and British movies too.
Digital Citizen
"Mera juta hai Japani,
...these Bollywood films are quite catchy!
Ye pantloon Englishstani,
Sarpe lahl topi Russi,
Phir bhi dil hai Hindustani.."
Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, START
You missed the zeroth point -
;-)
0. The cops and medics always come either after the heroine/her Dad/her Mom/her uncle or Hero's Mom/Dad/Uncle is killed and the bad guys are all beat up
Bruce Stering has a beautiful take on Bollywood production methods in his story "Sacred Cow", collected in A Good Old-Fashioned Future .
sex is natural, gee what a horribly snotty position for him to take
;-)
american prudishness about sex is not low and common, it is just stupid
but you go on thinking a relaxed attitude towards natural sex is some sort of horrible liberal snobbish european attitude
the rest of us will go on banging the women you won't... not can't, but won't
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
Well, why don't you post something you like so we can all laugh at your taste in movies?
I'm not sure why you didn't find it interesting, I thought it was one of the more interesting movies I've seen in a long time. If all you like is movies like "Dude, where's my car" then I'm not sure it can reach you.
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
As for music, you can't realistically say that selling music is any real goal of Hollywood. Perhaps it ties into the entire pop culture, but that's different from motives to make a movie.
I will give this much, the world is beginning to shrink way faster than ever before. So what we are interested in will become similar, but not yet.
yes, compared to the amazing creativity of americans where every film seems to go somewhat along the lines of:
2 boys, separated at birth, fall in love with the American Dream, except one is rich/ powerful/ a cop and the other is rich/ powerful/ a thief... they fight each other for the money, and there is much killing and shooting throughout.
the above is my personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect that of the little voices in my head
There are Kazaa viruses. So far, they've been dumb; they just create infected files shared by Kazaa. They don't exploit the system through which Brilliant can push programs onto client machines. Someday someone will write a worm that does that, and all Kazaa clients online will be infected within hours.
On the contrary, Fox grabbed ratings, one could argue, because they had no competition when providing a perspective from the right.
I miss the Karma Whores.
I have to be honest...I saw the story...I had the idea...and karma whoring was definitely in my plan! :-)
Free your ecomony and enact the FairTax
2)All German Accent = Evil Not true, all the evil guys on the Death Star had english accents... Perhaps the US was outsourcing Evil to the UK? (the gods know, we could do with the work)
If at first you don't succeed, so much for skydiving.
Try his other article too.
Interesting observations from a westerner about Indian movies.
Exactly. I talk to a lot of self identified liberals who just can't understand why Fox News does so well. My answer is always the same. If you want a liberal slant you've got ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC. If you want a conservative slant all you've got is Fox News.
Do you mean to say your tv is larger than your monitor? What kind of geek are you?:P
Is this a sigs-optional kind of place? 'Cause I am totally down with that if you know what I mean.
Hollywood actors and actresses are mostly liberal. That leads people to make the blanket statement that Hollywood is liberal. Quick, name as many well known conservative actors as you can that make no bones about being a conservative. Now list the liberals who make no bones about being liberal. Huge difference in the totals there.
Outspoken conservatives are hard to come by in Hollywood. Outspoken liberals are a dime a dozen.
The movies suck, but many people like them anyway.
Well, good to know it's not just Americans paying for crap cinema.
paintball
Isn't that whats going on in Iraq right now? ;)
A blog about stuff.
What do you want
I can give you a large list of artistist movies (without unnatural song and dance sequences). Especially from 80s and 90s.
If you want an escapist movie whats wrong with songs ? Such movies in Hollywood are called musicals. It so happens, in Bollywood, musicals are the preferred genre.
Afterall, musicals were all the rage some decades back in Hollywood and they seem to be making a comeback with movies like Chicago and Moulin Rouge.
Like in Hollywood there are good movies and bad movies. The categorization has got nothing to do with songs.
If you don't like the songs just FF.
One more point, lot of people may not be aware of. The Indian popular music is essentially the film music. That is why the films will always have them.
karma : former act as leading to inevitable results
Unfortunately most of the Bollywood movies I've downloaded are poor quality. They're all postage stamp size and many don't have subtitles.
Please reference any kazaa or torrent good quality bollywoods.
I wonder if the recent case against KaZaaLite has anything to do with the embrace of KaZaa by Bollywood?
A blog about stuff.
While India's Bollywood prospers, there are many many very very poor people living under extremely unhealthy conditions. the birth rate is way up... I guess the amount of young poplation attributes to the growth of movie industry, but Indian gov,and we, should be aware of their population problems... sorry, if it seems off-topic.
-------
FM Clan
>India has received more foreign aid than any other developing nation since the end of World War II--estimated at almost $55 billion since the beginning of its First Five-Year Plan in 1951
:
from
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-170.html
and just recently the US paid them for peace in the billions.
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
syphilis is natural
;-)
penicillin is natural
huxley is science fiction
you go on with your bad self, my prudish friend, i think i will die with a much bigger smile on my face than you
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
As a person of Indian origin who consumes the 10% of those 1000 Bollywood films that eventually do make it to the US market, and as someone who is acutely aware of Bollywood happenings on an almost day-to-day basis ( I must say the average Indian would easily fall into this category ), I think this is the right move.
Bollywood on P2P - way to go!
But why ?
1. The average expat Indian watches Bollywood purely out of nostalgia. There is a sense of loss in leaving one's home country & settling abroad, and Bollywood manages to help one cope with that loss rather effectively. P2P would cater to that segment quite nicely.
2. Despite this comment, Bollywood does large churn out pulp. Devdas & Lagaan are no different. At its core, Bollywood themes are hackneyed and trite - hero gets heroine, a couple of songs & dances, few mild conflicts ( mother-in-law versus bride, dad versus son, man versus the corrupt system, hero vs villian, etc ). So when you have a thousand of these made, year after year after year, you do have to wonder what happens to quality. Even as a fan of Bollywood, I'm not ashamed to claim that maybe 1, atmost 2 films per year, would make it to my DVD library. The rest are just fluff - to be consumed & discarded, like a can of pop. 2 out of 1000 films is 0.2%. That being the case, it seems almost criminal to waste the amount of resources needed to bring pulp onto the large screen on your local multiplex, and cause major traffic jams in local Indian hubs like Jersey City ( NJ ), Iselin ( NJ ), Flushing ( NY ) etc, where Indian communities hog the narrow arteries with their Toyotas blaring Bollywood songs as they head towards the latest Friday release, inconveniencing the local populace, not to mention the untold damage to cells in the cranium and the basal ganglia that get permanently damaged watching crap of this magnitude week after week on the large screen in surround sound. Its much better these Indians stay home and download these "Bollywood blockbusters" as they are known, on the DSL lines using P2P networks and watch themn on 15" laptops - saves gasoline for the commute, electicity needed to work the multiplex, and annoyance to local communities, plus hopefully a few brain cells.
3. Piracy is rampant among Indian film consumers - any video store in an Indian hub will sell you the latest Bollywood offering, pirated version, for $2. The industry loses a big chunk of change. Maybe P2P would pump some money back into the industry.
4. Mafia - Perhaps no industry is more tightly controlled by the underworld than Bollywood. Dons operating out of Dubai ( UAE ), South Africa, and Staten Island even, control the operation of the industry and screening of its films. P2P can subvert this whole criminal enterprise - finally technology beats the bad guys.
But, lets see if this actually takes off - efforts to reform Bollywood are few and far between, and get shut down rather suddenly - P2P may face the same fate.
do you like following me around sycophant?
;-)
ah well, everyone needs a fan club
i am deeply flattered by the attention you lavish on me by following me around, but do not suspect for a moment that i think any more of you than what you are: an ankle biting stalker
peace and love
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/third_world_ countries.htm
The First, Second, Third World and the Forth World
A rough probably outdated model of the geopolitical world from the time of the cold war. There is no official definition of the terms of the first, second, and the third world. Following OWNO's explanation of the terms.
Four Worlds After World War II the world split into two large geopolitical blocs of contrary views on government and the politically correct society: the bloc of democratic-industrial countries within the American influence sphere, - the "First World" - and the Eastern bloc of the communist-socialist states, the "Second World". The remaining three-quarters of the world's population, states not aligned with either bloc were regarded as the "Third World."
The in the early 1970s coined term of the "Forth World" refers to widely unknown nations (cultural entities) of indigenous peoples, living within or across state boundaries.
First there was the three worlds model
The origin of the terminology is unclear. In 1952 Alfred Sauvy, a French demographer, wrote an article in the French magazine L'Observateur which ended by comparing the Third World with the Third Estate: "ce Tiers Monde ignore, exploite, meprise comme le Tiers Etat" (this ignored Third World, exploited, scorned like the Third Estate). Other sources claim that Charles de Gaulle coined the term Third World, maybe de Gaulle only has quoted Sauvy. However...
The term "First World" refers to so called developed, capitalist, industrial countries, roughly, a bloc of countries aligned with the United States with common political and economic interests: North America, Western Europe, Japan and Australia.
"Second World" refers to the (former) communist-socialist, industrial states, (formerly the Eastern bloc, the territory and sphere of influence of the Union of Soviet Socialists Republic) today: Russia, Eastern Europe (e.g., Poland) and some of the Turk States (e.g., Kazakhstan) as well as China.
"Third World" are all the other countries, today often used to roughly describe the developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America. The term Third World includes as well capitalist (e.g., Venezuela) and communist (e.g., North Korea) countries as very rich (e.g., Saudi Arabia) and very poor (e.g., Mali) countries.
The term "Forth World" first came into use in 1974 with the publication of Shuswap Chief George Manuel's: The fourth world : an Indian reality (amazon link to the book), the term refers to nations (cultural entities, ethnic groups) of indigenous peoples living within or across state boundaries (political units, states).
... electronic movie rentals. I pay $3 at my local video store to watch a quality foreign film. $3 to download a self-destructor just increases the time to fetch the film and opens a wider catalog. Which is pretty keen.
I would never use such a self-destruction system for music, though.
Ceci n'est pas une signature.
Mac users, on the other hand, may note that cockroaches far outnumber
humans, and that numbers alone do not denote a higher life form....
New York Times, 1991
- The Amazina Llama
The best way to fight this is to buy free ranged meat, not adopt a vegetarian or vegan lifestyle.
Most of us who chose a vegan diet do so because we believe that eating meat at all is just as unethical as treating the animals badly. Whether it's free range or not, the animal still ends up being killed.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
If you want a liberal slant you've got ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, MSNBC
You are joking, right?
ABC: Who just spent a ton of money trying to convince Americans that there was no conspiracy to assassinate Kennedy and that they should just trust their government.
CNN: The news source who is second in friendliness to Emperor Dubyah after Fox News, and who had no coverage of the Miami FTAA riots and the police brutalization of protesters on their web site.
"...always new atoms but always doing the same dance, remembering what the dance was yesterday." -Richard Feynman
I am surprised, though, that they sell more tickets than Hollywood does. The net gross is nowhere near as LA.....
Perhaps that's because the developing world doesn't get ripped off for TEN DOLLARS or more to watch a fucking ninety minute movie.
Most of us work jobs that pay a livable salary per year. Well, that's how they look at musicians, actors, etc.. they're all just doing a job, and not creaming off $20 million a picture.. this means ticket prices are lower and everyone can go enjoy the flick.
mogorific carpentry experiments
Considering I live in South Florida, and saw some of the incidents, and saw the rest on live local news, I gotta say you are full of shit. The police were professional and did the best job they could. They only used force after giving repeated warnings, and didnt bother peaceful demonstrations at all. There were many properly permitted and peaceful demonstrations that had the full support of the city. As long as they remained peaceful and didn't block important roads etc. without permission, it wasn't a problem. The Miami police were in a tight spot, people were coming to the protests with an intent to turn it into another Seattle. Miami police didn't let that happen, and they had to use some force to do it. The reason the protests werent a big national issue is because anyone not desperatly searching for something to complain about realized that everyone has seen worse police "brutality" at an unruly rock concert.
Maybe that's a good thing? The wealth is distribute, hence no bully shoving decisions down the throats of smaller companies; as we have with hollywood.
Anyway my point though is, why be defensive? Bollywoood's billion a good thing for the Indian people right?
A lot of people watch these movies. I have seen a few. To a film, they were insipid.
And this is exactly what many, many people think of hollywood movies!
Their movies weren't made for you or your demographic, or mine for that matter. Much of the world is looking at your favorite shows and going "how do people stand that crap?"
It is all opinion.
Based on upvotes, Ageism is the only "-ism" Slashdotters care about and think isn't SJW
Most so-called loans are never ever going to be paid back. USA is owed billions by a ton of countries but we can safely assume no one is going to pay it back. Except for the capitalists who brainwash people into believing these will actually be paid back, everyone knows that rich countries are not going to be paid back. One just needs to look at Indonesia, Argentina, etc...
... It is a political decision...
Isreal would be significantly worse off without foreign help (and I'm not even talking about political help). Most aid to Isreal is military but Isreal would have to pay it out of its OWN pockets. On top of that, Isreal's weapon industry is a key component of its economy. If USA cuts military "aid", Isreal's military industry would almost die off.
As far as giving aid to Egypt, it is done for a reason... the same reason USA gave aid to Turkey when the Turks were killing the Kurds... the same reason USA gives aid to Colombia, when the Colombian kills a ton of innocent people with the right-wing militias/bounty hunters/bodyguards
So in summary, Isreal would be FAR worse off without US help... but then again, it would FAR better off with Mideast peace too... All I can say is that USA will cut off aid to Isreal (and other countries) at some point in the future (especially since I predict that USA will face massive fiscal problems within 50 years). Isreal better be prepared to suvive without much US backing when that time comes... For now, aid is totally irrelevant since Americans can do whatever they want to do with their money (I'm not American), and so-called aid is nothing more than a carrot on the stick to carry out foreign policy...
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
Examples, please?
THIS THING CAN TURN ON A DIME, MACROSSZERO STYLE ALSO FUCK BETA, ~NYORON
Athough I still think it was a really good movie (in that I enjoyed watching it a lot) I haev to admit I've not seen nearly that many Bollywood movies (though it was not my first).
Sure the characters play a little bit to a formula, but I really see even that as part of the style. What other movies would you recommend that you thought were a lot better (this time I'm not being sarcastic)?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Oh yeah? Well just watch me whip out my machine gun and blow apart your house, make love to your wife while she bares her breasts for all the world to see, and then drive off in your car at 100+ while the police chase me through a market crowded with live chickens and street vendors who conform to comical racial stereotypes. Not only will nobody get hurt, but I'll, like... totally prove you wrong. Or something.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
I am an american, and I dont appreciate America giving aid to countries with questionable human rights records to further one agenda or the other (be it Israel over Palestine, Iraq n Turkey over the Kurds n Iran etc etc). Wish there was something I could do about where my tax dollars go, but since both the GOP n Dem's have the exact same policy ;)
If you are leftist like me, you should consider voting for some other party. Perhaps the Greens.
As far as I'm concerned, the Republicans and Democrats are the SAME party. They each claim one thing but in the end, they are the same: imperialists controlled by plutocrats. The Democrats claim to support the workers yet they are in bed with corporations. The Republicans claim to be fiscally conservative yet they have a habit of increasing the military (and it associated bureacracy that goes with it), and carrying out massive tax cuts which increases the deficit.
Americans have been DUPED for far too long... but then again, so has everyone else from other countries. I wonder if there is a politician or a political party anywhere in the WORLD that actually carried out what they said they would do....
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
How about these... not exactly the same but kind of close...
:) The other two aren't exactly there but kind of close... I LOVE the last film BTW :)
Double Impact
A River Runs Through it
Legends of the Fall
The first one is kind of close to the original joke post
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
Bored philosophy major? Isn't that an oxymoron. I mean, shouldn't you be developing a philosophy to explain the meaning of life? There is no such thing as a boredom when it comes to philosophy :)
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
CNN liberal? Maybe when the planets are aligned properly... ABC? Depends... BUT there is no WAY NBC & MSNBC can be considered liberal. If anything they are conservative. How can you call MSNBC liberal when it has Chris Matthews, Pat Buchanan, and others?
The problem with conservatives is that they need a scapegoat. Just like how they can't survive without blaming all problems on communists...
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
I agree that there are more liberals in Hollywood (although only a few are left of left (i.e. left to far-left)). Most of these liberals are hypocrities. BUT do keep in mind that the OWNERS of Hollywood are mostly conservative. The corporations that run everything can hardly be considered liberal.
:)... a Liberatarian (aka liberatarian-conservative) would be Clint Eastwood...
FYI, some conservatives are Mel Gibson, Bruce Willis, and Arnold Schwazenegger
Someone correct me if I got the above people wrong...
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
Cidade de Deus (City of God) is one of my favourite films of all time (it's in my top 5). I recommend it to everyone who is ok with violence. It is very stylish...
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
The reality is that Bollywood earns far more from outside India than within. This is not just because all revenue is in dollars (and not rupees), but also because the government doesn't tax all that forex earnings. Besides, those homesick non-resident Indians will lop up any mindless crap belted out by Film-istan, so the people who make movies don't really have to move out of their bright-sets-with-characters-in-black-and-white paradigm; they only have to continue making it more shiny and more masala-driven.
(Which is why the big thing in Hindi movies these days is films with ex-pat content; in a year that saw 200 or so film releases, I can think of exactly one film set in the Great Indian Hindi Heartland up north. Something that never happens with the regional language movies, incidentally.)
So while you're correct in your assessment that film producers think India will be unaffected, it would be incorrect to say that its core market will be unaffected. For good or bad, Bollywood's focus has already crossed the seas.
More than mere navel gazing.
Just thought I'd get that off my chest. I'm not Indian, I'm a plain boring old white person, but I have really fallen hard for Bollywood movies. Aishwarya Rai is such a babe. As is Vasundara Das (from Monsoon Wedding).
Kind Regards From Toronto Canada,
W. Postma
Besides, I searched for a few days on Kazaa, but was never able to grab a copy of the film; didn't mind paying that US$3 as an experiment.
I wonder if I was the only person to laugh at the irony of seeing "Supari" after paying supaari (== 'extortion money' in Mumbai's gangster slang) to watch a DRM-enabled file. Not to mention that Kazaa's reputation isn't exactly over-the-board. :-)
More than mere navel gazing.
It's sad that I saw a semi-on-topic subject, a bolded first line, and a list and assumed it was another off-topic bullshit post about shoving something up my ass or why SCO is a cult...
-Trillian
Now considering the fact that for over 30 years US taxpayers provided Israel with between 5% & 15% of GNP annually (it varies year to year, much of it hidden to, coming from many US depts under many different titles), it's amazing Israel's doing so poorly - with 10% inflation, 10% interest rates & 10% unemployment (figures may have changed a little over the last year). Gez it took 15 years of the US providing Israel with up to 15% of it's GNP every year for Israel to shake off it's 3 digit inflation rates.
It's ironic the way US tax-payers are subsidising one of the most socialist countries in the would to such a extent, where Kibutzes & Moshavs get millions in subsidies & still can't breakeven, unlike the remaining Israeli Arab farms - basically almost the only agricultural enterprises in Israel that seem to cope without subsidies,
When you get down to it the main reason the Palestinian/Israeli coflict exists today is because the the zionist lobbies (funded by US tax-payers no less) have half the American polies in their pockets.
Because the simple fact is that without being propped up by US tax-payers there's absolutelly no way Israel could fund the occupation, let alone their apartheid expropiation wall that zig zags all over the West Bank, expropiating land left, right 'n centre, in contravention of the Hague 'n Geneva Conventions. Look what they are doing to the villagers of Kaffin - using the wall to expropiate thousands of dunans of their lands & bulldozening 10,000 of their olive trees (that their ancestors have tendered for hundreds of years) destroying the livelyhoods of 9000 people - no wonder Palestinians are so willing to scarifice themselves to get back at these foreign intruders. & to think Shrubie has not even dared to ask them why can't they build their wall along their side of the border, IE in Israel proper. Maybe because he knows that Israel would rather destroy the lives of the native Palestinian population ### than midly inconveniance their own chosen people
Ontop of which but for the US using the threat of it's veto to weaken UN resolutions against Israel to the point of uselessness (or to weaken the enforrcement of UN resolutions to the same effect) Israel would've suffered the ignomy of 20 years of South African like sanctions, to the point that they would've given in & ended the apartheid policies there too.
Fact is it's the Hague Convention (1903C), the Geneva Convention (A49P6), the International Declaration of Human Rights & the conditions of Israel's creation (UNPR 181) that give Palestinian refugess the right of return, (plus of course a good number of UN resolutions, many of which Israel agreed to abide by as it's condition of joining the UN), meaning Israel is a war criminal state as much as Baathist Iraq was.
Imagine ethnically cleansing the majority of the population just because they were the wrong ethnicity - it's as if the Zionists colonialists in Palestine felt they had as much right to meddle with demographics via war crimes there as the Nazi invaders had to meddle with the demographics in Poland via war crimes. Afterall how can one have a democratic Jewish state with descriminatory immigration laws favouring foreign Jews, if the majority of the population is Arab. Hence the refuseal to permit the refugees back, in contradiction of the conditions set down for the UN mandated partition of Palestine & creation of Israel.
The Zionists really conned the world, & to think just as Hitler had let out his intention in Mein Kampf to anyone who bothered checking, so did the Zionist ideologue, David Ben Gurion:-
May be because a studio gets only a few bucks profit on each disk, because the rest goes to greedy and inefficient distributors of physical goods? If a studio gets 5$ per disk and it can quadruple the sales by offering 2$ downloads, it might actually be worthwhile to ditch DVDs.
BTW, is anyone interested in setting up (a few thousand bucks investment needed) a commercial download service for public domain films (i.e. everything released before 1973)? There are places on this planet (like Russia), where copyright expires in 30 years and older works are in public domain (the fact is officially recognised by the Ministry of Culture).
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.
> I'm having fun with the [URLs]
If that is "fun," you really need to get out more.