The Filmmakers and Actors’ Guild of Mumbai
Chair: Rohan Sandhu (rohansandhu@uchicago.edu)
Crisis Directors: Disha Malik (dishamalik@uchicago.edu) and Divya Sundar (divyasundar@uchicago.edu)
The Mumbai film industry, also known as Bollywood, has been eternally associated with the splendor, vibrancy and escapism that define its films. Not surprisingly, this perception of the industry persists even today. Even beyond the effervescence depicted on screen, the world of Hindi movies is a pulsating and exciting one that tackles a multiplicity of pertinent and complex problems. Bollywood represents the confluence of economics, politics, art and culture, and its films act as envoys of the multicultural and dynamic backbone of Indian society. The Mumbai film industry derives much of its power from its ability to influence the opinions and beliefs of billions of viewers.
However, the process of filmmaking has to deal with a variety of hurdles and troublemakers. The unrealistic plots and sheer size of the films cannot escape the consequences of India’s messy politics, social activism, cultural tension, protests, censorship, and so on. Song-and-dance and fantasies aside, Bollywood represents a union of ‘real’ issues which influence the process of filmmaking in various ways. For example: How can the film industry seek to obliterate the impact of these myriad problems? Is filmmaking an economic process or a social one? How much censorship is good, and when does it take away from creative liberty?
As members –actors and filmmakers –of this committee, you are an important part of this dynamic world and shall debate, discuss and look to resolve such problems, taking into account the interests of the industry.
But most importantly, apart from throwing some serious crises at you, we promise to keep the glitz and glamour of Bollywood alive! And of course, looking your part could never hurt!