British Board of Film Classification.

[Graham Rae]

The BBFC are looking for input from helpful souls to aid them in their ceaseless, driven quest to protect all our gullible asses from insanity or film-driven murder sprees after watching films. They are conducting a survey of public viewing habits. Please go to www.bbfc.co.uk and tell them what you think of them. I know I have. And don't forget to look up their hilarious system for deciding which expletive is stronger than another using a freaky, arbitrary offensive-syllable-evaluating system.

Have fun.

G.

[truepictures]

This is the second time in a week I've come to this thread. The first time I clicked on the link and stayed on their Web site for an hour and a half, I think.


Hmmmmm, I love the way the Brits rate their movies. I also enjoy the fact that Bollywood movies make it on their top 5 most selling list on a regular basis.

[Graham Rae]

As you may have guessed the popularity of Bollywood films in the UK is down to the fact we have a large Asian populace. Good to know they set us all a fine filmic example by not swearing or having acts of sex or violence in their productions though. Makes me sleep easy at night.

[truepictures]

They don't show the actual acts of kissing, but they imply much much more and some of the violence in these films is quite disturbing.

Also, some Indian filmmakers are trying to emulate Hollywood's obsession with full-on sex by slowly actually showing actors kiss on the big screen.

I don't say violence because they have already incorporated it in to most of their films, along with the musical song and dance numbers, a true Indian filmgoer won't be happy until he sees some action.

[Graham Rae]

Don't know if I could handle seeing people actually kiss on a screen. Might corrupt me too much.

I haven't seen too much Bollywood stuff. Tried to watch it now and then on Channel 4, but 3+ hours of people breaking into song and dance (hell, even singing dogs!) at the drop of a sari is a bit much. Like the bright colors on display, though, and the costumes are cool.

Read a book recently called Scoop, Wallah! by an English female journalist who spent some time in India. From what I understand, the Indian obsession with celebrity and film stars would put the West's to shame.

[truepictures]

yeah, even people in the US, including teeny boppers are obsessed with Indian films, I'm talking about the Indian community now.

But you have to realize that until recently, that is to say, until the mid to late 1990s, pop music in India was limited to the songs in Bollywood. Those dance and song numbers are Bollywood's bread and butter. There weren't individual artists coming out with albums, only the soundtracks from movies. And, even more, there are only about 20-25 singers in all of India that record those songs for the movies. Think about this for a second.

I was thinking about it the other day:
Songs are a key aspect of Indian cinema.
There are roughly about 20 artists that make up the entire catalog of the voices behind these songs.
India makes the most movies out of any country in the world.
These singers are rich.

The influence is so strong that the songs will be released before the movie, and if the songs are a hit, then you are guaranteed a blockbuster.

And India's population is the 2nd largest in the world. So, there you have it. Something to think about for a second. It's a huge industry.