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Peter Tanyanyiwa : Arts Correspondent
Bollywood is one of the largest film producers in India, representing 43 percent of net box office revenue, while Telugu cinema, and Tamil cinema represent 36 percent, and the rest of the regional cinema constituting 21 percent as of 2014. The inaugural “Bollywood nights” was officially launched on Thursday last week at Ster-Kinekor Cinemas, Sam Levy’s Village.With a full-house dressed in Indian attire, India was brought to Zimbabwe.
Movie fanatics could be seen everywhere at Sam Levy’s Village as they thronged the venue to see Bollywood come to life.
This was an experiment which seems to have produced positive results.
The experiment proved beyond reasonable doubt that Bollywood is now almost on the same level with Hollywood and the local film industry can borrow a leaf from it.
Bollywood is one of the largest film producers in India, representing 43 percent of net box office revenue, while Telugu cinema, and Tamil cinema represent 36 percent, and the rest of the regional cinema constituting 21 percent as of 2014.
Bollywood is also one of the largest centres of film production in the world.
It is more formally referred to as Hindi cinema.
Bollywood is classified as the biggest movie industry in the world in terms of the number of people employed and films produced.
In just 2011 alone, over 3,5 billion tickets were sold across the globe. This was 900 000 tickets more than Hollywood.
Also by comparison, Bollywood makes approximately 1 041 films yearly, as opposed to less than 500 films made by Hollywood.
The name “Bollywood” is a portmanteau derived from Bombay (the former name for Mumbai) and Hollywood, the centre of the American film industry. Conversely, unlike Hollywood, Bollywood does not exist as a physical place. Some deplore the name, arguing that it makes the industry look like a poor cousin to Hollywood.
The naming scheme for “Bollywood” was inspired by “Tollywood”, the name that was used to refer to the cinema of West Bengal.
Dating back to 1932, “Tollywood” was the earliest Hollywood-inspired name, referring to the Bengali film industry based in Tollygunge, Calcutta, whose name is reminiscent of “Hollywood” and was the centre of the cinema of India at the time.
It was this “chance juxtaposition of two pairs of rhyming syllables,” Holly and Tolly, that led to the portmanteau name “Tollywood” being coined.
The name “Tollywood” went on to be used as a nickname for the Bengali film industry by the popular Kolkata-based Junior Statesman youth magazine, establishing a precedent for other film industries to use similar-sounding names, eventually leading to the term “Bollywood” being coined.
The recent tragic suicide of celebrated Bollywood superstar Pratyusha Banerjee has rocked her fans, and Bollywood, to their core.
The famous Bollywood star was an incredible talent whose life was sadly cut too short when she killed herself last Friday, on April 1 at the age of 24. But her legacy will live on.
Pratyusha got engaged to long-time boyfriend, Bollywood superstar Rahul Singh, 47, in December 2015.
They appeared on the reality show Power Couple together.
Though it seemed like they had a silver screen romance, Rahul has now been held for questioning by the police over the recent death. He was the one to find her and brought her to the hospital.
Online Reporter