Day 2: Bollywood & Beyond

India is a diverse country full of colors, ethnicity and variety in attire and cuisine. Hindi cinema also represents the same. Bollywood too is full of colorful people who want to explore cultures and represent them. Bengali culture. (Bong Connection) The Bengali influence was very popular till the sixties when Bollywood would be inspired by Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyay classics such as Devdas or Parineeta. Since then, remakes of these films have somewhat tried recreating the magic. Bullett Raja, 2013 Sonakshi performing Bengali folk dance called Jhumur. Trailer

A pregnant woman's search for her missing husband takes her from London to Kolkata, but everyone she questions denies having ever met her husband. Kahaani explores themes of feminism and motherhood in male-dominated Indian society. 2012

Parineeta (Married Woman) 2005 Trailer

DEVDASDEVDAS 2002 Trailer

Bollywood movies have inspired a whole line of jewellery:

Punjab A comic caper about Happy Singh, a Punjabi villager who goes through a series of misadventures and eventually becomes the Kinng of the Australian underworld. 2008

Punjabi music which has today captivated a huge number of fans beyond Punjab, especially abroad, is creating a great influence in Bollywood films. Almost every other film from Bollywood is found carrying a Punjabi number or lyrics in dialogues. Jab We Met (2007)

Gujarat Ethnic Gujarati culture with its rich traditions and colourful festivals and rituals would naturally lend to a Bollywood backdrop, but Hindi cinema rarely tapped the idea till the advent of Sanjay Leela Bhansali. The dance form of Garba has been widely used in films. Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, 1999

Ram- leela rehashed the standard Romeo- Juliet story in a plush Gujarati set- up. Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali not only brought alive Gujarati culture through his characters, costumes, set design, music and dances, he also gave us a slice of life by portraying animosity that warring clans in the state keep harboring for centuries. 2013

Tattad tattad (Ramji ki chaal) Ranveer Singh

The nawaabi culture with its classical music and poetry, the rich Urdu language, dance tradition and historic relevance was the backbone of the Muslim social genre in the past. With Indianness on the wane in Hindi films, Lucknow's position as a cinematic muse declined. Lucknow

Umrao Jaan, 1981 & 2006

Bollywood’s Worldwide Appeal Aishwarya Rai (Ash) is one of Bollywood's pre- eminent leading ladies. This Indian darling burst upon the world stage when her striking beauty, poise and commanding intelligence won her the Miss World crown in This former architecture major soon became one of India's most famous models, landing a prestigious Pepsi-Cola campaign and appearing in Vogue Magazine. Shah Rukh Khan. His name literally translates into 'Face of the King'. The Tom Cruise of India.

Chennai Express Jab Tak Hai Jaan Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham

Bollywood’s reflects the culture or the culture is reflected in Bollywood? New and refreshing films with a different twist…. Life in a Metro (2007)

The Dirty Picture 2011 Trailer

A story about a romantic journey of a culturally opposite couple - Krish Malhotra and Ananya Swaminathan. They meet at the IIM- Ahmedabad College and during the program they fall in love. Complications arise after they graduate and they decide to get married. Krish and Ananya belong to two different states of India. Krish, a North Indian Punjabi boy from Delhi, and Ananya, a Tamilian Brahmin from Chennai.

They take a conscious decision; they won't get married until their parents agree. Everything goes downhill when the parents meet. There is a cultural clash and the parents oppose the wedding. To convert their love story into a love marriage, the couple faces a tough battle in front of them. For it is easy to fight and rebel, but much harder to convince.

Trailer Queen (Rani) 2014 The film’s story is about a naive middleclass girl in Delhi, who decides to go on her honeymoon to Paris and Amsterdam alone, after her fiancé walks out of the marriage two days before wedding.

The Lunchbox 2013

A mistaken delivery in Mumbai's famously efficient lunchbox delivery system connects a young housewife to an older man in the dusk of his life as they build a fantasy world together through notes in the lunchbox.

Barfi! [2012] Set in the 1970s in a pretty corner of India, Barfi! is the story of three young people who learn that love can neither be defined nor contained by society's norms of normal and abnormal.

3 Idiots is based on Chetan Bhagat’s novel 5 Point Someone and is a comedy about three engineering students whose friendship stands the test of time. Two friends are searching for their long lost companion. They revisit their college days and recall the memories of their friend who inspired them to think differently, even as the rest of the world called them "idiots".