Café RSA Manchester

Café RSA is a popular forum for debating current issues and promoting public engagement, a collaboration between the RSA and Culture Northwest.  Events take place in an informal café-setting with topical presentations and lively audience participation.

Café Bollywood

Dr Rajinder Dudrah, Senior Lecturer, Screen Studies, University of Manchester

Thursday 1 November 2007 @ 6pm

Why are people fascinated with Bollywood? What is the cultural significance of the films produced there? In recent years Bollywood – the popular Hindi cinema from Mumbai (formerly Bombay), India – has received widespread international attention in the global media.  Dr Rajinder Dudrah will give an overview of Bollywood at this first Café RSA event for 2007.

There is more to Bollywood film than just songs, glitter and dancing.  Rajinder Dudrah has profiled this form of cinema, often dismissed as trivial and less important than Hollywood film, but by tracking international audiences he can demonstrate the different ways in which Bollywood influences people’s perceptions and pleasures in hopefully new and exciting ways.

The increasing internationalism of all art forms should perhaps come as little surprise in a global society, but often, critical understanding lags behind current trends.  Research into the impact of South Asian film – and Bollywood cinema in particular – is remarkable, not just in its content and style, but in its ability to cut across communities.

Dr Rajinder Kumar Dudrah has studied the impact of Bollywood cinema on communities in both the UK and US in what was the first international study of its kind.  Rajinder currently lectures in Screen Studies at University of Manchester.  Rajinder is the author of Bollywood, Sociology Goes to the Movies.

 Venue      Café Muse, Manchester Museum, Oxford Road, Manchester