I have time and again pondered over the pitiful situation that we have as Bollywood as a brand name representing Indian cinema to the world outside (just google with “bollywood+jocalling” to see my posts on this topic). For a long time, it used to be the self-styled ambassadors of Hindi cinema who keeps conducting the “Indian” film award functions outside India who are in a desperate need of selling the Bollywood brand in the name of India and Indian culture. But how would you feel when a Minister of State, who is the newest political messiah (after APJ Abdul Kalam – who also was mostly just hype) of our urban upper-middle-class babies, says this in the TED?
The fact is that Bollywood is now taking a certain aspect of Indianness and Indian culture around the globe.
Now think about the greatness of the times we are in – Bollywood being the face of not just Indian film, but also Indianness and Indian culture.
And what exactly happened to the quality of TED Talks? I think their tag line still says “ideas worth spreading”.