Bollywoodisation of Sports in Indian Cinema

Abstract

Cinema or motion picture can be defined as the art of moving images where it tends to tell stories in a visual medium. Indian film Industry or Bollywood is largely known for its entertainment, drama, songs, stereotypic narratives etc. where a different set of world emerges and make the impossible possible. The changing trends in Bollywood bring new dimensions or directions to film making, and one of the new trends includes making biopic on sports personalise, and the sports-based films have tried to create a fantasy world between the people and the sports itself which helps the people to know more about their favourite sports personality adding an entertainment factor making it more interesting. This study has aimed to assess the depiction of sports in five prominent Bollywood movies namely Paan Singh Tomar Bhag Mikha Bhag, Mary Kom, M.S. Dhoni: The Untold Story and Azhar. Both Qualitative and the Visual content analysis method have been used for the study alongwith many secondary data such as movie reviews, articles on films, books and film theories to understand the technicalities of film making. The study reveals surprising facts as the film-makers try to mix all components and tend to bring out a power packed movie with their goals towards commercialization, without concentrating on the storyline, stereotyping the real situations, adding artificiality and mediocre dramatization of circumstances.