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One of the worlds leading film industries, where the word Bollywood is a play on ‘Hollywood’, with the B coming from Bombay, the center of the film world.

Bollywood's film production center is government-owned and is known as "Film City" in the northern suburbs of Mumbai. 1913 was the start of the silent and black and white feature films, the first being Raja Harishchandra that was released by D.P. Phalke. The first Indian sound film was Alam Ara released in 1931 and Kisan Kanya was the first colored movie 1937. Now over 800 films are produced each year, almost double to America, and approx. 14 Million Indians go to the movies daily.

 

Films

Bollywood films may broadly be described as musical melodramas, with oppositional binaries, highly emotional scenes and matter-of-fact dialogue. They often last 3 to 4 hours and include many dances and song, top stars, and the plot of a boy meets a girl, with lots of action (but no bloodshed) and finishes with a happy ending. Through the 20th century the films took on different aspects, such as;

 

1920 – 1945 – historical and mythological themes in the films

 

1947 – realism and current themes

 

1970s - Masala Film contains comedy, action and romantic

 

Music

Bollywood film music is called filmi music, contains both Indian and external influences. Kishore Kumar and Mohammed Rafi are often considered the best male singers and Lata Mangeshkar the best female singer. The dancing in Bollywood films, especially older ones, often includes classical dance styles, dances of historic northern Indian courtesans or folk dances. In the modern films there is also an influence of Western dance styles, as seen on MTV or in Broadway musicals.

 

 

Icons

Produces are always fighting against getting the best actors and actresses to work within their films. As the demand is so high they are can be working on 10 films at once. Some of the top female and male stars include;

 

Female

Madhuri Dixit- She's the original dancing diva of Bollywood. She has the maximum amount of Filmfare (same as the Oscars) nominatins of 13

 

Kareena Kapoor – One of the more recent main icons in Bollywood. £20 million per film

 

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan – Known as being extremely beautiful. £17 million

 

Katrine Kaif – Recognized as cute and stylish. £15 million

 

Men

Arjun Rampal - is a Bollywood heart-throb.

Amitabh Bhachan - He's been starring Indian films for over 30 years and has been compared to Hollywood's Robert De Niro.

 

 

 

 

Style

 

Makeup

The eyes are always emphasized with kohl within Bollywood and are accompanied with bronzed skin, red lips, groomed brows and blush. Lighter skin is seen to be more beautiful, but a bronzed tint is now also desirable. 

 

“Not just right now -- what it has always been and always will be -- is accent on the eyes. Bollywood is all about eyes, I think India is all about eyes, because we draw a lot from our tradition, we draw a lot from our culture -- for generations it's always been about eyes. Even if Indian women don't wear too much makeup -- foundation was pretty alien to them 10 years ago -- they always more or less use kohl and they use their bindi, which adds color to their face. Kohl is so important to every Indian woman, it's also our highest selling product at MAC. It will always be eyes.”

Mickey contractor – Bollywood makeup artist

 

 

Hair

Hair styles within Bollywood films often resembles a young bride. Even if the main women character wears a hairstyle fashionable for the time it is always tamed down and more tradional for the wedding scenes.

 

Mens hair – before the 70’s they were more concervative with full hair that was cut straight at the back. Facial hair, although in their culture a mustache is a sign of biological and social manliness, the men don’t wear one and resemble more like the gods.

 

 

 

 

 

About Bollywood

 

 

Face

 

Moisturizer – to create a natural radiance (8hr balm can be used)

Lighter foundation is used down the center of the face

Highlight under the eyes - rose petal colour

Bronzer – applied with dual fiber brush to make application natural. Not too contoured but to just warm the skin.

Add more contour – blunt sculpting powder mac with an angular brush

Blotting powder – un-pigmented, sheer coverage, takes away shine

 

Eyes

 

Flesh coloured primer – lay and glow

Natural subtle shadow base

Natural contour and face powder over the edges to take away sharp lines

Add some pigment to brighten the eyes but not to heavy

Eyeliner - Mark in the corner line, working from the bottom lashes not top ones in order to create a straighter line. Then draw along top lash to create a triangle.

Fade out the product at the.

Apply eyelashes – if need to be smaller, cut from the outside

 

Brows

Follow the desired eyebrow shape that lines up to the nose and outer corners of the eyes.

Wet brush with eye shadow - clean brush to blend

Add highlighter under the brows

Powder to set it

 

Lips

Use little finger as a quide and taught the skin when applying liner

Then fill in the lips with matte lipstick

Classic Bollywood look demonstration

Practical

​Madhuri Dixit in Dedh Ishqiya. (n.d.). [image] Available at: http://media1.santabanta.com

/full1/Bollywood%20Movies/Dedh%20Ishqiya/dedh-ishqiya-5v.jpg [Accessed 23 Feb. 2015].

Arjun Rampal in Satyagraha. (2013). [image] Available at: http://media.movietalkies.com

/images/bollywood/stock/arjunrampal/arjunrampal-74.jpg [Accessed 23 Feb. 2015].

'Baharon Phool Barsao' from the 1966 film Suraj was voted the greatest Bollywood song of all time, by the BBC Asian network.

 

As shown in the video it consists of the typical storyline or a boy meets a girl in a romantic scene. When looking closely at the makeup on the women; her eyes are lined with black kolh with soft edges and the application is slightly along the bottom lashes. To help create an almond shape to the eyes, the creases has been darkened with shadow especially on the outer edges. The eyebrows are heavy and full and follow the same shape as the liner at the ends. Her lips are well defined with a red shade. This is the typical makeup look as it influences the public and even at current time it is still the desired look. 

The image on the left, shows Madhuri Dixit in the film Dedh Ishqiya. Her hair is half up and half down, and does not cover her face. Her eye makeup includes the typical liner but is not heavy along the bottom and does not extend as far out as seen in the music video above. Her lips are also of a brighter shade than seen previously. Although overall the makeup includes the same aspects but perhaps slightly less heavy ,which may be influenced on the more natural everyday westernised appearance. 

Arjun Rampal in the film Satyagraha, wears a very relaxed longer hairstyle. It included some waves but is still cut straight at the back. Again this shows a westernised influence of the current trends. He also wears a mustache with alight shadow on the chin area, which helps create the masculine image. 

I had a go at producing a Bollywood influenced makeup. As my model had paler skin I decided to use a darker foundation to try and make her appear more of the Indian origin. I made the outer areas of the face slightly darker than the center as this look is seen as making the women look more attractive. I contoured the face and added some highlight, especially under the eyes. I decided to first use natural eyeshadow to get an understanding of colour deposition before experimenting with stronger colours. I used Rimmel Gel eyeliner to line along the upper and bottom lashes, to create a triangular point directing to the end of the eyebrow. I decided to make the liner heavy and extend out far at the outer corners as feel that this stereotypically suits the Bollywood look, even though as seen in the 'Baharon Phool Barsao' music video. I used Kryolan cake mascara (black and dark brown) to fill in the eyebrows and correct their shape. Unfortunately I forgot about the lips, so the look was not as complete and did not produce the full look. 

 

I worked with the eyes closed when applying eyeliner, which although gave a straight line it did not suit her eyeshape and made them look very wide. I found that I must always think about the models feature shape and make sure that i apply product so that it compliments the face. Although overall I was happy with the make-up and feel that I would be able to recreate a natural Bollywood makeup in the future.

I briefly looked at some Bollywood makeup over the internet and found that they also use more brighter and pigmented eyeshadow. I chose to experiment with a reds that ranged in different shades, with the darker tones in the crease and outer corner. I also chose to bring the darker colour more into the inner corner to help flatter my models large eyes.  I also took in consideration her eyeshape this time when applying the eyeliner and marked it in while her eyes were open. 

 

I liked the outcome of this eye makeup and feel that if the model was of the orgin then it would suit much better with the skin tone and eye coloul. I feel that I have gotten better with shaping the eyebrows and using liner but think that I can still improve so therefore will carry on experimenting on different eyeshapes. 

 

Here was the outcome of the demonstration within class.

The model had dark hair and eyes, which helped with the overall final look. 

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