Bollywood Lovers Club
since 2001
BOLLYWOOD in KOREA!
Feb. 2006
The Club Leader
Kwanghyun Jung (nickname Hangulo)
hangulo@hanmail.net
1. How and why did the Bollywood Lovers Club start?
Travellers, who visited India had been watching Hindi movies through VCD, which they got from India, till 2001. But small screen with no subtitle and also bad picture quality reduced the enjoyment of Hindi movies. So, a few people gathered and made a community to watch hindi movies together(No matter whether subtitles are in English). At first we hired a cafe(equipped with projection facility) and started screening hindi movies with "Mohabbatein" VCD(with English subtitles) and thus our hindi movie community came into existence. Soon we changed it with DVD (with English subtitle)and about after 1 year, on May 2003 we opened our own office and started showing hindi movies with Korean subtitles that we ourselves made.
Our community website is www.INDIAmovie.co.kr
2. What are the activities of this club?
- Screening Hindi Movies
First of all, We show hindi movies around 4 times a week. About 40 famous Bollywood movies from "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" to "Kaal" are being shown on rotatory basis, with Korean subtitles. We are screening movies with DVD projector connected to PC. Also, in order to meet the demand for new movie titles I get new DVD titles and watch it with English subtitles .
And what’s interesting is that we don’t see movies silently in Korean style but rather in Indian style, which means making noise, laughing and abusing the villain. This fact makes Korean audiences feel great attraction to Bollywood movies and it gives them the real taste of Bollywood.
- Indian Dance Class based on bollywood movies (Bollywood Dance)
Actually at first, our community took shape from the interest about bollywood movies, and then we also wanted to follow the dances of movie scenes. That’s why we analyzed the music videos and made Indian Dance class based on bollywood movies and it has been running continuously for around 3 years.
Usually this type of dance can be learned easily at any acting school in India, but since there is no reference or information related to Indian dance in Korea, only movie DVD is our Bible.
But our dance class has been known to outside, so we also performed in film festivals and other festivals which were held in Korea. But our purpose to learn Indian dance is just for fun.
- Henna(mehndi) Class
Marriage scenes are common in hindi movies. So, scenes in which brides are decorated with henna also appear accordingly.
Through some of our community members, who learnt henna from India, we proceeded to henna class. All are learning it with great interest.
3. How many members does the club have?
We are a Internet community. Total number of members are 8000(till JAN 2006). But active members are only 300. And the interesting fact is that above 90% members are women. In Korea, women are far more interested in India than men.
4. Why do Bollywood films appeal to Koreans?
Whenever I get this question from the Korean press, I say “because it is so fun”
Half of our community members have never been to India. But this can not become any barrier to fall in love with hindi movies.
Of course the Indian traditional values in films, for example family centrism, are similar to Korean tradition. This may be one of the reasons to like hindi movies. Also, people feel familiar with India because it is the birthplace of Buddhism, so one’s heart can go towards Indian movies.
Also Bollywood top stars like Shahrukh Khan, Madhuri Dixit, Aishwarya Rai ,Preity Zinta are also a enough reason to fall in love with hindi movies. Are there more handsome and prettier persons than them in this world?
5. Who are the favourite stars and why?
Of course member’s most favorite star is Shahrukh Khan.
When somebody watch Shahrukh Khan’s movie for the first time, one may not like him. But after watching some of his movies..no no ..if someone watches his only one movie properly, he or she turns into his fan and it is common phenomenon. How one cannot be his fan by watching Devdas’s tears or Aman’s love in Kal ho na ho ?(for your information, I'm a male.)
Of course the Bollywood legend, Amitabh Bachchan sahab’s popularity is a match for Shahrukh Khan's. I would say that Shahrukh Khan is fit for lover whereas Bachchan sahab is for father.
As far as Aishwarya Rai is concerned, her film ‘Bride and Prejudice” has already been televised in Korea and she's gaining popularity here. After watching Aish in "Devdas" or in "Hum dil de chuke sanam", people fall for her beauty.
I am personally fan of Preity Zinta
Also, Madhuri Dixit, Rani Mukharjee, Kareena Kapur, Vivek Oberoi and Abhishek Bachchan who appeared in recent hit movie titles, are also getting popularity here.
6. Do Koreans like Shah Rukh Khan?
As I already told you, Shahrukh is very popular among members. So, we are now in a situation to change our community name as "Shahrukh Club", because almost all movies we are screening now are Shahrukh Khan's movies. Why do we watch only his films? Because members are not interested to watch non-Shahrukh Khan movies. We also made Shahrukh T shirts ,cups and some members carry his photos. There are also members who changed their cell phone screen picture with Shahrukh's photos.
Shahrukh Khan is not only the star in India but also everywhere, where hindi movies are available.
7. What are some of the most popular Hindi movies in Korea?
In Korea the officially released Indian movie is only ‘MUTHU”(Tamil). That’s why we are waiting so much for the release of Hindi movies in theaters here.
The most popular movie titles in our community are "Devdas" and "Kal ho na ho". 'Devdas" is a painful love story with classical beauty and its magnificent sets, that’s why people got impressed with this title. A film like "Kal ho na ho" has broken our prejudice about Indian movies-In Korea, movies like MUTHU caused some misunderstanding about Indian movies-, and let us know the achievement of recent Indian movies.
Of course "Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge" or "Kuch kuch hota hai "are not exceptional. Title like "Black", as a new look Hindi movie, is also highly appreciated by community members, and titles like "Dil chahta hai", "Dil se", "Kabhi Khushi Kahbie Gham", "Salaam Namaste" are also shown frequently.
8. How do you stay in touch with Bollywood happenings? on Net or mags and newspapers
Of course through internet. We are subscribing “Filmfare” or “Stardust” but mostly we use Internet. We get information from sites like Yahoo India or Indiafm.com, Indiatimes.com or Rediff.com etc.
As far as DVD is concerned, due to the postal charge we use USA site called Indiaweekly.com.
9. Have you ever seen a Bollywood concert or any star live?
You asked a very painful question. Our life time desire is to go to the bollywood star concert.
By watching these concerts through DVD, we all envy the audience there. That can’t be expressed in words.
Just imagine how will it be a great pleasure for us to see Shahrukh and Preity directly ?
If we have a chance, then we definitely want to go to such concerts. There are many community members who wish to go to such concert held in Hong Kong, which is geographically the nearest to Korea. They are saving money for it but it is not easy to take off during the concert period in Hong Kong.
Thank you very much.
Bohut Danyawad.
Contacts
Mobile : 019-394-1958 ( Club Leader / English speaking Available)
(*) International Call +82-19-394-1958
E-mail : hangulo@hanmail.net
Homepage http://www.indiamovie.co.kr
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인도 영화를 사랑하는 사람들의 모임 (인영사모 , Bollywood Lovers)을 소개하기 위한
영어 인터뷰 자료입니다. 다른 곳에 쓰기 위해서 작성된 것이고 2005년 시점으로 작성된 부분이 있어서 약간의 차이는 있을 수 있습니다.
주변에 우리 모임을 궁금해 하는 외국인이 있다면 보여주시면 될 듯 합니다
***********************
인도 영화를 사랑하는 사람들의 모임
Bollywood Lovers
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