I found out that a film that I was looking forward to seeing, that is one of those non-bollywoord arthouse-type films is in English. This is to my disappointment as I think it's unrealistic. Looking at the msg board someone even congratulated the director on making an Indian film in English. Now why would someone do this, when the film should be in Hindi or an English language? The film I'm referring to is the last monk - http://www.thelastmonk.com.

Now if you look at word cinema from the rest of the word they make their films in their county's language, not English. For example French films are always in French, Japanese films in Japanese, Korean films in Korean, etc. But why does India feel the need to make a sizable number of their non-commercial/non-bollywood films in English? Isn't this too much of pandering to a western audience? I'm referring to films like 15 Park Av, Mr & Mrs Iyer, Bombay Boys, Everyone says i'm fine, etc. In the case of Mr & Mrs Iyer why are all the character speaking English when in real life it would be Hindi or another Indian language? These characters are all Indian and grew up in India their whole life, so why did they speak English with Indian accents? Konkona Sen's English pronounciation was so bad it sounded strained and would've been better if she spoke Hindi.

Now these films are the type of films India pushes at international film festivals and they are competing with mostly films in a non-english language. Most of the viewers at these film festivals are used to foreign films, but I'm sure they'd raise an eyebrow when they see India making films entirely in English. I already know of two people who asked me the same thing. It's like they don't take it seriously if it's in English. Is there any special reason the directors keep making films in English? It seems to me that India is the only country doing this. If Indian directors want international recognition (which they clearly do) shouldn't they have realised this by now?

In films like Hari Om and Monsoon wedding, the use of occasional English dialogues are understandable, because sometimes it's the only common language between 2 or more characters.

Do you guys feel the same way or are you happy to see Indian films entirely in English?...with some bad Indian accents!

I don’t necessarily think it’s such a bad thing to have an Indian film using the English language. I guess it all depends on the film, not wanting to generalise but something like a setting is some tiny rural village, you could say English maybe it is not a good thing. However, if the setting is college campus in a major City, then use of English would be appropriate.

English is the universal language, many Indians (especially the younger people in cities) use it as their first language, it is a second language for many more and many more still know enough to be able to be able to hold a general conversation.

Thanks for your reply.



Since I don't live in India, I was not aware that the youths of India in college campuses prefer to speak English over Hindi. But why would they do this when it's not their first language and speaking Hindi would be easier. Is it an inferiority complex?

Also if so many college students speak English, why doesn't bollywood reflect this in their films? They like to ape the west in many ways so why not also in language?



Maybe the use of English is the reason they are not taken seriously at film festivals. Just suppose India puts forward a great oscar-worthy film made in English, it will never be allowed to enter the oscars as foreign films have to be in a foreign language. For this reason Monsoon wedding was not put forward and Lagaan was. Suppose if Monsoon wedding was put forward for another year, it still may not have got through because of too much English dialogues.

As Tee noted, English IS their first language, so it's easier for them to speak it.



I think this is due to Hindi films having to appeal to the wider audience which does not use English as a first language.




If this is true, I think the Oscar rules have to change. English is now, arguably, an Indian language. If it is spoken by a large population (which it is; I think India has the largest English speaking population outside of the USA), then I think English should be considered as a "foreign language" in Oscar terms, and thus Indian films in English be allowed to count as "foreign".