The “Bollywood Superstars” exhibition at the Quai Branly museum tells us much more than the epic tale of Bollywood. Between “rasa” and “Ramayana”, between the first film screened in India in 1896 and “RRR”, the Oscar-winning blockbuster in 2023, the entire history of Indian cinema is there to highlight the incredible diversity of the largest cinema producer in the world. world, with more than 1500 films per year. Without forgetting the precious contribution of dance, music, theater, arts, divinities… Interview with co-curator Julien Rousseau.
RFI : The subtitle of the exhibition Bollywood Superstars East History of Indian cinema. Did this story begin as colonial cinema ?
Julien Rousseau : Yes. The history of Indian cinema begins in the colonial period since cinema arrived very early in India. On July 7, 1896, less than a year after the Lumière brothers’ first screenings in Paris, cinema arrived in Bombay. And then, very quickly, the first producers will produce the first Indian films. In the exhibition, we see that they are mainly inspired by mythology at a time when India is trying to get out of this colonial system. And cinema will also serve Indian national construction.
Who invented Indian cinema ? Who made the first movie ?
Dhundiraj Phalke, known as Dadasaheb Phalke (1870-1944) is presented in the exhibition as one of the fathers of Indian cinema. The creation of cinema is still in question, depending on the interpretations. In any case, Phalke, from the end of the 1910s, around 1918/19, produced the first silent films which are considered the first Indian silent films and which were inspired in particular by the story of Krishna as a child.
When did we first talk about Bollywood? ?
It is a term that was created in the 1970s by journalism to designate Hindi-language cinema that is produced around Bombay. But today there is Tollywood, Kollywood… there are a multitude of regional film industries in India in various languages.
According to you, a specificity of Indian cinema and Bollywood is the concordance of the arts.
It’s an idea that we try to present here, from the start of the exhibition. It is ambitious to do so since it concerns all the extreme richness of Indian arts and the way in which they dialogue with each other. We talk about dance and music in Indian cinemas. But this dance is choreographed, it crosses painting, sculpture, etc. at the same time. since the gods are also represented in choreographic and conventional attitudes, linked to the expression of the feelings and emotions that the spectator must feel. So the Indian arts converge and meet in this expression of feelings and they share a language of colors, gestures and also music which is more or less implicit in the different arts.
Your exhibition does not talk about the history of Indian cinema, but about Indian cinema. Which cinema are you talking about? ?
This exhibition cannot present all Indian cinemas or a complete history of Indian cinemas. We try to make this Indian cinema known and loved in its extreme diversity. For example, there is a kaleidoscope room where you can see musical scenes reflected in endless mirrors. This is our idea: to see in kaleidoscope Indian cinemas which are infinite, extremely colorful, telling a multitude of stories. In an Indian film, you feel all the emotions. Sometimes we speak of “masala cinema”, in allusion to the balance of spices and tastes, to evoke the emotions that an Indian film provides.
You show a lot of art objects in this exhibition on Bollywood. What is the link between the visual arts and Indian cinema? ?
At the beginning of the exhibition, the first painting shows an image of Krishna, precisely the moment when the temple is opened and devotees can see the god. This was to introduce the idea of the importance of sight in Indian arts, since the first act one does when visiting a temple is “darshan”, which means “taking sight”. , “the vision of the divine”. It is this exchange of glances with the gods that we find in the temples. This is something that will also cross the beginnings of cinema. The first cinemas will show living gods and allow a special exchange of glances with them. This importance of the gaze runs through Indian arts and we find it of course in cinema.
When we talk about Bollywood stars, we often talk about “ gods “. Cinema in India, is it a religion ?
We wouldn’t make this comparison. It’s difficult to say what is or isn’t religion. In all civilizations, religion is simply part of life and culture. On the other hand, we can see that there is a star system unique in the world in India and that the actors are more than actors. They are truly revered by fans. We see this in particular with the film on Rajinikanth, the Tamil superstar. They are charismatic characters who occupy a very special place in India, like nowhere else in the world.
In the exhibition, you address the two extremes of Indian cinema, that is to say both Shah Rukh Khan, the essential actor of Bollywood, and Satyajit Ray, the leading figure of auteur cinema. And you say that the first appearance of an Indian film at the Cannes Film Festival went badly.
Indian cinemas are very poorly known, in France in particular. At the same time, Indian cinema is exported all over the world, we know it in America, Africa, Asia, but in France, we know it very little. Here, we stayed a little bit Devdas [mélodrame indien sorti en 2001, avec Shah Rukh Khan dans le rôle-titre]. I couldn’t really explain it. Simply, films are not widely distributed in France.
In the exhibition, we wanted to show the diversity of Indian cinema. Of course, Satyajit Ray is not Bollywood cinema, it is social cinema, arthouse cinema from Bengal. But in France, Satyajit Ray is the best-known director of Indian cinema. It is the first to be presented at the Cannes Film Festival [et primé en 1956 pour La complainte du sentier]. Perhaps because his cinema is closer to French cinema. Satyajit Ray is a bit like the New Wave.
But today, we have seen the success, for example of the film RRR [Rise Roar Revolt, réalisé par S. S. Rajamouli et sorti en 2022, NDLR] which won Oscars in 2023 for best choreography and best original song, Naatu Naatu. So we can hope that popular Indian cinemas and big productions will be better known and distributed in France.
Indian cinema is also widely exported to Africa.
Yes, the actors are very well known in Africa. In Mali or Senegal, everyone knows Amitabh Bachchan, for example. [grande vedette du cinéma de Bollywood, qui a tourné dans plus de 200 films, NDLR], as well as in America or the Middle East. Indian cinemas are extremely well known throughout Asia also because it is a cinema which is both very spectacular and very varied in its genres. Indian cinema completely goes beyond our genre categories into which we would unfortunately often like to confine it: there is drama, action, romanticism, etc. It speaks to all countries, to all cultures even today.