SHOW SOME ORIGINALITY PLEASE!

audience: 18-25
purpose: Why is Bollywood feeling like they are pressured to be like Hollywood? They should feel proud of what they make and start showing some originality to it's Indian audiences.

Western audience's are so caught up in reading and catching up on the juicy tabloids and gossip of their favourite Hollywood celebrities, but what they are not aware of is that other magazines from around the world are also gradully following this style and are converting people to follow celebrities personal lives. Popular amoung the Indian community and Bollywood buffs, Filmfare is an English-language Indian cinema fan tabloid magazine that is similar to what Western audience's are doing. Published in Mumbai, India, it highlights the doings of the Bollywood film scene as well as pry's into the personal lives of top Bollywood stars. The most popular entertainment magazine in India, is also read by the overseas Indian community of teens and adults between the ages of 18-25.

Bollywood, who is known amoung movie buffs to 'copy' or in their words, 'come up with their own interpretation' of Hollywood's biggest blockbusters also seem to 'copy' the Western style in magazines. Filmfare in no way strives to create a magazine that is unique to what Bollywood represtents, only if they percieve their representation as 'copy cat' and follows through this by making the content of their magazine with that of Western magazines. The writters of each segmant even seemed to have had their own copy of 'Star' or 'People' magazine in front of them and just seemed to be writting word for word on their pages. The biggest aspect of the magazine that is very 'copy cat' is it's I SPY segement. This segement consists of news snippets that highlight the latest quarrels between actors, gossip going the rounds and other bits of hearsay. It is very much alike what you would find while looking through a 'People' edition. It's other segmant, Fashion Play deals with the assesments of celebrities fashion sense. This is evidently Filmfare's version of Best and Worst dressed, sound familiar?

Filmfare, does not stop here with it's 'wanna be' magazine. The publishers apparently saw it extremely necessary to take up four pages of their magazine to include Movie Reviews of Hollywood's latest flicks. Since when are there Bollywood movie reviews in a Western Magazine? What bothered me the most about this segamant was that although they did have Bollywood movie reviews, they kept it quite short. Rather with the Hollywood movie reviews they chose to go into deep detail, taking up an entire page per review. This is a Bollywood Magazine, they should know that their target audience will be majority of those who watch Hindi Films.

On the positive side, the layout is quite impressive. They use eye catching 'hot and happening' celebrities on their cover. However even in their layout, they seem to be striving for a typical 'People' magazine look. In their 'rumous and gossip' section(taking up most of the pages) their format is the rumour itself along with a tabloid shot of the celebrity 'proving what they are writing'. They also include some interviews with top stars. Most will be content with the photo shoots of Filmfare, as they are updated and appealing. They use stellar photographers, and often their photo shoots are theme based, such as 'the 60's look'. Filmfare does feature 'fresh' segmants that do not resemble a Western magazine,however they are quite limited. I will hand it to them that they give off a professional look, but when you look deeper...

Overall, Filmfare comes out as a 'copy cat' with that of a Western tabloid magazine. You will also find that the writting styles are very similar. To a response to the arguement of "gossip is where the money is and everyone wants it", well why continue this trend of allowing complete strangers enter and pry into the lives of others? Why not focus on the movies, the characters, or what Bollywood is best known for, it's heartwarming 'song and dance'. Why does everything and everyone have to be the same? If they truly were not trying to resemble a Western magazine, then why see the need to consistently include a four page spread of Movie Reviews of Hollywood's flicks. They need to overcome this pressure that they themselves have created, of feeling the need to be like Hollywood. Being an Indian movie buff myself, I am proud of the movies they make (not including the Hollywood interpretations) and the richness of their culture. They also should be proud and start being creative with their magazine content. Those who are looking for a magazine with 'Bollywood Originality' will not find it in Filmfare. Bollywood magazine fans want to see more of India's unique richness and originality.