Happy Belated Blogthday & How i fell in love with Bollywood

my first blog header

Oh! how times go by, this blog was 1 year old at the end of February but due to laziness and procrastination, I never really got round to writing this out plus i knew writing a post on how far this blog has come would make me a bit emotional, so i decided to give it a bit more time and alas just when this blog has just over a 100 posts plus i guess I'm a bit more open to let it all out, also a question i never really answered or bothered writing up was how i fell for bollywood/how i discovered bollywood, and what better time to do this than on this blogs first anniversary

I was born in 80's Nigeria, and for as long as i can remember, we always had bollywood movies in my household. Bollywood movies were the craze in 70's/80's Nigeria, according to what I've garnered from friends and family, Bollywood was at one point more popular than Hollywood movies in Nigeria. There was a sense of shared identity amongst Nigerians towards India, i guess the shared history of being a British colony, struggle for independence etc. made India very relate-able to Nigerians plus a lot of themes in bollywood movies at the time such as corrupt leaders, family values etc. was something a lot of Nigerians could relate to. Asides from the aforementioned bollywood films were very entertaining and the songs were usually hummed by many Nigerians, some Nigerian artists even sampled bollywood songs. Nigerians are masala lovers, and movies like Mard, Yeh Vaada Raha, The Burning Train, Seeta aur Geeta, Ghazab, Nagin, Dharam Veer, Dus Numbri, Disco Dancer, Mother India & Jugnu were really popular

The first bollywood movie i remember seeing was Suraag (1982) a Jagmohan Mundra film, which starred Sanjeev Kumar & Shabana Azmi, I remember it being shot in America, i remember spotting the Golden Gate bridge and parts of Las Vegas and indeed according to research i have done on the film, it seems it was the first bollywood film to be shot in America, i remember it was very entertaining and i would watch it over and over (gosh! i must have worn out that Vhs tape)

My first bollywood film, i hope it gets a full Dvd release

I had very young parents who had me when they were just about 20 and i guess that made my Mum somewhat very protective, i was never really allowed to go outside to play with other kids after school. I kept myself busy with my dad's disco records, Michael Jackson, reading Ladybird books & bollywood movies.

Showing my undying love for Michael Jackson aged 5

Bollywood became a favourite past time of mine, i would watch the movies over and over and mimic the language, the first word i learnt was Nahinnnnn (how typical), i loved the songs as well and i have to thank or i should say bollywood helped develop my sense of rhythm as i would watch and dance sync to all the dance moves till i could do it in perfection, had there been youtube back then, i'm sure i'd have asked to be uploaded doing my dance moves

Not only would i dance, but when my friends come over, we would re-enact scenes from our favourite bollywood films. Seeta aur Geeta was a favourite, one person would be the wicked aunty, another the slow Seeta and another the feisty Geeta (ahh the memories)

Overall i must have watched about 15-20 hindi films as a kid, watching over 5 of these films repeatedly overtime. As i grew into my teen years, the same old films seemed to have been in circulation, plus i guess with Nigeria's booming film industry, bollywood took a back seat for many, plus a lot of people felt bollywood was losing its originality as such my affection for bollywood sank, it didn't disappear totally but my interest waned.

Spice Girls 1997

At this time i discovered the Spice Girls who had a huge influence on me (don't laugh) and i guess they were my proper introduction to Pop Culture, i bought magazines with them on it and through them i became heavily interested in the world of film, music and fashion.

When i was 17 and after completing my secondary education i left Nigeria for England, where i reside even till now. I saw a few bollywood movies every now and then, mostly once or twice a year on Tv, but this time it felt a bit strange as i knew nothing of the new stars.

Years later in university, chats with Indian friends as well as a few films from my University library inspired me to start watching again, my first bollywood film after a long while was 'Kuch Kuch Hota Hai', i remember not being able to watch it all in one go (i had forgotten the process), and watching it over the space of 2/3 days, i don't even remember what i felt after seeing it, i think i just thought it was cute. Following this, the arrival of youtube was what really brought bollywood back to me as i would youtube old favourites and reminisce on the good old days.

Upon graduating from University which just so happened to be when the world economy came tumbling down, i was unemployed for months on end, during which time i signed on to a dvd rental service and my bollyviewing ways began, i started by watching old favourites of mine, though a huge amount of them didn't seem to be available, then i started looking up recent blockbusters in India to gain an idea of what Indians were watching, i loved some of the films, and I hated some, but the oldies still left the biggest impression on me.

During a night time research of films one night, i landed on filmigeek's blog via wikipedia and my love for bollywood grew even more, she wrote passionately about some golden oldies i had seen, she also had links to other blogs, all of which i loved and would follow religiously. After months of reading many blogs i decided to start mine up, then came the trouble of deciding what to call my own blog. After weeks of frustration i chose bollywooddeewana as it reflected the bollywood craze I was going through at the time (still going through it i must say).

I didn't know how it was going to go but i knew i wanted to share my views as well, i had a hard time discovering the format i would use before deciding i would talk about the plot synposis alongside screencaps as you truly get a feel of the move through that, i also knew i would be talking about the songs as i watch a great deal of movies based on songs alone, i also knew i was going to give an honest review based on My experiences of the film, if i liked it/was entertainned by it, what impressed me or what was going through my head at the time of viewing, and the rest as they say is history

Since then i've blogged about over 80 movies and done some fan & fun posts in between, i've also had many wonderful bollywood experiences such as reviewing numerous films with Raj & Pablo of the Love Bollywood programme on the BBC Asian Network, found a fabulous bolly loving friend i go bollywood clubbing and to the movies with, i also made an appearance in a bollywood film as an extra for Veer (lol). I'll screencap the scenes i appeared in when i finally get the dvd, but below are the shots of the man himself on the sets, i didn't get to meet him personally though

Salman Khan on the sets of Veer at Greenwich, London (March 2009)

Here's the costume i was given as an extra

Having this blog has been wonderful, I've not only learnt an awful lot about bollywood but its also shaped my viewing experiences, i never thought i'd watch black and white movies or experiment with movies that didn't star my favourite stars or ones i knew well, but my viewing experience has been stretched and i have discovered & i'm still learning about new stars, music directors and a whole lot of songs through all you enthusiastic bloggers

I'd like to thank all the wonderful people i've come across through blogging and has helped make this blog what it is from the wonderful dustedoff, bollyviewer, Hmong chick, Avdi, Rum, daddy's girl, Nasir,Bhargav, Sunehri Yaadein, Shell, Sita-ji, Darshit, Richard S., thebollywood fan, Tiff, Cindy, Nida, Mister Naidu, Beth, Sujoy, Ajnabi, & Grand Masala as well as everyone else who follows this blog & links this blog to their blog roll or posts, a BIG
THANK YOU for all your contributions and love, it means a lot and its very much appreciated, here's to many more blogging years to come.

For more on bollywood's influence in Nigeria (Northern Nigeria in particular) read Anthropologist Brian Larkin's great article