Singapore Expats

i just watched a weird documentary (??) called Bollywood Boulevard.

it's about an indian gypsy, a young man in his 20s, with ambitions to become a model/actor.

synopsis from the internet:

''Sanjay is a gypsy from Rajasthan. He's 22, has a lady-killer smile and an overwhelming energy. He lives in a tent with his parents on a Delhi's street camp. The father is a blacksmith, the mother sells the tools he makes. Sanjay is a teacher in a slum school. But his dream is to be a model and an actor. He goes and tries his luck in Bollywood, being coached by Nasser Abdullah, a supporting role actor…''

in the documentary, he said that there was no way his father would allow him to go to bombay.

Q 1. why?

Q 2. is bombay a nasty nasty place?

his parents seem to wield extreme influence over him, as does his uncle (dad's brother - elder i think). his dad was quite distressed when he found out the young man wound up in bombay.

Q 3. why does it matter if his uncle disapproves anything?

Q 4. why wouldn't any of his elders allow him to chase his dreams and aspirations?

I have not watched the documentary, so I can answer your questions based on some assumtions.

1) It depends on what period the docu is set. They seems to be uneducated and for them, anything unknown is to be avoided. The general impression is that life will be difficult in Bombay and it is be full of con-people. So it is to be avoided.

2) see above

3) Their's seems to be undivided joint family. The elder brother of his father is the head of the family. There is no way sanjay's father would have disobeyed his elder bother, this implies that no way sanjay would have disobeyed his uncle.

4) see ans 1.

Q 1. why?

Q 2. is bombay a nasty nasty place?
Not really.Its as nasty as any other city in india.


his parents seem to wield extreme influence over him, as does his uncle (dad's brother - elder i think). his dad was quite distressed when he found out the young man wound up in bombay.

Q 3. why does it matter if his uncle disapproves anything?
Culture. There are a lot of families that still stay together and decisions are taken by the patriarch or the male elders in the family

Q 4. why wouldn't any of his elders allow him to chase his dreams and aspirations?
Because they do not believe that he will be successful. They would rather he do what he is currently doing.
There are a lot of people who want to make it big in bollywood, the reality is that very few become stars. If you look at the current crop of stars most of them are part of some star family.

All 4 questions are related and the answer is the main essence between the difference b/w India and America.

In India parents support their children well into adulthood and ensure that they get into a successful career. Bollywood has high chances of failure and conservative Indian parents would rather prefer the safer option for their children like engineering, medical or family business etc.

Although things are changing now especially in the cities. Parents in cities especially in the upper middle class now willing to take higher risks and let their children chase their dreams. But rural places are still couple of decades behind in their thinking.

okay, thanks for the input. it helped clear up most of the questions i had. i was actually comparing india to china more than the US.

i was in the opinion that the "poor" in china would allow their children to go after reasonable ambitions...

sanjay was actually given a leg up in the industry as a result of to the producer/director's assistance.

even his sisters were telling him not to go back... he had job offers and promises of a good career but had to put everything to a halt and fly home after his time (granted by his family) was up.