Destiny of Indian Cinema in Russia

Abstract

The relationship of domestic moviegoers to the works of Indian cinema has a complex and heterogeneous development history. The Soviet audience watched the first Indian movie back in the 1950s, which gave a powerful impetus to the formation of multifaceted contacts between Indian and Soviet film industry. As a result such films were shot as Journey Beyond Three Seas, Black Prince Adjouba, The Adventures of Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves, the famous My name is clown by Raj Kapoor, and others. However, a sympathy to the Indian cinema of the 1970-80s led to the formation of the stereotypes (frivolous story, improbable fights, numerous songs and dances, etc.), which have been preserved by this day, in spite of the changes that occurred in the Indian film industry. In the 1990s, there was a revision of values on the part of the domestic audience and interest for Indian cinema began to wane. Development of various types of video media has allowed fans to buy movies for personal viewing. At the turn of the century a number of television companies obtained broadcasting rights for the classic Indian films. Broadcasting of the channels India TV and Zee-TV, completely dedicated to the Indian culture, marked a new stage in distribution of Indian cinema in this country. In addition, the Internet technology gave way for development of various kinds of specialized resources. These facts, as well as resumed festivals of Indian cinema in the last decade in this country, speak in favor of the revival of the audience’ interest to it. Despite the virtual absence of the joint Russian-Indian films in the last decades and a small amount of Indian films, audience’ sympathy gives rise to the assumption of the prospects for this kind of cooperation, as well as accentuation of resuming heavy study of Indian cinema by Russian researchers.