Bollywood and the Slum

We had a lot of fun learning about Mumbai, and of course Bollywood is a big part of the city. Bollywood is a portmanteau of two words: Bombay and Hollywood – but it’s actually called Hindi Film Cinema . Did you know there have been over 70 000 films made in Bollywood since 1930? I was told this is more than Hollywood has done!

We fully intended to take a tour of the studios and do their “Walk of Fame” past the homes of the big Bollywood stars, but as foreigners, we would be charged over $100 each for a half day tour. Only Zoe would be reduced by 50%, so we thought $350 for 3 hours wasn’t worth it to us. If we were big fans, then sure, but since we really didn’t know the names and too much about it….we decided to experience it a different way! We developed a few plans to consider:

Plan B -We thought we would go to a Hindi theatre and watch some flicks there, but we were told no English subtitles. Hmm…now what to do?

Plan C – While at our different hotels and home stays, we asked for Bollywood movies. We even saw some on Netflix (UK)!!

Try and watch The Lunchbox – it has to do with the Dabba wallas I mentioned in yesterday’s post – they are the gents who deliver the lunches to the workers all over the city.

For the movies without English subtitles, we had a good time making up what we throught was happening. We noticed a lot of similar themes:

1) Boy and girl meet, fall in love and want to get married.

2) Parents arrange marriage with someone totally different and the kids have to do something to figure out how to get out of it.

3) In the end, everything works out and love wins the day!

Of course, one of the biggest hits we have seen in North America was the 2008 movie Slumdog Millionaire. Part if it was filmed in the Dharavi Slum in Mumbai. After researching a bit more about it…we decided to tour the place for a couple of reasons:

• Learn more about the area;
• Visit the film locations and see parts from the movie.

Now some of you may think – Slum Tourism isn’t ethical – we shouldn’t be going around and looking in on the lives of those who are most needy. But the tour we selected was anything but that.

Many residents of Dharavi were not happy with how their homes and lives were portrayed in the Slumdog movie – our tour organizer even said,

“Look at the title – what does it say about us?”

This tour was about showing all the great things about the community. I thought it was wonderful how they were taking a positive approach to the situation and we felt that our tourism dollars would be better spent going into a community that was trying to help itself.

Our tour guide Adnan, was a young man who lives in Dharavi with his family. He is studying at university to become a computer engineer and intends to stay in his community after graduation. He sees Dharavi as a place with a great community where everyone helps each other and is quite industrious.

Dharavi, Mumbai

We were not allowed to take photos while on the tour and we wanted to be respectful of those who lived there.

We were amazed by what we saw…recycling factories, potteries, tanneries, tailors and so much more. It was incredible to see all of the people working away and then selling their wares to large companies such as American Tourister, Tilden, and others. Adnan said there was over $2 billion (US) in revenue produced in Dharavi on an annual basis. We were in awe of the numbers and the production we saw.

*As an aside….I didn’t feel the working conditions were as safe as they should be, but hopefully as people learn more about safety in industry, things will improve.

Our tour also brought us to some local schools, where they were filled with children. All school aged children were required to attend.  We were happy to see all the kids learning.

So the tour was an amazing learning experience – we went in hoping to see more connections to Bollywood – but came out with incredible insight around the people who have great community spirit and are very industrious. The title “Slumdog” should be changed to something more appropriate…my own perspective keeps changing everyday.

As for Bollywood dreams, unfortunately, we found out too late that we could have been extras in one of their films! They are always looking for foreigners to be in the background crowds…oh well next time we’ll be better prepared!

Oh yes…a film I highly recommend for teachers/parents is  Like Stars on Earth –a fabulous Disney movie that will remind you how a caring teacher can make all the difference!