Sunday, May 07, 2006

Bollywood lessons


Bollywood is making waves these days--both at home and abroad. As 'Sholay' enters school textbooks, school teachers in Delhi are being exposed to more films from the Mumbai film industry. As per a report in The Hindustan Times, the Delhi government is holding special screenings of Munna Bhai MBBS and Rang De Basanti as a part of its teachers' training programme.

It is definitely an interesting way of training teachers. And both the films are remarkable in their own ways.

A few years ago, we too made a documentary film (India's economic transition through Bollywood) that showed India's economic milestones through clips of scenes gleaned from hundreds of films. India's two maverick economists, Amir Ullah Khan and Bibek Debroy, had piloted the project. The film was shown in management schools across India.

Recently, Google has also funded a non-profit venture in India that uses Bollywood film songs as a literacy tool. Great going Bollywood!

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