Bollywood Screenplays
At the turn of the century, I came to the conclusion that film is one of the most powerful mediums to affect change. That’s when, I started taking some courses in (Hollywood-style) screenwriting.
This year, Al Gore has proved how effective a well-crafted film can be in conveying a message to a very large number of people.
In various recent discussions about Entrepreneurship in India, I have heard a recurring theme, that Indian culture does not encourage, nor support entrepreneurship. And that it penalizes failure.
Both comments are true. Both hinder entrepreneurship. But what do we do about it?
Someone frivolously suggested a Bollywood film glorifying an Entrepreneur’s journey, would be a good way to counter this cultural mental block.
This happens to be a very good idea!
There’s a concept in story-telling, called the Character Arc. Your main character, at the beginning of a story, needs to change, through the experiences of the story.
In the case of our Bollywood Hero, the Entrepreneur, he needs to fail over and over again, but not give up. Everytime he falls, then gets up again, the audience will root for him.
In the end, in one screen-shattering moment, he will see the money and fame pouring in (and get the girl, who believed in him all along, anyway, just like Sudha Murthy believed in Narayen Murthy, once upon a time).
Anyone writing this story, yet?
What about Guru?It was a hit and if I am not wrong, the film promoted entrepreneurship.
Guru ?
Guru? Directed by Mani Rantnam, starring Abhishel Bachchan and Aishwarya Rai and based on the life of Dhirubhai Ambani.
There have been many such movies in Bollywood -
Guru - is the most recent
Mashaal - Dilip Kumar starts his own publication after relocating to slums of Mumbai
Trishul - Amitabh bachchan starrer - he starts Shanti Constructions a successful construction company from relatively nothing.
Taal - Aishwarya Rai teams up with Anil Kapoor to make Folk Songs Remixes a hit after her father has limited to no success with traditional classical folks songs.
There are many more. Bollywood isn’t just heros running after hip gyrating heroines and song and dance numbers.
should entrepreneurship study (in your case the bollywood movie) be all about success? as howard aldrich says we will get only biased results if we research only successful entrepreneurs. it is important for us to comprehend why entrepreneurs fail in order for us to understand success. there are many variables that play a role in the success: political, technical, legal and cultural environment, social capital, human capital, risk taking ability, need for achievement, and so on. so entrepreneurship is not all perseverance but it is an important variable.
and if entrepreneurship is only about making money, given the current situation it makes more sense to be employed by a large firm than set something up.
what about starting an enterprise because i have nothing better to do. inadequate education to get me a job or stuck in a small town with no employable options, etc.
I will try to find Guru and watch it. Sounds like a great idea …
Suresh, the point in this post is not understanding, but inspiring. Creating positive role models.
I agree, that if it is about money, MNCs are better bets in India right now. But entrepreneurship is seldom only about money. It is about freedom, it is about ego, it is about creativity, and it is about leadership.
sramana, if one takes the high tech world it is highly globalised and there are any number of success stories in it. do you think the current software professionals are short of inspiration? but still on a practical front, it is hardly about ego, creativity and leadership. it is about risk taking. it is highly unlikely that dollar-fed software professional will spin-off their tech based ventures. it is more likely that fresh-of-the-boat graduates with little family responsibility will be more inclined towards entrepreneurship but then do they beep on the radars of VCs?
You are right. It IS about risk-taking. And only those with a very specific profile can take those kinds of risks.