Beef Vindaloo – Health Minister Tells Bollywood to Stop Showing Poverty
May 7th, 2008 Popularity: 23% [?]
(1 votes, average: 3 out of 5)The Indian Union Health Minister, Anbumani Ramadoss, told Bollywood producers that the reason for poverty in India is Bollywood films glorifying poverty on screen. The minister felt that if poverty was not glorified in cinema then the 1 billion of the India’s 1.3 billion population that live below the poverty line would be encouraged to get an honest job and get ahead in life. The minister blamed the money hungry Bollywood producers for using the poverty stricken people to make money and claimed that the poor people did not know better and since they are portrayed in such a positive light onscreen do not feel that they should get out of their current state.
“How are they supposed to know that being poor is not an acceptable state of being,” he said, “if these producers are going to keep showing the poverty stricken as heroes and the true face of India then what do you expect them to do.” He said that if instead, the Bollywood producers focused their attention on the rich and glamorous then the poor people of India would strive to be like them and work hard enough so that they too can dance around trees in Bangkok or frolic in the fake snowcapped mountains of South Africa. “In India, people learn lessons of life from the cinema and that is what makes us unique,” he says, “it is up to the Bollywood producers whether they want to take advantage of the situation or whether they want to use this unique opportunity to help the country leap ahead 20 years and enter the 19th century.”
The Indian film industry, more popularly known as Bollywood, churns out close to 2,000 movies every year centring on themes of unrequited love and dancing garishly around trees. The Health Ministry of India has been trying to harness the power of Bollywood to eliminate several social ills. In the recent months, he has managed to get Indian men to stop sexually harassing and assaulting women simply by forcing Bollywood producers not to show scenes with these themes in their films. He has also targeted smoking, which has allowed India’s average life expectancy to increase and traffic accidents has dropped by 30% ever since car chases was banned in the media.
Popularity: 23% [?]
