2006年VOA标准英语-India's Hindi Movie Industry, Bollywood, Booms

By Anjana Pasricha
New Delhi
31 December 2006

promotion1 of the hindi film Dhoom in Bombay (File photo)  " hspace="2" src="/upimg/allimg/070515/0819200.jpg" width="210" vspace="2" border="0" />

Bollywood actors Esha Deol, left, John Abraham, center, and Remi Sen, right, interact with fans at the promotion of the hindi film Dhoom in Bombay (File photo)

India's prolific² Hindi movie industry, popularly known as Bollywood, recovered from a long slump³ in 2006. Not only did the industry produce a series of big hits, but market avenues such as Internet and television also began contributing more money to the trade. Anjana Pasricha has a report from New Delhi.

The movies that grossed big earnings⁴ in 2006 ranged from breezy comedies like Lage Raho Munnabhai to a film called Krishh, which created Bollywood's own version of Superman, and a slick, action-packed movie titled Dhoom 2.

These hits buoyed⁵ an industry whose films had been flopping⁶ with alarming regularity⁷ in recent years. Most films barely recovered production costs, only a handful brought in a profit.

Film industry analysts⁹ say producers reversed the trend by moving away from clichéd love stories and predictable family dramas to experiment with new themes. An explosion of new multi-screen cinemas built across India also prompted audiences to return to theaters.

Bollywood trade analyst⁸ Taran Adarsh calls the results impressive.

"The quality of cinema has improved, by quality I mean story as well as story-telling technique, audiences are coming back, cinema conditions are improving with multiplexes coming in, people are going back to theaters in a very big way," noted¹⁰ Adarsh. "All kinds of cinema was attempted, you cannot really say one particular genre¹¹ clicked. Overall it was a great year."

It is not just audiences at home that are boosting Bollywood's revenue. The industry also collects huge earnings from movie-crazy Indian expatriates around the world, who are eager to rent or buy video versions of Hindi hits. In fact, some films that failed to make a profit in India were great successes overseas.

The film studios are based in Mumbai, also known as Bombay, which led to its comparison with the U.S. film industry based in Hollywood, California.

According to rough estimates, Bollywood is a one and a half billion dollar industry, and an estimated four billion people watch its films worldwide every year.

However, there are no accurate figures on how much money the industry makes, because financing for the Hindi movie trade has never been transparent¹².

Most of the funding comes from private film distributors and a few large studios, and some even from Mumbai's thriving underworld.

But the movie industry is in wide agreement that its fortunes have turned around this year.

Trade analysts say it is not just box office revenues that are responsible. They say traditional movie-making economics are undergoing a change as the Indian film studios also begin to rake in revenue from new media such as Internet rights and satellite television channels.

And in a country besotted with anything related to Bollywood, revenue also flows in from ring tones that use movie songs, film clips that run on mobile phones and video games based on films.

Taran Adarsh says Bollywood is likely to earn even more from such sources in the coming years.

"Bollywood is making additional money from non-theatrical rights. People are exploring newer territories, newer avenues, and that is a very healthy trend for producers to rake in additional money," added Adarsh.

The changing fortunes of the Hindi movie industry have prompted banks, big conglomerates¹³ and media businesses to line up to invest in show business, which was once considered too risky¹⁴ for serious investors¹⁵.

1 promotion   

n.提升，晋级；促销，宣传

参考例句：

• The teacher conferred with the principal about Dick's promotion.教师与校长商谈了迪克的升级问题。
• The clerk was given a promotion and an increase in salary.那个职员升了级，加了薪。

2 prolific   

adj.丰富的，大量的；多产的，富有创造力的

参考例句：

• She is a prolific writer of novels and short stories.她是一位多产的作家，写了很多小说和短篇故事。
• The last few pages of the document are prolific of mistakes.这个文件的最后几页错误很多。

3 slump   

n.暴跌，意气消沉，（土地）下沉；vi.猛然掉落，坍塌，大幅度下跌

参考例句：

• She is in a slump in her career.她处在事业的低谷。
• Economists are forecasting a slump.经济学家们预言将发生经济衰退。

4 earnings   

n.工资收人；利润，利益，所得

参考例句：

• That old man lives on the earnings of his daughter.那个老人靠他女儿的收入维持生活。
• Last year there was a 20% decrease in his earnings.去年他的收入减少了20%。

5 buoyed   

v.使浮起( buoy的过去式和过去分词 )；支持；为…设浮标；振奋…的精神

参考例句：

• Buoyed by their win yesterday the team feel confident of further success. 在昨天胜利的鼓舞下，该队有信心再次获胜。
• His encouragement buoyed her up during that difficult period. 他的鼓励使她在那段困难时期恢复了乐观的情绪。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 flopping   

n.贬调v.（指书、戏剧等）彻底失败( flop的现在分词 )；（因疲惫而）猛然坐下；（笨拙地、不由自主地或松弛地）移动或落下；砸锅

参考例句：

• The fish are still flopping about. 鱼还在扑腾。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• What do you mean by flopping yourself down and praying agin me?' 咚一声跪下地来咒我，你这是什么意思” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

7 regularity   

n.规律性，规则性；匀称，整齐

参考例句：

• The idea is to maintain the regularity of the heartbeat.问题就是要维持心跳的规律性。
• He exercised with a regularity that amazed us.他锻炼的规律程度令我们非常惊讶。

8 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

9 analysts   

分析家，化验员( analyst的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• City analysts forecast huge profits this year. 伦敦金融分析家预测今年的利润非常丰厚。
• I was impressed by the high calibre of the researchers and analysts. 研究人员和分析人员的高素质给我留下了深刻印象。

10 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

11 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

12 transparent   

adj.明显的，无疑的；透明的

参考例句：

• The water is so transparent that we can see the fishes swimming.水清澈透明，可以看到鱼儿游来游去。
• The window glass is transparent.窗玻璃是透明的。

13 conglomerates   

n.（多种经营的）联合大企业( conglomerate的名词复数 )；砾岩；合成物；组合物

参考例句：

• At the surface, radioactivity of the conglomerates is locally as high as 30 X background. 在地表，砾岩的局部地段的放射性高达30倍本底值。 来自辞典例句
• The conglomerates failed to understand that books could not be sold like soap. 这些联合大企业不懂卖书不象卖肥皂那样。 来自辞典例句

14 risky   

adj.有风险的，冒险的

参考例句：

• It may be risky but we will chance it anyhow.这可能有危险，但我们无论如何要冒一冒险。
• He is well aware how risky this investment is.他心里对这项投资的风险十分清楚。

15 investors   

n.投资者，出资者( investor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• a con man who bilked investors out of millions of dollars 诈取投资者几百万元的骗子
• a cash bonanza for investors 投资者的赚钱机会