[Reader-list] Pehli Posting

[mahmood farooqui]

Dear Vasundhra,

Looking greatly forward to your findings--would you agree that there
is a difference between dancing extras-now known as dancer boys and
girls-and the actors/artists who acted as extras...the rise of a new
kind of dance instructor and new kinds of dancing schools would
obviously have affected those extras as we now want 'fair and
polished' faces in our beautiful films...

So people who formed part of the crowd in say, Amitabh's inteha ho
gayi song in Sharaabi would today perhaps be unacceptable for a saif
number...

and what about the crowd suppliers-people who provide numbers in
throngs for crowd scenes...how is that affecting the extras life..

and lastly, where does the once powerful junior artiste association
fit into all this-how does a junior artiste differ from an extra?

Are you based in Bombay?

Cheers,
Mahmood

On 24/01/06, Vasundhara Prakash <vasundhara.prakash at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
>  15 Seconds of Fame!
>
>  Lives of Bollywood Extras: Junior Artistes in Popular Hindi films
>
>
>
> My project aims to explore the world of extras, to uncover their space in
> films. Though this goes against the whole concept of an extra, a faceless,
> nameless entity that merely fills the celluloid space without imposing its
> identity, it would be interesting to explore how some have unknowingly
> broken the boundaries of being restricted to the non-entity status of an
> extra and through their quantity as well as quality of work taken that leap
> into the world of recognition though still far away from fame. I would like
> to examine the "faceless" world of the extras by focusing on a number of
> themes. How does gender inflect the extras' relations to the film industry?
> How are women treated differently from men? How different are their
> expectations and responsibilities and how that affects the choices they
> make? My concern is also issues such as prejudices and biases against the
> extras, their treatment on the sets. There are also class and linguistic
> hierarchies at work – the stars are middle and upper class and English
> speaking while the extras are lower middle class and non-anglicized. We have
> very little understanding of how these factors play into the experiences of
> the extras on the set.
>
> I would like to be able to combine historical and biographical study with
> ethnography and textual analysis of a select body of films and will study
> junior artistes as "subaltern" stars that provide a counter narrative to the
> dominant figurations in Indian Cinema.
>
> I would appreciate any comments, suggestions, contacts or references that
> could help my work.
>
> Vasundhara Prakash
>
> # 9833644748
>
>  vasundhara.prakash at gmail.com
>
>
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