How is it that Muslims dominate among the top Bollywood stars and directors despite accounting for a mere 13.4% of India’s population?
Khan, Akhtar, Abbas
You can’t watch a Hindi movie without stumbling over a Khan or Akhtar these days.
Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Zayed Khan (yuck), Fardeen Khan (yuckier), Saif Ali Khan, Soha Ali Khan, Sohail Khan, Aarbaaz Khan (yuckiest), Irrfan Khan (good), Imran Khan, Salim Khan (now retired), Farhan Akhtar, Javed Akhtar…
Among the directors, we have Farhan Akhtar, Anees Bazmee, Farah Khan, Sajid Khan and Abbas-Mustan.
What explains this Muslim hegemony among the top stars of Bollywood?
Are Hindu men shying away from Bollywood?
Is it nepotism?
Does the alleged underworld financing of Bollywood movies by the likes of Dawood Ibrahim have anything to do with the hegemony of Muslims among the Bollywood stars?
Among the women, there are not as many Muslims although there are a few prominent ones like Tabu, Shabana Azmi and Dia Mirza.
Interestingly, we don’t see that many Muslims among the top stars of Kollywood although Muslims account for about 6% of Tamil Nadu’s population.
Wait, there’s Jamshad Cethirakath (better known as Arya), Mirza Abbas Ali (Abbas) and that mini-elephant Kushboo (converted to Hinduism after her marriage to Tamil film director Sundar C).
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Kollywood muslims..
Shaam (Shamsudeen) and Arya (Jamshad) are the only actors coming to my mind.. they are only on the fringe of stardom.. Arya is doing better than Shaam.. “Naan Kadavul” may catapult him to stardom.. if Bala’s magic works once again.
Have you watched “Arinthum Ariyamalum”.. I liked that one.
And another Khan.. Kushboo Khan!
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write above: Shaam (Shamsudeen) and Arya (Jamshad) are the only actors coming to my mind.. they are only on the fringe of stardom..
There’s Sada a.k.a. Sadhaaf Syed Mohammed. Thankfully, she’s also on the fringes.
We didn’t know about Kushboo. She was like a Thakkali (tomato) at one time….bloated up now.
But you didn’t address the basic question as to why Muslims dominate in the top echelons of Bollywood.
2. You write: Have you watched “Arinthum Ariyamalum”.. I liked that one.
Yes, funny movie. We may have the DVD in our collection.
Well as far as i feel Muslims have pretty low levels of education and they are better looking in some sense of the world, i live in a city here in Rajasthan and it soon will have a Muslim majority, many of the Muslim guys are after Hindu girls, I don’t know but India is moving backwards.
Muslims want to marry Hindu girls, and they are like not have much to do, as they don’t study much ( not all ), so they spend their time in gym and places.
I’m a 26 year old businessman having many offices still girls are not impressed by me, but by Muslim unemployed guys as they are more free and they can impress them better. Most of my frinds who are Hindus are now having smaller families and they dont have the time say it mba or other courses so it’s like they dont have the time to groom themsleves
If u examine the ratio of Muslims trying to enter Bollywood, its higher than Hindus anytime, and I also feel Muslims form a large part of the audience so they feel like seeeing Muslim heroes chasing Hindu girls
hahaha
SearchIndia.com Responds:
1. You write: I’m a 26 year old businessman having many offices still girls are not impressed by me
Our heart goes out to you. Really.
Maybe, you should try singing this song or this one.
2. You write: If u examine the ratio of Muslims trying to enter Bollywood, its higher than Hindus anytime,
There could be some truth here.
i always felt that Muslims are very good looking,compared to people from other religions (perhaps due to their Central Asian or Middle East descent)….Muslim boys are fair, have handsome features,tall (not Aamir though)….the girls are beautiful too….but most of the Muslim stars you mentioned above are from filmy families (SRK is the only notable exception)…its like family buisness for them now….among the Hindus, it’s only the Bachchans and Kapoors….that maybe one of the reasons-not enough Hindu filmy families….
SearchIndia.com Responds:
So, it’s the family connections a.k.a. nepotism and better looks.
BTW, watched Dil Chahtai Hai. Review coming in a few hours.
Even if they are Muslim, I don’t think they are practising a Muslim life..
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write: Even if they are Muslim
Even? You still have doubts that Shahrukh, Saif, Aamir et al are Muslims?
Alas, we can’t lift up their kurtas and show you their Khitan.
hahaha i think i need it seriously. Life has been so busy, anyways thank you, 🙂
Many of the Actors do underplay the religion they belong to… most of the characters they play in the movies are Hindus (someone pls validate/invalidate this – coz I am telling this from my little experince watching hindi movies)..
Here in TN I donno how many really know that Vijay is a Christian… They all pretend to be Hindus in movies.. and as the audience of Indian cinema are no fools on earth who would believe what the see in movies are the real people not characters, there is no issues for them…
The Khans who likely to be the decendants of the Persians came along with Mogals are always known for their handsomeness..
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Was Vijay a Christian prior to his marriage or did he become one after marriage?
A lot of Hindus convert to Christianity after marrying a Christian boy/girl. We know of a few such cases.
I always got a kick out of the International Student clubs I joined both abroad and here in America. I found it interesting that while the countries of Pakistan and India don’t get along, especially with what happened this week, the Indian-American and Pakistani-American kids got on famously with each other. But whenever a Pakistani kid wanted to needle an Indian kid, the first thing that would come out of their mouths without fail was, “We are way better looking than you guys. All of us have fair skin. You guys wish you could look as pretty as we do.” etc.
Even the Indian friends I have from places like Delhi never miss an opportunity to stick it to the guys from Chennai because of the general difference in skin tone.
So I think more than the nepotism is just the perception that the Muslim actors generally have a much lighter skin complexion. The best example currently might be Katrina Kaif. But in general it’s hard to find anyone with dark skin. Off the top of my head Bipasha Basu is about as dark as it gets in Bollywood and she isn’t really at all.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
You write above: But whenever a Pakistani kid wanted to needle an Indian kid, the first thing that would come out of their mouths without fail was, “We are way better looking than you guys. All of us have fair skin. You guys wish you could look as pretty as we do.” etc.
Funny.
S.I. : Was Vijay a Christian prior to his marriage or did he become one after marriage?
Vijay was a christian but married to a hindu girl just like his father, also he raises his kids as christians also just like his father
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Thanks for the clarification. We’d always thought that it was the other way around (i.e. a Hindu married to a Christian girl).
@ joeantony
“The Khans who likely to be the decendants of the Persians”
The title of “Khan” is essentially MONGOLIAN in origin and pre-dates the Islamic era. The name MUGHAL is Persian for MONGOL, who did convert to Islam before their entry into India.
SearchIndia.com Responds:
Correct.
BTW, have you seen Mongol? Fairly decent movie.