About This Site
I watch a lot of Indian films, mostly Hindi and Bengali and often made before 1980. Not exclusively, but that's where my heart lies. Except for Rani and Shah Rukh. I don't blog very much anymore, but I write at The Cultural Gutter every other month and I'm always on twitter @bethlovesbolly. You can also reach me by email at bethlovesbollywood at gmail.
I have two film-related tumblrs: Paagal Subtitle for funny/surprising/questionable English subtitles on Indian films and Fully Phoney (co-run with The Cult of Kumar) for telephones in Indian films. Both take submissions!
In addition to watching movies and imitating dance routines very poorly, I work in the world cultures museum of a big university in Illinois, have a dog, and like to knit, which is hard to do while watching subtitled movies.
I often get asked how I started watching Bollywood movies. The short answer is that when Bride and Prejudice came out, I was so excited to see it—being a lover of most Jane Austen adaptations—that I went to the film's website and started poking around. The director had put up a list of Indian film conventions that she was playing with or winking at in the film, and as I read about them I thought "These films sound amazing! Why have I never seen any of them?!?" I ran to my local independent video store, That's Rentertainment, which had a truly wonderful international film collection, and grabbed things off the shelf. Because it had such happy-looking people on the cover, my first Indian film was Mujhse Dosti Karoge. And I was hooked.
In addition to this site, I have written about and discussed Indian cinema in the following publications/media:
Below: a slideshow of the recently retired rotating banner images from this blog.
I often get asked how I started watching Bollywood movies. The short answer is that when Bride and Prejudice came out, I was so excited to see it—being a lover of most Jane Austen adaptations—that I went to the film's website and started poking around. The director had put up a list of Indian film conventions that she was playing with or winking at in the film, and as I read about them I thought "These films sound amazing! Why have I never seen any of them?!?" I ran to my local independent video store, That's Rentertainment, which had a truly wonderful international film collection, and grabbed things off the shelf. Because it had such happy-looking people on the cover, my first Indian film was Mujhse Dosti Karoge. And I was hooked.
In addition to this site, I have written about and discussed Indian cinema in the following publications/media:
- The Cultural Gutter (ongoing)
- "Playing to Your Animal's Instincts," Film Companion (July 25, 2016)
- "Why B-Grade Masala Is A-Grade Fun," Film Companion (June 21, 2016)
- "Shooting Star: The incredible life of Shashi Kapoor captured in a book" [review of Aseem Chhabra's biography of Shashi The Householder, The Star], The Indian Express (June 4, 2016)
- "Two Moods of Bengali Cinema," The Hindu Wide Angle (May 14, 2016)
- "Sholay," Projection Booth podcast (February 2016)
- "Nayak and A Hard Day's Night," Silhouette Magazine (May 2, 2015)
- contributor of films and summaries to "100 Best Bollywood Movies," Time Out London (March 2015) (And before you send angry emails, please note: the films I wrote about are not necessarily ones I nominated for the list!)
- "The Epic of Fictitious-stan," Antiserious (November 2014)
- "The Big Fight," The Big Indian Picture (February 2014) on the imaginary but apparently necessary rivalry between Bengali film legends Soumitra Chatterjee and Uttam Kumar
- "A Return to Jewel Thief," The Indian Trumpet (September–October 2013)
- "The Allure of the Item Number," Hindustan Times Brunch Collectors Edition Bollywood Special (summer 2013, page 130)
- "Soumitra Chatterjee: The Man Who Redefined the Bengali Hero," FirstPost (July 4, 2013)
- "Pran, the Actor" The Indian Trumpet (July–August 2013)
- "Yash Chopra's Cinema Was Grand, Indulgent, Beautiful," Rediff (October 28, 2012)
- "Bollywood Journal," The Wall Street Journal India Real Time Blog (August 2011–September 2012)
- "Bachchans in Amreeka," Tehelka (August 28, 2008) on the Bachchans and friends "Unforgettable" stage tour in 2008
- "Filmflam" by Raja Sen, The Big Indian Picture (April 2013)
- "An Interview with Diptakirti Chaudhuri" by Avishek Basu Mallick, Bookish (March 16, 2013)
- "Bollywood's Foreign Appeal Finds Online Expression" by Charukesi Ramadurai, The Sunday Guardian (February 16, 2013)
- "People We Like: Shashi Kapoor, the Gentleman Star" by Deepa Deosthalee, Film Impressions (October 9, 2012)
- "Bollywood, Exported" by Aseem Chhabra, India Abroad (July 27, 2012)
- "Which Way to Ramgarh?" by Sunil Menon, Outlook India (June 4, 2012)
- "Filmdom's Firangi Chroniclers" by Kim Arora, Times of India (January 2012)
- "Accidental Hilarity: Blog Gathers Subtitles Gone Awry" by Shweta Sharma, The Sunday Guardian (January 2012)
- "Read My Lips" by Amulya Gopalakrishnan, The Indian Express (August 7, 2011)
- "Beth Goes to Bollywood!" by Phllygrrl, Sepia Mutiny (July 2011)
- "Bollywood Family Dynasty" by The National, CBC tv (June 2011)
- "Beth Goes to Bollywood (Awards)" by Aarti Varani, Wall Street Journal India Real Time (June 2011)
- "You Don't Have to Be Indian to Blog about Bollywood" by Aparita Bhandari, The Globe and Mail (June 2011)
- "Bollywood's Global Push" by Kalyani Vittala, Christian Science Monitor (June 2011)
- "Up All Night," BBC Radio 5 (February 9, 2010) interview about the youtube release of Striker
- "600 Movie Blogs You May Have Missed" by Dan Goodswen, Total Film (January 2010)
- interview by Devang Vibhakar on Speak Bindaas (December 2009)
- "Blogging about the First Family of Bollywood," Screen India (June 2009)
- "Reality Bites," Times of India (March 2009)
- "Love Bollywood" with Raj and Pablo, BBC Asian Network (January 11, 2009) talking about Dil Se with Filmi Girl
- "Bollywood Blogbuster" by Anushree Majumdar, Indian Express (December 2008)
- "Waiting for SRK!" by Anuradha Varma, Times of India (November 2008)
- "Bollywood's Phoren Fan Brigade" by Ashwin Ahmad, Times of India (June 2008)
- "Movie-Love in Cyberspace" by Jai Arjun Singh, Business Standard (June 2008)
- "The Mems and Saabs of Berlin" by Nisha Susan, Tehelka (April 2008)
Below: a slideshow of the recently retired rotating banner images from this blog.