The Bollywood Ticket


 

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Welcome - Stars - News - Reviews - Commentary - About

 

JENNIFER HOPFINGER

EDITOR


Jennifer has worked as a journalist for 15 years, writing and editing for newspapers, magazines, and Web sites. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in English from DePaul University.


CONTRIBUTING WRITERS:


EKTA GARG


Ekta is a writer for ABCDlady, a magazine for the “American Born Confident Desi.” She writes a blog called “The Write Edge.” She has a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University and a bachelor’s degree in broadcast journalism from the University of South Carolina.


RACHNA KHATAU


Rachna is a reporter and producer who has worked for such media outlets as ABC News Primetime, CNN International, Extra, and TMZ. She has a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Southern California.


MARTHA BERRY


Martha works for a Hindi Urdu language program at The University of Texas at Austin, where she earned a master’s degree in Asian Cultures and Languages and a bachelor’s degree in Asian Studies. She studied Hindi at the American Institute of Indian Studies in Jaipur, conducted research at the National Film Archives of India in Pune, and wrote her master’s thesis on Indian actor Raj Kapoor. She is an expert on the so-called Golden Age of Indian cinema.


HAMSA RAMESHA


Hamsa Ramesha recently completed News 21, a fellowship program supported by the Carnegie-Knight Initiative on the Future of Journalism Education. She has written for the California-based weekly, India West and currently works as the marketing coordinator for DesiYou.com. She has a master’s degree in journalism from Northwestern University.


JACQUELYN WHITE


Jacquelyn writes for The Feminist Review and studies at Towson University in Maryland. She is passionate about the arts, including film, music, writing, and fashion, and first became interested in Bollywood when she saw actress Aishwarya Rai on the TV show, 60 Minutes. Her favorite Indian movies are historical dramas.


SASHA SHARP


Sasha knows all about bridging great distances—she’s a receivables manager in the railroad industry in Portland, Oregon, and ever since accidentally stumbling on a Bollywood movie on Netflix, she’s been mentally traveling to India on a celluloid track. She graduated from the University of Portland, where she studied accounting and fine arts.


RIDTHI SANJANWALA


Ridthi is an aspiring novelist in Los Altos, California, and a lifelong fan of Indian film. She loves both the emotional escape Bollywood films provide and the intellectual discussion they prompt. There’s nothing she enjoys more than retreating into the cinematic world of romance, suspense, and comedy—and then debating its merits afterward.

The Bollywood Ticket

The American guide to Indian movies

Chicago, Illinois, USA


Contact us:


editor@thebollywoodticket.com


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Read about us:


  1. News 21: “Bollywood the American Way”


Press release: “The Bollywood Ticket launches

the American guide to Indian movies”

 

Editor’s Note:


Jennifer Hopfinger, editor of The Bollywood Ticket
I watched my first Bollywood movie out of sheer boredom. Trapped in an airplane seat for 14 hours from Chicago to Delhi and unable to sleep, I reluctantly tuned in to the subtitled Hindi-language film on the monitor in front of me. The movie was called Baabul and it starred heavy-hitters Amitabh Bachchan, Salman Khan, Rani Mukerji, and John Abraham. It was everything I expected it to be—long, silly, melodramatic—everything I thought I didn’t like. Except I loved it. The way those qualities came together was perfect chemistry. I laughed, I cried, and if I hadn’t been crammed into a window seat, I would have jumped up and joined the Indian kids dancing in the aisle. That’s the essential appeal of Bollywood movies—they make you feel like nothing else. A few days into the trip—my first to India—I got to watch a film shoot at the hotel where I was staying. The movie was Dhokha, starring the sizzling Muzammil Ibrahim. After that, I was hooked, and so began my giddy obsession with Bollywood and everything Indian.


When I returned home from that vacation, I whipped through hundreds of Hindi flicks in a matter of months—but I was largely alone in my newfound appreciation. Most Americans have never seen an Indian movie (Slumdog Millionaire doesn’t count), and they have plenty of preconceived notions about Bollywood, mostly negative—I know, I used to have them, too. But, thanks in part to the aforementioned Oscar-winner, Indian movies are now catching on like crazy in the U.S. So I created this site to help the burgeoning number of new fans navigate the thrilling, thriving world of Hindi cinema, as well as dispel the inaccurate stereotypes about it. Bollywood is worthy of the same serious consideration as Hollywood. If you only open your mind, look through a different cultural lens, and give in to the magic, you’ll fall head over heels, just like I did.


—Jennifer Hopfinger