AN AUTHOR, A FILM CRITIC & A MOVIE BUFF
We Indians have been crazy for our movies, stars and everything about Bollywood. Everything that dazzled in our movies was a trend. Likewise, our movies changed, and the lifestyle in Bollywood change, from methods of production to even journalism about our stars. People wanted to know what the ratings are; it wasn’t about which movie was put up on the big screen.
This change bought in, the film critics, we so eagerly wait for now. One such film critic that changed our views about Bollywood was Anupama Chopra.
Since her very young age she was connected to Bollywood, as her mother was a scriptwriter and was part of some great movies like “Prem Rog”.
Anupama is a journalist, film critic, author, founder of film companion and chairperson of the MAMI festival, over the top a person who has immense live for cinema.
She graduated from St. Xavier’s college with BA in English Literature and did her MA in journalism from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism.
After her studies, she decided to go for film journalism, she has also stated in an interview, ‘Film journalism was untouchable at the time. Everybody was ashamed and nobody wanted to admit that I worked for Movie.’ Anupama has worked in almost all mediums of media, digital, print or television.
She wrote about Hindi cinema for many newspapers & channels; she has closely worked with India today, Hindustan Times.
However, even though she is married to one of the biggest producer in our industry, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, it never stopped her from critically evaluation his movies either. She wasn’t partial towards any actor or producer, the viewer could see that in each review that was printed or telecasted to us on our television sets.
Other than that she has also published 4 books, her first book, which was based on Sholay- “Sholay- the making of the classic”, won national award. Her writings were simple, and easy to flow with; one could see them getting involved with different perspectives of the industry with her novels. A astonishing fact is that even her daughter is an author and has written two books and one of it was critically acclaimed, both the books were published when she was just 15 year old.
Apart from being an award-winning author, she was also host of two shows; an English television show on Star World called The Front Row With Anupama Chopra, and a Hindi one called Star Verdict on Star Plus. Film-maniacs used to wait to see what their favorite critic rated the movie. Her reviews were on point and untouched points of the movie were also examined by her.
But when both the shows wrapped up, Anupama didn’t just want to stop doing her work and thus she started her own digital company, “Film Companion.”
In an interview she states, “So we just decided to try them (reviews) out on YouTube because we didn’t know anything about the digital space or how a digital company works, but what we knew was how to produce content and produce videos. And literally, without any thought or even a business plan, with nothing at all, actually, we decided to start Film Companion.”
According to her, her company is different because it doesn’t print gossip or celebrity news, her blog and Youtube channel is purely movie based for movie lovers from movie lovers.
Being a big cinema lover herself, she is interested more in what the director thinks, the latest trends for production or just how a particular shot was done, that’s exactly what she is trying to get through with her channel as well.
She simply finds peace by doing this, “But the satisfaction of building this and watching it come together, from 3 people in a room to a fantastic team of 10 who are driven by a genuine love for cinema, is a joy”, she said in an interview.
Her interviews with different personalities and stars each time leaves an accord, and we are able to see our favorite stars in different light. One thing really mesmerizing about her interviews are the questions, each questions are powerful, different and well revised to look fresh when asked.
Anupama Chopra has done many shows, and is still an active member of Bollywood as well journalism. She is influencing people to look at Bollywood industry from a different light than just the dazzle & sparkle.
As a women and as a movie buff myself, reading all her articles are mind blowing, we get to see a different side of all the stars in her channel as well learn so many inside secrets of production.
Anupama isn’t just another film critic, she is more of an inspiration to many with her hard work and love, and she reached her goals and is yet not stopping. This is the kind of role model every young woman would love to see.
