Ranbir Kapoor on Why He Doesn’t Like the Term ‘Bollywood’: ‘I Would Like to Be a Representative of Indian Cinema’

Ranbir Kapoor has expressed his reservations about the term 'Bollywood,' saying he would rather represent Indian cinema as a whole than be associated with a label that he believes does not fully reflect the country's diverse film industries.

In a conversation about how his upcoming film "Ramayana" could be categorized when it releases internationally, the actor was asked about his discomfort with the term 'Bollywood.' Explaining his perspective, Ranbir said the word was derived from Bombay, as the Hindi film industry was known to be placed there at the time, and followed a naming convention that also gave rise to terms such as Tollywood for the Telugu film industry.

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"I think it's just a term used as a derivative to Bollywood. It was Bombay at that time, so it was making it Bollywood. And Telugu industry was Tollywood and they had all these different sounding names," he said.

The actor added that he would prefer the term to be Indian cinema, pointing to the country's many languages, cultures and regional film industries. "I would like to be a representative of Indian cinema. We are from a country of different cultures, different languages and different states. But at the end of it, we all are striving to come together to make art. Art is something which gets people together. There are no borders in art," he added.

Ranbir also spoke about how stories about cultural identities can find audiences across the world. Citing films such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Life Is Beautiful," along with cinema from South Korea, he said authentic storytelling can overcome any geographical and linguistic boundaries. "We have seen that with Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, etc. We have seen that in films from Korea. We have seen that in Life is Beautiful. So, I think the ambition is that. But we are not blindly trying to cater to a global audience. You still have to be really authentic in your storytelling and in your culture," he explained.

The larger ambition for the actor is not simply to make Indian films appeal to international audiences but to tell stories that retain their cultural specificity.