The Promo madness
There is a word in German that is called “hibbelig”. In fact its a colloquial word for being nervous, agitated, anxcious. Just picture a hyperactive five year old on a sugar induced high and put that state of mind in a mid-thirties woman desperatly trying to surpress the feeling. Thats how poor middle european Bollywood fans feel at the moment. We usually don´t have access to TV stations like MTV India or even B4U. And most don´t even have the new movies in cinemas as they are only playing in very few theatres in big cities like Berlin, Munich, Zurich or Vienna. So we roam the net for any glimpse of upcoming films like KANK or Don. We hound webstores like nehaflix. And if the tension gets to much we even try to get the odd bootleged DVD at a local indian grocery store (and feel bad for doing so).
The year 2006 is a good year for fans so far and one where fans are held in a constant state of being “hibbelig” . All the big stars have had movies released. We got to see Aamir, Kajol, Saif, Preity, Hrithik, Rani and SRK back on the screen. We´ll got/get movies with AB 1.0 and AB 2.0 (© Filmiholic - I love the abreviation) We´re standing a good chance to get some decent work from Sanjay, Salman and Akshay. We had Rang de Basanti. Fanaa (though that has not been played here yet). Krrish. Omkara.
And Bollywood now plays very well with the promo machinery. Websites. Teaser. Songpromos. First looks. Spoiler. The whole spiel.
The weeks before August 11th where frantic on our side of the blogosphere. Whenever a new promo showed up or new stills, comments on various blogs and threads on boards where buzzing. Then it became clear that we wont have KANK in cinemas anytime soon here and I for myself lost some interest. And I lectured myself to not get so hyped up for a movie. Because when I finally get to see it I will be totally spoilered anyway (yeah, I know I just could resort to not read the spoilers but - please - no self-restraint here on my side of the computer screen). So hope was there that one would finally find some peace of mind.
Enter Faran Akhtar and the Don promos. And YashRaj with D:2. And Jaan-E-Mann. And Guru. And Eklavya. Then there are movies I´m dying to see but at least don´t get too worked up in advance like Munnabhai 2, Kabul Express, Babhul or Pyaar Ke Side Effects. And as far as it seems next year does promise to pick up where this year left off with Salaam-E-Ishq or Jhoom Barabar Jhoom and the list goes on and on.
So here I´m sitting in front of my powerbook, working on our companies new brochure, taking a short break to see if the guys at naachgaana posted some not to be missed news. And wham. New Don Song Promo. First Jaan-E-Mann teaser. What? No link? New tab in Firefox. YouTube. Damn. Not Found. Hmm. Heartrate increases. Dig deeper. Molodezhnaja Forum. Nope. Hardcore-Fan-Forums. YESSSS. Gotcha. Short breather. Heartrate goes back to healthy maximum. Watch promo. Squeee. Cant stay seated. Get up. Open fridge. Close fridge. Sit down back again.
Pathetic. Naa. Not really. I have a live. A great one to be precise. But I´ll get hyped nonetheless. So what.
Thats simply what we have to put up with. Loving movies from an industry thats not featured in every mainstream media here. And you know what? I would not miss it for the world 
August 20th, 2006 at 7:42 pm
good written, to the point, babasko. its someway like to be parched for news snippets. and there are soooo less. mostly you discover new trailer info in your rss feed reader at work, unable to hear or look it until evening. or there is some new flash based filmiwebsite you cant watch on your machine cause the plugin is too old (was so with KANK). does social insurance pay for filmi fever? do we get dvds on health insurance certificate, trailers intravenous? but one thing is clear: we don’t want be cured, wan’t we?
August 20th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
Excellent post! And thank you for teaching me a new word that describes me so well. “Hibbelig”, I like it
Isn’t it fun being a filmi fan? At the moment there’s a rather large KANK-shaped hole in my life. I’ve been so busy looking forward to it for the past couple of months that now I’ve seen it, I need to find something else to anticipate. I can’t decide between Guru and Don, and I’m not sure I have enough energy for both 
I saw the trailer for Kabul Express and thought it was fantastic, that’s a must see for sure. And I’m going to like Dhoom 2 no matter how bad the script turns out to be!
August 20th, 2006 at 10:43 pm
Since theres not much but a very blurry teaser poster of Guru out on the net yet, I would suggest DON. Go and look for the Don trailers. The newest promo with Morya Re has been running in loop-repeat here for that last hour. Sigh.
August 20th, 2006 at 10:53 pm
Oh there’s a good quality poster for Guru out now, I don’t remember where I found it, but hold on … here it is. I’ve only seen the first little Don teaser though, I didn’t know there were more trailers out by now. I’m out of the loop! I’ll go look for them right now.
August 20th, 2006 at 10:58 pm
ohhh, nice. *hibbel*
August 21st, 2006 at 5:33 am
*gg girlies
August 22nd, 2006 at 9:55 pm
U know something? I have been watching films left right and centre, for as long as I could remember, but have never been aware of the fact that Bollywood has had such a profound influence on viewers spread across the world. And by Bollywood, I mean the mainstream films, and not the cross-cultural films that always aimed at markets abroad.
And today when I read Beth’s fascination for India and anything that even remotely smells of Akshaye Khanna, Barbara’s Salman fixation, Maja going berserk over AB Jr or Basmatic’s totally basmatic reviews, not forgetting to mention Michael’s hugely popular German blog (of which unfortunately I cant make head or tail of!), I realise I have been a late-comer on the scene. But I am glad that I am here, albiet a bit late!
:)
August 23rd, 2006 at 5:58 am
but bollywoods influence to the world is especially some phenomenon two years old. especially german speaking parts of europe are infected since late 2004 when tv first time released dubbed version of k3g. here, in germany, subtitled movies are not well loved at all. the more i respect people as marco or katrin who watched bollywood long time before tv hype begun.
tell us more about your (indian) view of us foreign freaks. is that anything you wonder about, like or don’t like it? isn’t there the risk of misunderstanding bollywood as the real india? if you want to write some article about, velu, do it
i’ve managed to make your account writable for bollywoodbloggers.com
August 23rd, 2006 at 3:01 pm
Michael,
Thats a wonderful idea, in fact.
I shall see what I can come up with!!
:)
September 5th, 2006 at 9:36 pm
great post
personally love putting promos and never before seen images on myblog. There have been some images leaked from guru and salaam-e-ishq and check out my blog for that! its not self promotion I promise 
September 10th, 2006 at 7:15 pm
oh, ourbollywood, great blog
i’d quoted you time by time in my german languaged blog http://www.bollywoodblog.de
and cause i am allways looking for new good blog i also like linkings
its good to see bollywood develope the same way as hollywood has gone years before. promo, promo promo. the way income has grown these days shows that it is the right way
September 10th, 2006 at 9:05 pm
Hey thanks Michael, U made my day
September 10th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
it was a pleasure
April 19th, 2007 at 3:15 am
Unlimited Movie Downloads…
Whether it’s TV show or movies, the iPod hard disks are now powerful…
February 1st, 2008 at 2:59 am
Thanks for sharing