''Bollywood Diaries'' is a 2016 Indian Hindi-language

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. The drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular ...

written and directed by K.D.Satyam. It features

Raima Sen Raima Sen (born Raima Dev Varma) is an Indian actress and model, born into the royal family of Tripura to Bharat Dev Varma and Moon Moon Sen. Sen is known for her work in Hindi and Bengali films. Early life Raima Sen was born on 7 November ...

, Salim Diwan, and

Ashish Vidyarthi Ashish Vidyarthi (born 19 June 1965) is an Indian actor who predominantly works in Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, English, Odia, Marathi and Bengali films. He is noted for his antagonist and character roles. In 1995, he receive ...

as the main characters, along with Karuna Pandey and

Vineet Kumar Singh Vineet Kumar Singh (born 28 August 1978) is an Indian actor and writer known for his strong portrayal of an aspiring boxer Shravan Kumar Singh in Mukkabaaz (2018). An M.D. in Ayurveda from Government Medical College and Hospital, Nagpur, Vin ...

. Produced by Dr. Sattar Diwan, the film was released on 26 February 2016.

Plot

The story revolves around three unrelated individuals – Rohit (Salim Diwan), a man working at a call-center in Delhi, Vishnu (Ashish Vidyarthi), a retired middle-aged government servant from Bhilai, and Imli (Raima Sen), a prostitute from Sonagachi,

Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...

. All three aspire to become

Bollywood Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" (former name of Mumbai) and "Cinema of the United States, Hollywood". The in ...

actors, and each of them undergoes several hardships in their struggle to get a breakthrough in the industry. The movie shows the passion and madness of common individuals trying to realize their dreams in Bollywood.

Cast

as Imli * Salim Diwan as Rohit *

as Vishnu * Karuna Pandey as Lata *

as Daman * Robin Das as Sundar Das * Ekavali Khanna as Raveena

Production

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as the ...

of the film commenced in October, 2014 and the shoot began after a month, in November 2014. The film was shot in

Bhilai Bhilai is a city in Durg district of the Indian state of Chhattisgarh, in eastern central India. Along with its twin-city Durg, the urban agglomeration of Durg-Bhilai Nagar has a population of more than a million, making it the second-larges ...

and

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

. During the filming, Ashish Vidyarthi suffered a mishap where he nearly drowned in the Shivnath river before being rescued by a policeman.

Release

The film was released on 26 February 2016 across India.

Reception

Critical response

Subhash K. Jha said, "(viewers) should not miss this aspirational Bollywood saga." Rahul Desai called it, "a well-acted, unnerving film about Bollywood aspirations." Rohit Bhatnagar from The Deccan Chronicle said ''Bollywood Diaries'' is a "brilliant tribute to Bollywood Struggling actors." Martin D’Souza of Glamsham.com rated the film with three stars, describing it as "an honest film with great connect." The Free Press Journal's Johnson Thomas called it, "a bittersweet story that has passion and substance and is smartly devoid of formulaic expressionism." Bollyvision.com called it, "an honest film." Box Office India said it was, "worth a look." "The cinematography by Dev Agarwal was brilliant as he creates stark images, capturing the energy of the characters with an unforced realism," said Joginder Tuteja. Subhash K. Jha called ''The Bollywood Diaries'' "An ordinary film that touches the heart - 3 stars," by Divay Agarwal. Komal Nahta said, "Bollywood Diaries is a very real portrayal of strugglers in Bollywood. It is a genuinely good attempt which should be seen by those who with of cinema and Bollywood."

References

External links

* {{IMDb title, 5216810 2010s Hindi-language films 2010s Indian films 2016 films Films about Bollywood Films scored by Vipin Patwa