How to Name Your Bollywood Movie?

When a person decides to become a film-maker, one day they will face the important question of what name should be given to their Bollywood movie. The question is important because movies are remembered by names due to the impact it leaves on peoples minds. They may forget who the actor or actress is in the movie but the name will stay with hours after they have watched the promos. trailers or even the entire movie itself. 

 

Most of the veteran film makers are used to this process but what about novice filmmakers who have just stepped into the world of Bollywood? For such people, BollyCurry has come up with a solution. After researching a lot and going through recent hit movie names, we have come with few generic ways to name a Bollywood movie that will leave an impact on the viewers.

 

The trend of having names with the word 'Dil' has been in Bollywood for decades but only recently it has been caught on. We may have been taught in school that the heart is a mere pumping machine but in the world of Bollywood, the heart is much more than that. According to Indian Cinema it is the reason we fall in love, have heartbreaks and cry while sad songs play in the background and then have a reunion with our lover because our heart literally beats for them. Hence, the expert film makers add 'Dil' to their movie title and rejoice as their movie becomes a hit. Some famous examples of such movies are Dilwale Dulhania Le Jaayenge (1995), Dil To Pagal Hai (1997), Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) and many more.

A proper movie is incomplete without romance. We don't even mind crying and sighing hours and hours while watching lovers getting separated but we do mind if an action, thriller or suspense movie does not have love story in it. Hence, using 'Pyaar' in a movie name definitely gets brownie points from the viewers. And if 'Pyaar' sounds ill-fitting, you can always use its substitutes like 'Mohabbat', 'Ishq' or 'Prem'. Mohabbatein (2000), Kaho Naa Pyaar Hai (2000), Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009) and Ishqiya (2010) are perfect examples for movies that are commercial hits and have 'Pyaar' or its alternatives used in their names.

 

This is a trend that many makers adopt. The process is quite simple. Give your movie such a long name that people would have to use abbreviation to mention it to their friends and as you know the short forms are so catchy that it remains printed in the target audiences' brain. This is not a new trend though as in past too many old movies were mentioned by their short forms. And today the trend continues as viewers call Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi (2008) as RNBDJ and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani (2013) as YJHD. As if that was not enough, the makers of ABCD (2013) and its sequel ABCD 2 (2015) went one step ahead and simply added the short form to the title. So, long name with catchy short form is definitely a good idea for naming your movie.

Once upon a time, Madhubala danced on the song "Jab Pyar Kiya Toh Darna Kya" in Mughal-E-Azam (1960). And almost 4 decades later, out comes a movie with the name Pyar Kiya To Darna Kya (1998). And of course, the movie was a blockbuster. So if you are not sure what you should name your movie, just a take an old song and make it your title like Har Dil Jo Pyar Karega (2000) and Bachna Ae Haseeno (2008). And if you want you can take this further by choosing a recent song for title instead of older ones. For starters, you can choose from "Balam Pichkaari", "Chittiyaan Kalaiyaan" and "Calcutta Kiss".  

 

This advice is for makers who have made and released the first movie and are searching for the second movie's title. Here is a simple solution for them. Take your first movie name, add 2 to its end and your next movie name is ready. Vishesh Productions have made this their trademark by producing series of Raaz, Murder and even making sequel to Aashiqui (1990) after 2 decades. We are so used to their sequel making that we are waiting for them to announce Khamoshiyan's (2015) sequel too.

 

One of Karan Johar's quirks in his earlier years of movie making was the usage of letter K'. By then we were familiar with the K' charm with Ekta Kapoor doing the same in television world. But Johar brought the trend to Bollywood and his movies started with K' such as Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998), Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001) and Kal Ho Na Ho (2003). He may have stopped the trend now but no one would refute that the idea worked like a charm. But this trend does not always work as when we saw Kucch To Hai (2003) and Krishna Cottage (2004) did not fare good even with Ekta Kapoor giving them the initial of K'. Hence, we can conclude that the jury is still out for this trend.

 

And that was our list of trends that an amateur film maker can use when naming a Bollywood movie. For obvious reasons, we have limited this list to few ideas but if you think we have missed out on some trend that is conspicuous in Bollywood currently and deserves to be included in our list then let us know. We, at Bollycurry, want to hear your thoughts!

 

Writer: Kalpana K.C.

Editor(s): Peehu A. & Hershi J.

Graphics: Komal P.