Only City with six language daily shows

Only City with six language daily shows
Monday July 23 2007 10:35 IST

BANGALORE: Bangalore, apart from enjoying the title ‘IT hub of India’, has another title to boast of. The Garden City is the only City in the world where movies of six different languages are simultaneously screened in theatres.

A true cosmopolitan City indeed. People here, irrespective of their religion or sect, live in harmony giving Silicon Valley the honour of being the only City to screen daily film shows in six languages- Hindi, English, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu and Malayalam.

Other cities like Delhi, Chandigarh, Kolkotta and even Mumbai have movie buffs where around two to three language movies are screened. In Mumbai, Marathi, Gujurati, Hindi and English movies are screened and in Calcutta Bengali, Hindi and English movies are screened.

Similar is the case with Chennai, Hyderabad and other commercial capitals where the local language has a strong influence.

The reason Bangalore enjoys this title is its rich history and people belonging to various cultural and geographical backgrounds who settle here.

The City is located at a trio-junction, with Tamil Nadu, Andhara Pradesh and Kerala on its sides. These states have a strong influence on Bangaloreans as many migrate to the city in search of job.

‘‘English, historically, became a part of the City after Britishers invaded Bangalore in 1880s. Starting of public sector enterprises like BEL, HAL and BHEL during 1950s attracted a large Malayalee crowd as work force. The IT boom attracted employees from North India, thus making Bangalore a multi lingual and multi cultural City,’’ said Ramachandra Guha, Historian and author of ‘India After Gandhi: The History of the World’s largest Democracy’.

Historians also pointed that the pattern in which the City has grown is another reason. It’s partly because of the continuous inflow of people to the City.

Recollecting the golden treasure of history, noted historian Suryanath Kamath said that Bangalore Cantonment was the ‘Twin City’ of Bangalore in 1808-09, it was a part of Ulsoor village. ‘‘Britishers along with them brought Tamilians and Muslim merchants as their servants and assistants. Hindi has been popular with Marathis, Urdu speaking and Gujuratis. The ITI industry is dominated by Malayalees, thus the language influence,’’ he said.

Screening of various language films is a reflection of people belonging to various cultural backgrounds settling in the City, which others are easily getting accustomed to.