Raj Kapoor: The Socialist Showman: Analysis

The case here basically talks about the rise of Raj Kapoor as a megastar in the Indian film industry, his
global presence while giving insights about this ups and downs during the journey and the evolution of
his films with time. Also, along with these, the rise of Hollywood, its contributing factors, various
monumental films of yesteryears and few of the elements of the Indian Film Industry have been touched
upon.

From the case we can derive few of the factors that contributed to the position and popularity of
Hollywood against film industries of other countries which were:-

 Foreign actors and directors like Hitchcock and Chaplin joined a stream of actors and enhanced
the quality multifolds.
 There were a lot of investments due to strong financials.
 Due to the World Wars there were no films in UK and such countries, the void which was filled
up by Hollywood.
 Language i.e. English proved to be great helping hand
 Hollywood were always the first movers in embracing the technological upliftments

Since the market was male dominant, it was observed that females did not get prominent roles in the
initial days.

The case talks about the rise of Indian cinema from the days of no sound , black and white sound movies
to digital cinema and also the contribution of the Parsee community towards the industry.

It is also said that there were little help from the government with various rules and regulations and
censors creating hurdles. Inspite of these, realist movies and makers like Satyajit Ray came into
prominence and gained popularity.

The rise of Raj Kapoor the star is talked about where from his childhood he came in contact with the
artistic crowd due to his father Prithviraj Kapoor. He started with the film Inquilab and few years later
launches R.K. Studios releasing his first film Aag from his savings of previous films and borrowing from
friends and family. With the type of movies Raj Kapoor made, of having an underlying social message
and the struggle of the common man, they became quite a hit in Soviet Russia but couldnot garner the
same popularity in capitalist country like USA.

After the debacle of “Mera Naam Joker”, Raj Kapoor needed quite sometime to be back in the scene
with the film “Bobby”.

Films like Shree420, Awaara made him a megastar.

Some of the strengths of R.K. Studios and Raj Kapoor can be noted as:

 It was one of the initial studios of India with a long loyal relationship with the distributors.
 They had a talented crew and support artists with them, a brand that everyone wanted to get
associated with.
 They had built a legacy and infrastructure.
 Raj Kapoor was quite a risk taker and believed in his abilities.


Inspite of these it was observed that Raj Kapoor did not have a business sense as was observed from
some of his actions and the later generations could not carry forward the legacy in the same manner.

Among the opportunities I would say:

 The R.K. Studio brand could be used as a global brand.

 They can diversity their genre and content.
 With the finance being maintained properly, they can use the latest technologies available
presently to revolutionize the industry of India.