Tandoori Masala is a blog written by Bikram Ghosh. It is a place where you can find articles on Indian movies and food, mainly focusing on the regional difference in food.
The articles he writes are quite different from other food blogs, as they talk about regional cuisines through the links of films. He explains the relation of the dish and the film that has it in its script. The blog provides a detailed look into every specific ingredient used in each region and also gives links to watch some of the films for reference.
Here, you can find regular recipes for all kinds of dishes, along with reviews of restaurants or recipes you can make at home.
His writing style is pretty interesting as it goes along with his thoughts and comments on the movies that are based on food or have food as their base story line.
The focus on regional differences in India is something I’d never seen before in any kind of blog and this makes it unique in itself.
The name Tollywood is a portmanteau of the words Hollywood and Tollygunge, a neighbourhood of Kolkata (earlier known as Calcutta) where the first Bengali feature film, “Raja Boshekha” (“King Mrigankur”) was made.
In 2016, Tollywood was listed among top 10 food trends in India by Vogue India.
Tollywood was started in 2013 by Suvir Saran in Kolkata, India. It is an unofficial blog about the history of a cinema genre called Tollywood which refers to Bollywood-inspired movies from West Bengal and Bangladesh. The blog captures the evolution of this genre from its early days in 1950s till present times. The blog also has a variety of other posts such as restaurant reviews, movie reviews and interviews with directors and actors from the industry.
The largest producer of films in the world is India, and the majority of those films are produced in four regional languages. Thousands of these films are produced every year, but it’s only a fraction of these movies which make it to the big screen. For every blockbuster, there are hundreds of movies that go unnoticed, often becoming obscure at best.
The main reason why some movies become blockbusters while others fail to reach even a niche audience is the subject and theme of each movie. Even if we consider mainstream Indian cinema with all its masala and formulaic scripts, there are still certain themes which keep cropping up again and again. One such theme is Bollywood masala.
Tollywood is the name used for the Telugu film industry. Over the last decade or so, there has been an increase in Hindi movies with their stories and themes being borrowed from Telugu cinema. The name Tollywood was coined by English media to describe this phenomenon. This name was originally meant as a derogatory term; however, this term has now become an accepted norm for describing these movies.
Tollywood is the name given to the cinema of West Bengal, India. Tollygunge, a neighbourhood in South Kolkata, is named after the place where the first movie studios were located during the British Raj.
Tollywood films are 100% Indian made and do not have any reference to the English language. They are highly successful in art and business.
The name Tollywood was coined by Jogendra Choudhury, a film journalist who used it as a parody on Hollywood. It stuck and is commonly used today to describe this prolific Bengali Film Industry.
Tollywood has been responsible for producing some of India’s most famous films over the years, like Pather Panchali (1955), Aparajito (1956), Apur Sansar (1959) and Charulata (1964). These films are said to have brought Indian Cinema to the map at an international level.”
Hollywood is synonymous with glamour. But the same cannot be said about a close cousin of Bollywood, Tollywood. Tollywood’s glamour quotient is limited to two things only: cuisine and costumes.
Tollywood has always been very down-to-earth. With a tinge of exoticism, it has been trying to woo us with its soulful melodies, beautiful landscapes and the never-ending romance between a hero and heroine. There is no mushy love songs in Tollywood; there are very few songs that speak of love, as it is not a primary theme here.
But if you have watched any Telugu film, most probably you have seen masala sprinkled all over the film like coconut powder on top of an exotic dish called
The history of Indian cuisine in Los Angeles is a long and complex one. While many will argue that the influence of Indians in this city goes back to the early 1900s when laborers arrived from South Asia, it was in the 70s that things really started to change.
In the mid-1960s, Indian students and artists began settling into the Los Angeles area with the hope of creating a global cultural nexus for their multifarious homeland. While this may have been an idealistic dream, their efforts at least precipitated discussions about where their own culture fit into this broad picture. They also began creating venues for themselves such as restaurants and movie theaters where they could gather and celebrate or mourn events happening back home.
As a result, many Indians migrated from other parts of the United States to join them. This created a snowball effect that ultimately led to the first real “Little India” in the heart of Los Angeles on Hollywood Blvd. By the late 1970s, you could find all kinds of Indian restaurants, grocery stores, video shops and clothing boutiques dotting this area of town which would become known as “Tollywood” after the famous Indian film industry based in Mumbai.
Tollywood thrived throughout most of the 80s but by the end of that decade its popularity
A lot of foodies are baffled by Indian food. Their problem is one of culture clash. They expect “authentic” Indian food to be like Chinese or Mexican; that is, spicy but otherwise bland. And when they taste Indian food that isn’t, they are disappointed.
This is understandable because the first restaurants to introduce Indian food to Americans were (and are) run by Indians who had emigrated to England and learned the English way of doing things. So, three generations of immigrants later, most of us have been indoctrinated in the belief that Indian food should be mild.
Truly authentic Indian food isn’t mild, though; it’s spicy hot and intensely flavored with garlic, ginger, and chilies. Thus, cultural expectations are upside-down: what we’re used to eating is English-Indian rather than authentic Indian.
