I'm a fan of Bollywood since I'm 14 years old and today I'm 26.
I discover Bollywood through my geographic lessons at school with bend it like beckam.
If I decided to wrote that open letter today, it is to show my point of view on what it looks like being a black Bollywood fan.
Why? Because some people don't see an Haitian girl being fan of Bollywood or I must say in my case India.
Those 2 things doesn't seem to go well together why, I don't know.
At my house, I have at least 100 and counting of Indian movies,
4 or 5 books about learning Hindi,1 book about the Indian culture and 3 books about traveling in India.
I also convinced my mother to add 3 Indian channels in our tv box because of my love of Bollywood movies and Koffee with Karan.
But people still look at me in a strange way when I say I'm a Bollywood addict and my favorite actress is Deepika Padukone! I still don't understand why!
I had so many situation when people reminded me of that but the worst ones were some with Indian people
Situation 1 : when as famous stars started shooting of the pilote of show abroad, she was meeting her fan in new york so I went there with my cousin, we were the only black person in the line and a guys from her team came to us and asked us if we did even know her! I was like that not because where are black that we don't know about Bollywood and about her!
Situation 2 : I went to the Iifa in madrid last year and we ( a friend and I) were attending the press conference and a lady looked at us in a strange way and then told us "are you new you don't look familiar?" I said yes we are a french media covering the iifa awards for the first time.
Situation 3 : At the end of the press conference, all the media where asking celebrities for some picture so did I. I won't name the celebrities, but they were taking a lot of pictures and when I came to 2 celebrities and ask them for a picture one of them looks at me and left, I mean he clearly did heard me saw me and left. I was quite shocked and At that moment I did ask myself if it had something to do with my skin color
Situation 4: since we were at the iifa as a media we had the opportunity to cover interview of the celebrities, each celebrities were in a room, when me and my friend wanted to assist at an interview the bodyguard let a bunch of journalists plus my friend(who is not black) enter to the room but not me even after I said to him that we where together! After that, I was so mad and hurt because I really felt that I was because I was black
During all the events I felt like that, because people would look at me, laugh at me or even a kid gave me a kick
We were only 2 black, I mean african black at the iifa as a media.
Although the iifa award was a wonderful experience for me! I can not forget those situations who remind me that being black and being a Bollywood fan is not easy every day!
But don't get me wrong I will always attend the Iifa If I have the opportunity for my love of Bollywood!
And the last situation, happened when I went to see Ae Dil hai muskhil in theater in my town... when I enter in the room people were looking like if I was an Animal! all of that because I was black!
See there is no rules and no laws about who should love what or who shouldn't! my passion is India, I'm listening to Bollywood song all the time my favorite actress is Deepika, I have a t-shirt of her, I met her I have a poster of bajirao mastani in my room, I love Indian food, i'm learning Hindi and I'm black, Haitian and proud!
But for a lot of Indian people, being black and loving India or Bollywood is not possible, is laughable or unbelievable why?
When Indian people love western thing nobody laugh at them? so why because of my skin color, Indian people do thinks that it's funny, less or even non credible that i love India, know about Bollywood industry, Bollywood celebrities and more?
You should be proud, proud that people like me like your country, your culture, your industry that we want to meet you to tell that we love you! not look at us in a weird way just because of our background or our skin color
We are in 2017 and even if you think that a lot of people don't know about Bollywood you're wrong!
A black fan of Bollywood
