The flow chart love affair with Bollywood

Beth Watkins

It was Gurinder Chadha's 2014 romantic drama Bride and Prejudice, an adaptation of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice starring Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Martin Henderson, that got a woman living in Illinois interested in Indian film stars. So much so, that she reached out to a local video store that stocked a vast collection of films in all languages, courtesy a major international university in the town, and borrowed the DVDs for two films, one of which was Mujhse Dosti Karoge (2002), starring Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor Khan and Rani Mukerji. Beth Watkins says, "I definitely did not understand it very well. The best thing in that film was the song medley, and although I did not know any of those references, it was fun! I still love Rani Mukerji and Kareena Kapoor."

Watkins, 47, who works with the exhibits and education department at the Spurlock Museum of World Cultures at the University of Illinois, began her love affair with Indian cinema with the launch of her blog, Beth Loves Bollywood. Here, she would talk about the films, often from a critic's perspective. But her interest in Indian films went beyond Bollywood. Watkins claims to have watched 1,101 Indian films, out of which 850 are Hindi, 175 Bengali, and the rest a mix of Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.

How do we know she's right? Because Watkins keeps a spreadsheet. "I started doing that very early on because I just couldn't keep up the names of people - I would watch a film and recognise an actor and have to look them up again," she shares. It was the same reason why she started making detailed family charts of the popular film families in India, including the Kapoor khaandan. This one recently went viral when she added Alia Bhatt to it, after she was married to Ranbir Kapoor in a dreamy wedding at their Bandra residence.

This Kapoor family chart by Beth Watkins went viral on social media. It goes back to patriarch Prithviraj Kapoor, and its latest addition is Alia Bhatt, after she married Ranbir Kapoor last week

What catches our attention in particular in the Kapoor family chart is the mention of all the former lovers named alongside their present partners, a heart denoting a love affair. In an email interview to mid-day, Watkins talks about her fascination with Indian films and why complex family trees help her make sense of the massive soap opera that is Bollywood.

Edited excerpts from the interview.

What led you to start making family charts of popular film families?
It began when I first read Madhu Jain's book about the Kapoor family [The Kapoors: The First Family of Indian Cinema]. It featured a family tree, but I had to add so many notes to it because I was unfamiliar with a lot of the names - I then knew only the current generation members like Kareena, Karisma, maybe Rishi and Neetu, besides Raj [Kapoor].

What made you list the exes?
People keep asking me about them! It's because these charts aren't actually about genealogy - they're about relationships, power, influence, and access. We all know that nepotism is about more than biology. These are structures of power that exercise control over who can access what opportunities and resources. This is not to say that everyone in a film family is a deliberate villain determined to deny any outsiders access, nor are they guaranteed any talent or success. But it's true that film families have opportunities, both to start out and to try repeatedly, that other people do not have.

Because these charts started as a way for me to make sense of what I'm learning and help me remember, they feature complex families like the Gangulys [Kishore Kumar, Ashok Kumar], the Mukherjees [Joy, Deb, Shomu, Kajol, Rani] and the Samarth family [Tanuja, Nutan]. These were obviously an important one for me to wrap my head around. The Ganguly family chart was connected to the Kapoor family [Shammi Kapoor's first wife Geeta Bali's niece Yogita Bali was married to Kishore Kumar before their divorce in 1978]... and it also connects to Satyajit Ray [Kishore Kumar's first wife was Bengali actor and singer Ruma Guha Thakurta, who is the niece of Satyajit Ray's wife Bijoya Das]!

I've also mapped the Irani/Akhtar/Azmi families and the Feroz Khan and Roshan group.

I think many people who grow up in Indian cultures have a sense of a lot of these connections even if they don't know all the exact particulars. But I didn't when I started watching Indian films.

A family photograph taken by the Kapoors, posted on Instagram by Karisma Kapoor, on Christmas in 2020. Pic/Instagram

It must be challenging to keep these charts up to date with weddings and breakups aplenty.
Usually, it is just me noticing news on Twitter and deciding to add it. I don't think I had updated the Kapoor chart for over a year, but obviously I had to when Alia and Ranbir got married. I actually don't pay much attention to film star news that isn't about what projects they're working on, but if people share a fact with me, I try to incorporate it before I forget.

Take us through your favourite films, and actors.
Oh gosh, that's hard. My taste is all over the place. I love Satyajit Ray's films, especially the early ones like Charulata, Devi and Nayak. I love the 1950s and '60s Bengali films and their stars: Suchitra Sen, Madhabi Mukherjee, Soumitra Chatterjee, Uttam Kumar. I love Hindi masala, especially from the '70s and early '80s and the stars of that era - Rekha, Shashi Kapoor, Neetu Singh, Vinod Khanna. I also love Dibakar Banerjee's films and can't wait to see whatever he does next. Of the current and more recent crop, my favourites are Shah Rukh, Rani, Konkona Sen Sharma, Sridevi and Saif Ali Khan. I also wish Akshaye Khanna and Preity Zinta were still acting - I miss them!

Watkins says that Satyajit Ray's early films, Charulata, Devi and Nayak, are among her favourites. She also enjoys Bengali films from the 1950s and '60s. Pic/Getty Images

We noticed your affection for vintage pulp fiction like Manmohan Desai's little-known films.
I love his films because of their very generous spirit of entertainment and thought. Even if the plots are formulaic, the way the plot unfolds, and the way the story is told, are not. Those films are always creative and surprising. I love how complex they are!

Does it ever get challenging - managing your love for Bollywood and your day job?
On an average, I look at film-related tweets or emails and articles for about half-an-hour a day and probably watch one film a week. Yes it does get challenging. I love to do freelance writing about Indian films when I can, but often, I just don't have the mental energy to write at the end of a work day.

Have you been to Bombay and met any celebrities?
I have been to Bombay several times. On one of these visits [in 2013], a friend and I were lucky to get to say hello to Shashi Kapoor outside Prithvi Theatre and tell him how much we love his films. On my last visit [2016], I actually got to meet Sushant Singh Rajput and Rajkummar Rao briefly. I told Sushant how great I think Detective Byomkesh Bakshy is. He looked genuinely pleased to hear it. You may laugh to hear that I've stayed at the Sun n Sand [Juhu] because I know it from old Hindi films. Sitting by its pool to eavesdrop is fun.