Bollywood heaven (if you speak Hindi...) (B4U)

Member Name: Feathers

Product:	B4U
Date:	08/06/04 (2205 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Gossip!, B4U's music channel, New films

Disadvantages: No subtitles!, Mentally-challenged presenters, Looks a bit cheap & tacky at times

B4U (Bollywood For You) is probably the most well-known Bollywood channel broadcasting in the UK. The channel broadcasts Bollywood movies (both old and new) as well as music shows and gossipy TV programmes by the truckload. It?s rather loud and colourful and, dare I say it, a bit tacky (in a good way!).

A subscription is probably essential if you are a Bollywood fan as you get the opportunity to see plenty of award shows and interviews with your favourite stars. B4U music is included in the price and I actually prefer it to B4U movies. It?s great to see all the new music videos, although I usually end up shelling out money on lots of CDs after watching B4U. When I subscribed to B4U Sony Asia was included in the price, but don?t think this offer is applicable at the moment. I pay about £160.00 a year for my subscription, but you can also pay monthly. I think the the subscription is reasonably priced as they do show lots of new films.

In my opinion there are only two things about B4U which annoy the hell out of me. The first is the VJs. I don?t know where they find these people who regularly make an utter fool of themselves on my TV screen. The men all seem to think they are great comedians and just sit there laughing at their own lame jokes. The women aren?t much better and seem to have spent more time worrying about their lip gloss than what they are going to say. B4U recently held a talent competition to find some new presenters and I sincerely hope the winners will raise the collective IQ at B4U headquarters.

The other thing which really, REALLY annoys me is the fact that movies are shown without English subtitles. I find this very frustrating as a non-Asian viewer (my attempts to learn Hindi confirmed my GCSE German teacher?s opinion that I am the most inept language student ever). I know I am not the only person annoyed by B4U?s oversight. My Bollywood-obsessed friends include other non-Asians, Asians who don?t speak Hindi and Asians

whose terrible Hindi leaves their parents shaking their heads in despair. B4U has no excuse as many of the films they show were originally released with English subtitles.

If you want to find out more about B4U you can visit ww.b4utv.com (you can also read the latest gossip and downloads wallpapers etc.) I have also found the staff at B4U very helpful when I have had need to ?phone them.

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