Glow Up is the kind of Netflix series which deserves to shine. One of the reasons for the growing popularity of the online entertainment platform is its ability to maintain diversity, not just in terms of sex, country, race, culture, gender, but also in its focus on giving attention to those folks who work extremely hard to keep a star popular. Even if in the near future, when Disney Plus enters the Indian cinematic domain, it may not be a huge threat for Netflix, if it continues to live up to its individuality.
When it comes to making original online content, there are producers who will tell you about the mysterious entity named 'the mass', or 'our kind of audience', which 'goes in for this sort of thing,' the technicians will blame the tools and director will have much to say about the wonderful things he had done in mind but could not achieve because of 'the conditions.' These presentations are true but not to the extent you are asked to believe. In any case, better things have been achieved under the worst of circumstances. These are basic immaturities found in the fundamentals of filmmaking, about which India's cultural icon, Satyajit Ray had dropped a note in this book, 'Our Films Their Films'.
Ray experienced these disturbances at a time when Indians had started tasting the works of Raj Kapoor, Satyajit Ray, Guru Dutt while massively enjoying commercially packed films. As the above-mentioned pioneers began to sense the need for change in their cinematic content, the Hindi film industry gradually evolved.
With the coming of Khans it earned the title Bollywood, but it's not as if the industry did not serve the platform for talents such as Manoj Bajpayee, Anurag Kashyap or Ram Gopal Varma. It's 2019 and India has witnessed the glory of watching AR Rahman, Gulzar, Bhanu Athaiya, Resul Pookutty win the Oscar, and films such as Lagaan, Salaam Bombay, Mother India earning a nomination at the Oscars. Clearly, we have changed with times and maybe the audience is willing to swallow provided we feed them with the right kind of content. Glow Up is a series based on a competition between 10 makeup artists. Right now, if you are under the impression that such a career is only fit to be a social media influencer, to run a channel on YouTube, do think through. These aren't your regular YouTube make-up artists who provide you tutorials on how to use a blush-on, or how to use a foundation while making your face appear completely natural. They work in fashion magazines, do TV shows, deal with prosthetics and various other kinds of procedures.
The first episode is focused on magazine beauty editorials where supermodels and actresses are photographed. This is in a country where you have to be a real model to be a part of such photoshoots and not India, where you even if you are a niece of a failed actor, you managed to get your picture up on the popular fashion magazines only because you are reputed to be the best friend of a superstar's daughter.
Although, India too gave stardom to its fair share of models turned actors such as Priyanka Chopra, Anushka Sharma, Milind Soman, John Abraham, to name a popular few from the industry. However, mostly, it is bloodline based nepotism which takes one to the top, and with a lot of luck, it keeps you there.
For more than one reason, this show helps you to get a prosperous career and a chance for young students to understand that their world is not over if they have failed in Math. Glow Up gives you all a hope if you are a student having a tough time in understanding algebra and geometry.
Glow Up promises to show a lot of fascinating art, and most of the contestants have interesting personalities. But the format will get a bit repetitive and it's necessary for the producers to switch things up a bit quickly.
Earlier this year Netflix started the show Styling which had also focused on the designers who dress up the stars for various award events. There is a whole new world out there, and there is good money provided you keep an eye out for the right kind of opportunity.
Glow Up is available on Netflix.
