Entertainment & Bollywood Writer: Stacey Yount

Bollywoodblog
Our Newest Entertainment Writer! Stacey Yount,  Editor of Bollyspice.
Entertainment Writer

Entertainment Writer

Stacey Yount has always had a passion for the arts.   After retiring from dance, Stacey sought a new outlet for her creativity.  Although she didn’t realize it at the time, her path towards a new career was set the day she watched Bride and Prejudice and heard the term, Bollywood,  for the first time.

Eager to learn more, she searched the internet and found out about the Indian Film Industry. Her next step was to seek out a first movie to watch.  That movie turned out to be Dilwale Dulhani Le Jayenge.  She was hooked immediately. Here was a movie genre that combined all the things she loved best: dance, music, great stories and wonderful acting!   In her desire to learn more about these movies, she continued to search the Internet and connected with people all over the world on various message boards.  Looking to expand and fall more into the world of Bollywood, Stacey applied to be a writer for the webzine Bollyspice.com in 2007.
Her articles were so well received that in 2008 she became an editor and in 2009, editor-in-chief.  She has worked tirelessly to recruit writers from all over the world to give their unique perspectives on Bollywood cinema and music.  She currently works with 35 writers from India, Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Germany, Dubai and the US.  Stacey has been instrumental in creating relationships between Bollyspice and all the major film companies such as YRF, UTV, Eros, Balaji, Reliance, and Fox Star.

A former ballet dancer

A former ballet dancer

She has interviewed countless Bollywood actors, directors and musicians including the Khans be it Aamir, Imran, or Salman, many Kapoors like Ranbir and Sonam, plus Hrithik Roshan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Amitabh Bachchan, as well as many of the leading ladies like Anushka Sharma, Deepika Padukone, Priyanka Chopra, Rani Mukerji and many more. Furthermore, she has interviewed actors in hit Hollywood films such as Slumdog Millionaire, The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel and Silver Linings Playbook. In addition, she writes a weekly column in the UK’s Metro newspaper, which has a distribution of about 1.3 million papers every day.
When she is not eating, sleeping and breathing Bollywood, she enjoys spending time with her husband, Jim, and their three cats, Soniya (Yes, from the song in K3G), Piccolo and Shadow. She is looking forward to spreading some Bollymagic at masalamommas!

 

She has this to say about her passion for Bollywood:

Where did your passion for Bollywood come from?

photo: bollywoodbrowser.com

photo: bollywoodbrowser.com

My journey into Bollywood  began watching Bend It Like Beckham, which was directed by Gurinder Chadha. When I saw she was bending Jane Austin’s classic Pride and Prejudice into an Indian-flavored Bride and Prejudice, I had to see it, too. As I was watching the film extras, Chadha kept talking about Bollywood. Since I knew nothing I went to the Internet and looked up Bollywood, knew I wanted to see more and checked to see if Netflix had any Bollywood movies.

They did, and the first movie I came across was Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge. That famous moment when Shah Rukh Khan looked at Kajol in the train station and you know what he was saying just by the look in his eyes -you know you know that moment – I was hooked.

This was THE perfect movie because it has romance, dance, gorgeous colors, fabulous music and a nail-biting climax; I loved every second of it. (I have actually seen that movie ten times at last count.) My fall into the wonderful world of Bollywood had begun! I watched more and more, learned more and more, and loved it more and more. I made friends all over the world discussing Bollywood movies and stars, which led me to  the amazing opportunity to write about Bollywood, and that just increased my zeal.  I think my passion comes from the movies themselves because of the amazing stories, the brilliant actors and actresses, and the happy feelings you get when you watch a Bollywood film makes this genre magic. Being a former ballet dancer, the dance sequences really draw me into the story. I have so many favorite Hindi film movies that it would take pages to list them all. Bollywood brought a new world to me, a world of friends and colleagues, and I feel blessed every day that I get to do what I do.

 What do you do at Bollyspice? BollySpice-LogoV6 (1)

I am the editor-in-chief at Bollyspice and I am responsible for overseeing  all the content on the site as well as working with our fabulous editors and writers that are all over the world including India, Canada, England, Australia, New Zealand, The Netherlands, Germany, Dubai, and the US.  I, along with the editors, work with each of the writers with ideas for stories, editing and to get the best content live on BollySpice.

I also liase with all the major film companies including UTV, YRF, Eros, Reliance,  Balaji and Fox Star Studios to produce unique content regarding their films. I coordinate with PR companies for articles as well as covering special events and press days in India, UK, US and Canada. I also write and do news stories, features, and music reviews, and interview many of the major stars of Bollywood. Our motto is “We write about what we love” – that is what I try to do.

Tell us about your experience writing about Bollywood

Slumdog-Millionaire-2008I love writing about Bollywood. I love learning new things and with each new story I always discover something new. I write many news articles, and I always find that fun and interesting. I love writing feature articles and used to do many spotlights on the stars. It somewhat surprised me that I could write music reviews, but I love really listening to the soundtracks and getting into the musical essence of them. I am truly honored that I have interviewed so many of the stars and directors of Bollywood including Frieda Pinto and Dev Patel (of Slumdog Millionaire), Kangana Ranaut, Konkona Sen Sharma, Zoya Akhtar, Imran Khan, Ken Ghosh, Riteish Deshmukh, Rakesh Roshan, Sonam Kapoor, Aamir Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Akshay Kumar, Priyanka Chopra, Vidya Balan, Abhishek Bachchan Bipasha Basu, Farhan Akhtar, Shah Rukh Khan, Ali Zafar, Kareena Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Ranveer Singh, Rani Mukerji, Anupam Kher, Siddharth-Garima writers of Ram-leela, Ehsaan, Shekhar, Sunidhi Chauhan, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra, Ranbir Kapoor, Anushka Sharma and more, as well as email interviews with Amitabh Bachchan and Vivek Oberoi.

I still can’t believe it sometimes, and am always surprised at how amazingly nice they all are and so giving in their conversations. Some of the best conversations I have ever had have been during interviews with some of the stars and directors in the Hindi film Industry. It has been an incredible experience that I am thankful for everyday. I love my job!

 Why do you like masalamommas?

I think that masalamommas truly has a unique perspective. It brings fabulous articles and resources to its readers. The portal has many cool features and topics that other sites do not cover. I admire all the writers at masalamommas and I am really looking forward to contributing Bollywood masala to the site.

You can follow Stacey at:

or on Bollyspice @bollyspice and FB www.facebook.com/BollySpice


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