Bollywood films are creating misconceptions among audiences abroad about Indian poetry and the rapid change in Indian society, according to award winning Hindi poet Kanhaiya Lal Nandan.

The poet, who is on a visit to South Africa, was addressing an audience here at the invitation of Indian Consul General Suresh Goel. "That is a dilemma; whether we should consider Bollywood songs to be poetry or should we not," said Nandan, a Padma Shri awardee.

"There was a time when (poet) Saahir Ludhianvi was writing (for Indian films) and that was considered to be poetry. But now the music is playing a more important role; the entertainment element is playing a more important role than the content of the songs. The wider content is just entertainment.

"In my opinion, I would not take any Bollywood song to be a part of poetry. It may entertain you, but the times are gone when the writers for films like 'Awaara' and 'Shree 420' were writing really good poetry with emotional feeling that stirred (the audience). "

Nandan said today songs were just being churned out meaninglessly to entertain the masses.

"The films are giving such a glamorous outlook of Indian life that there is very little space to reflect the reality of the emerging affluent society in India which often surprises even Western visitors."

Nandan said this change in India was being reflected in the various literary art forms in the country.

"That rapid change is being reflected in poetry; in novels; and particularly in dramas. In Marathi, in Hindi, there are lots of novels and short stories reflecting this."

Asked to comment on the indigenous poetry of South Africa which has only emerged in the past decade of democracy after being suppressed for generations by minority apartheid rulers, Nandan said while he had not studied the poetry of the country, he had no doubt that as in the case of pre-independence India, poetry would have been an important medium of promoting the struggle for freedom here.

"We (in India) used poetry in our freedom struggle to give inspiration and now we are depicting our hopes, dreams and expectations through poetry; exactly in the same way as in any part of the world. In South Africa also that reflection will come - if not today, then tomorrow."