“ Bollywood” stands for popular Hindi films possessing mass appeal and refers mainly to films emanating from Mumbai in India.Bollywood is the largest film producing industry in the world – over 1000 films which includes many films from different regions of India!
The term “ Bollywood “ has also been popularalized by the growth of Indian cable and Satellite Channels across the globe with their heavy emphasis on Hindi language cinema based content and chat shows.
Music is an integral part of Indian cinema due to the tradition of narrative style. In films these verses become elongated to the famous song and dance routine.
Indian cinema has begun shifting audience focus. It is increasingly reaching out to Non Resident South Asians and is trying to win over western audiences. Technical excellence has been hitting a new high. Indophiles see Indian cinema taking over the West like Indian curry and IT Industry and indeed India has the potential.
Films are increasingly released with English subtitles in the overseas markets. It is beginning to happen albeit slowly.
The nomination of Indian films for Oscars (Lagaan) in the foreign film category and celebration of Indian Musical genius A R Rahman, the appearance of Aishwariya and Abhishek Bachchan on Oprah, Regis and Kelly, the Grammy’s Awards, Anil Kapoor on the popular TV Drama 24 are contributing to western audience interest.
Major US entertainment conglomerates have begun to invest in Indian entertainment and Slum Dog Millionaire has certainly contributed to elevated interest! Indian named directors (Mira Nair, Shekhar Kapoor, M Night Shyamalan and Deepa Mehta) have also contributed to familiarization with mainstream media and audiences globally!
India’s rich pluralistic tradition has enabled talent from different communities, regions, religious and languages to blossom in Bollywood.
Bollywood attracts over 1 billion audiences worldwide.