Bollywood: the magic of Indian cinema -

Indian cinema

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Bollywood -

Bollywood is the name used to refer to the Hindi-language film industry, which is the most widely spoken language in Indian cinema. It's also the most profitable market in Indian cinema around the world. 

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Mumbai, Maharashtra - Mumbai is India's film mecca and has about 12.5 million inhabitants. The metropolitan area has more than 23 million residents, making it the sixth largest in the world.

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Cinema neighborhood - The suburb of Andheri is Mumbai's film center. It's the place where scriptwriters, production companies and other movie-related services have their headquarters.

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The name - The city of Mumbai used to be known as Bombay. As India's answer to Hollywood, the words were merged and it became known as Bollywood.

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Boom -

The industry became known as Bollywood after the 1970's. This was the period when the country surpassed the United States as the largest film producer in the world.

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The arrival of cinema - Cinema was first brought to India by the Lumière brothers—two of the earliest filmmakers in history. Their manager happened to travel to India in 1896, just a few months after they shot their first pictures, and he introduced the new technology to the country.

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The largest film industry -

Bollywood is currently the largest film industry in the world. While the United States produces around 700 movies per year, India produces more than 1,000. 

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Box office -

Bollywood films outsell Hollywood films in terms of theater tickets every year. In 2002, Bollywood films sold 3.6 billion tickets, while Hollywood films sold just 2.6 billion. 

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Genre - Bollywood is famous for its musicals, with plenty of singing and dancing. The plot usually mixes adventure, comedy and drama, and love triangles are often part of the script. All this in one single movie!

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Musical performances -

The actors don't have to sing well, but they must be excellent dancers. The songs are usually recorded in a studio by professional singers and then lip-synced by the actors and dancers.

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Dance -

Despite the proliferation of western styles, traditional Indian dances still dominate Bollywood's choreography. Usually, the songs' lyrics match specific movie scenes.

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Dance - Dancers are able to completely change their clothes and setting in a matter of seconds. They do so according to which part of the song they're performing.

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Sold out - 5% of all the movies watched around the world have been produced by Bollywood. This is due to the Indian audience, which fills up movie theaters. Tickets in India cost about $1.

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Basic productions - The average cost of producing an Indian film is about $500,000. The cost is relatively lower when compared to that of an European or American movie.

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Lower profit worldwide - Despite this, Bollywood is far from being the most profitable film industry. Hollywood alone gets about 60% of the world's box office profits.

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National pride - The population love national movies. Hollywood movies are only watched by 10% of Indian moviegoers - this is one of the lowest percentages in the world.

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Remakes - Remakes of Western movies are common in Bollywood. One of the biggest hits of 2007 was the movie 'Heyy Babyy', which is essentially an Indian version of 'Three Men and a Baby'.

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Book as the script -

Classic Hindu books have been used as scripts for Bollywood movies. One of these was 'Mahabharata', which has 74 thousand versions and it's considered to be the book with the largest amount of text.

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National production companies -

The main Indian film production company is Yash Raj Films, which is the largest in the country. Balaji Telefilms and Muktra Arts have also produced internationally-acclaimed movies.

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Nollywood - The Nigerian film industry 'Nollywood' is also on the rise. The name was given to the industry because of its similarities with Indian cinema.

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Box office success -

The 2009 movie '3 Idiots' was Bollywood's biggest worldwide box office success, with a whopping $80 million.

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India's Oscars -

The best professionals in Indian cinema are awarded in a ceremony similar to that of the Oscars. For more than 50 years, the Filmfare Awards has rewarded the best scriptwriters, actors, and directors, among others.

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Conservative -

Because they are more conservative than European and American productions, Indian films are very well received in Muslim countries such as Afghanistan, Pakistan, Bangladesh and western China.

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Largest state - Mumbai is located in Maharashtra, on the west coast of India. It's the largest state in the area and the second most populous in the country, with about 112 million inhabitants.

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Economy - Economic stability was one of the main factors that contributed for the growth of Indian cinema, which allowed the emerging middle-class to start consuming Indian movies.

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Masala style -

Indian films are usually referred to as masala, which is a blend of spices. That's because Bollywood movies blend singing, dancing, romance, comedy, drama and action.

See also: A journey through India's rich traditions and culture

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