Indian Cinema

It is common for Americans to think that Hollywood is the largest film industry in the world. The truth of the matter is that Bollywood actually is the largest film industry. It would be nonsense to consider Bollywood one of the most underrated film industries in the world, because it is very popular all over the world except for in the United States. Bollywood has a very wide fan base in places such as Europe, Asia, and Africa. Considering that Bollywood makes over 800 films a year, its strange how none of those movies make it to mainstream Hollywood. There are theaters in America that show Bollywood movies, they just aren't easily accessible as your local movie theater that shows American feature films. This isn't a big deal since there are way too many movies released in India for them to feature American made movies in India or vice-versa. There are movie theaters in India that show Hollywood movies just like there are theaters that in America that show Bollywood movies.

Bollywood is known as the nickname for the popular Indian cinema industry. It gets its name from mixing the two names Bombay and Hollywood. Bombay is the original name for Mumbai before it changed its name back to Mumbai. Mumbai is the capital city of Bollywood and the birthplace of Indian cinema. Mumbai, Maharashtra is the equivalent to Hollywood, California. Maharashtra is one of 28 states that combine to make the overpopulated country India. Mumbai has a population of about 18 million people and is one of the most populated cities in the world. Bollywood is very similar to Hollywood. Aspiring models, singers, actors and actresses all come to Mumbai searching for their big break the same way people go to Hollywood search for success in the movie industry. Considering that there are way more movies released in Bollywood than in Hollywood, it would be common sense to conclude that there is a better chance for one to fulfill their aspirations in Mumbai than in Hollywood.

The movie scene in India is bigger than the movie scene here in the United States. Out of the 1 billion people in India, over 14 million people find their way to the movie theater to see a movie a day. 14 million may seem like a lot, but considering the amount of people who lives there, that's only 1.4% of the people who lives there. Bollywood movies are usually last about 3 to 4 hours. The average length of movies in the United States is about 1 Ð... to 2 hours. Since the movies can be rather lengthy, there is often an intermission allowed. The longer length of the Bollywood movies can add more entertainment or it can add boredom depending on the quality of the movie. Most Bollywood movies are musicals. Most of the time, the quality of the music can determine the quality of the film. Bollywood movies relate to the majority of the Asian society and religions (Hindu, Muslim, and Buddhist). The most common language spoken is Hindi (spoken by 40% of Asians), therefore Bollywood films are often spoken in Hindi. There are few Bollywood movies that are full English films, therefore most Bollywood movies need subtitles for your viewing pleasure. Bollywood movies are multimillion dollar movies. Some movies can cost up to ten million dollars. Bollywood movies are likely to have melodramatic plots. Melodramatic means that the melody is used to represent the emotion