Bollywood is a popular name for the film industry in India. The name is a combination of Bombay, the former name of the city of Mumbai, where the Indian film industry is based, and Hollywood, the capital of cinema in the United States and a de facto symbol for movies worldwide. The majority of Bollywood films use the Hindi, Urdu or Hindustani languages. It has become more common, however, for these films to include the extensive use of English as well, both in songs and in dialogue, as English has become more widely known in India and as Bollywood’s export market has increased.
More Tickets Sold than Hollywood
The Bollywood market is enormous. It is the largest film market in the world in terms of both films released and tickets sold, with more than four billion tickets sold each year. The market is far behind Hollywood in terms of financial income, however, because of a wide disparity in ticket prices and the prices of recorded movies.
At one time, Bollywood films often had a lower production quality than their Hollywood counterparts. As Hollywood movies and Western television have become more prevalent throughout India, however, Bollywood has had to improve its quality to keep up. Although most modern films made in India still are produced for a much lower cost than Hollywood films, the gap in production quality has been reduced.
Extravagant Designs and Intricate Dance Routines
Costumes and sets are important in most Bollywood productions, much like they were in Hollywood during the 1950s. Bright colors, lavish designs and exotic locations are all staples of Bollywood films. Perhaps the most iconic aspect of these films — certainly to Western audiences — is their reliance on musical numbers and dance routines. Although they are not strictly musicals by the common definition, these films do tend to have grand, intricately choreographed dance scenes with accompanying songs that usually were made specially for the film. This is not unlike many Hollywood movies of the 1940s and 1950s, which used music and dance as a way to further the plot and provide a diverting entertainment without actually depending on the song and dance for the core of the film.
Bollywood films are popular throughout the world, not only because of the large numbers of people from India and Pakistan who live in other countries but because many people find them to be well made and entertaining. A huge import market exists in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia and countries that have many people from Indian or Pakistan. Bollywood movies also are wildly popular in the Middle East, including Afghanistan and Iran.