India remains the largest film producer of the world, producing an average of 1000 films a year. Since 1931, when the talkies were introduced, India has produced more than 67,000 films in 30 languages.

Bollywood has come a long way since 1896 when soundless movies made its advent into India with the Lumiere Brothers. "Raja Harishchandra" in 1913 made by the legendary Dadasaheb Phalke heralded the birth of the Indian film industry. Today popularly known as Bollywood.

The success of the film is determined by its stars, music, film score, choreography and playback singers. Today songs are played at weddings, festivals, nightclubs, cutting across the numerous ethnicities and lifestyles of Indians, as well as the Indian diaspora spread across the globe. Demonstrating that westernization need not affect the Indian identity.
 

• Indian cinema has a tremendous impact on fans in India and abroad

• Unites the Indian diaspora across the world

• Affirmation and reinforcement of cultural values

• NRIs driving force in the film industry

• Dilwale Dulahniya Le Jayenge, in 1995, stormed theatres abroad

• Fans around the world rooted for Lagaan, India’s entry for the Oscars

• Amitabh Bachchan voted the millennium's biggest star in a worldwide BBC Online poll last year

• More and more Indian movies getting released abroad on the same day as the Indian release

• Popular Hindi cinema crossing overseas to the American, European and African markets

• New markets emerging in New Zealand, Japan, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Mauritius, Tanzania, Kenya, Malaysia and Indonesia

• South Asian fans abroad account for 55% of international Bollywood ticket sales

• Dubbed versions finding new fans in the locals of the overseas markets

• Dil to Pagal Hai" plays to packed houses in places as far as Tel Aviv

• Turner Classic Movies broadcast a 12-film festival of Hindi blockbusters airing classics like "Mother India" and "Dil Chahta Hai“, spanning from 1950 to the present

• Andrew Lloyd Webber directs “Bombay Dreams” with A.R. Rahman

• Baz Luhrmann incorporates “Chumma, Chumma” into Moulin Rouge

• Mira Nair wins the Silver Bear at Venice for "Monsoon Wedding“

• Lagaan and very recently Devdas at Cannes attracts a lot of attention globally to the Indian film industry

• Close brush with Bollywood either through movie releases or stage shows abroad

• In the absence of a desi Universal Studios tour in India, star gazing is restricted to movie screens or to hoping for an accidental brush with a star in a hotel or a pub