Welcome to the Battle Field!

Hollywood seems to be the number one movie producer in the world – but actually its Indian competitor industry Bollywood is already bigger and seeks international success! This blog examines Bollywood’s chances to become more successful than Hollywood and eventually having a great impact on the Western society.

Bollywood produces more than 1000 movies each year, it has a viewership of 3.6 billion people worldwide (Businessweek, 2002) and the industry keep growing. Therefore, this blog is a way to make people aware of these changes. Living in the Western society, we believe that Hollywood is and will stay the one and only - Bollywood is unimportant and not impacting us. Many people probably also think that Bollywood is just watched in India – you might well be surprised how far it has already spread. Movies like Slumdog Millionaire were international successes, and also the movie Moulin Rouge is stronger connected to the Indian cinema than you might expect.

Is it really no problem that there is a common misperception about Hollywood and Bollywood? How many hidden Bollywood productions or co-productions are already going on in Hollywood and the Western world? How could this affect our society? This blog tries to give you a deeper examination of the issue, looking at markets, which changes are going on in Bollywood, who are the leading forces behind it and the possible cultural, social, business, movie style and industry changes for the West.

My personal interest in this issue is that I love Bollywood movies – unfortunately there are only few people I can share this passion with. But maybe this will change soon when the Indian movie industry gains a greater impact on Hollywood, and therefore the Western hemisphere. However, what I find interesting is the fact that barely anyone notices the changes going on – and that nobody shares this keenness of the colorful movies, full of dancing, singing, showing emotions, believing in true love and wearing the most exquisite traditional clothes and jewelry. So I would like to offer you some more insights on how Bollywood grows and develops in order to help you understand the ongoing process of shifting of power, money, influence and business deals.

Reference:

Bloomberg Businessweek. (2002, Decemer 02). Hollywood vs Bollywood. Businessweek.com. Retrieved April 25, 2011 from http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/02_48/b3810019.htm.