Bollywood??, you would ask, did you misspelled Hollywood? Bollywood is a film industry that is growing in India. In fact, it has the world's biggest film industry and puts out more than 60000 movies in more than 10 languages. Bollywood got its name from Bombay (now called Mumbai) and Hollywood, but the movies made there are nothing like most Hollywood movies. Masala films, which literally mean "spicy films," are made in Bollywood. They have long, beautiful song sequences, comedy, thrills, and a love triangle. Star-crossed lovers, love triangles, angry parents, family ties and fortunes, emotional and physical sacrifice for a lover, corrupt politicians who seem to own everything, novice kidnappers, gangsters smuggling gold and ammunition, cunning villains, courtesans with good hearts, relatives and twins separated by fate or villains, dramatic reversals of fortune and events, and convenient coincidences make masala films very popular. Most movies are made to appeal to a wide audience, but a few have tried to start new trends.
Bollywood is popular not only in India but also in the English-speaking world and the middle east, where there are a lot of people of Indian descent who live. There are also a lot of Hindi movie fans in Russia and Japan, especially Raj Kapoor and Rajni Kanth.
Bollywood music is called "filmi music," and it's made by actors lip-syncing to songs that were already recorded. Playback singers are more popular than the average star, and they have a huge number of fans who go to the movies just to hear their favorite singer's song. Kishor Kumar has a lot of fans and an official fan club, and not just in India. His movies are popular everywhere where Bollywood movies are shown. Professional poets, not the singers themselves, write the lyrics.
Like lyrics, some "dialogues" are written to please a large number of people. Don't be surprised if people throw "coin" at the screen when their favorite actor says something like "Kute, Tera Khun Pi Jayuga," which means "Bloody Dog!, I'll suck the blood out of you."
People from all over India who want to star come to try their luck and become Bollywood's biggest stars. Some of them are former Miss World Aishwarya Rai, former bus driver Rajni, and former cooks Akshay Kumar and Shah Rukh Khan. Bollywood is crazy about its stars and rumors.
There are also Kollywood, Tollywood, and Lollywood, which get their names from Hollywood and major cities in India where they mostly make movies in regional languages.
Bollywood has its own awards and parties, just like Oscar. Zee award, IIFA award, to name a few, are well-known and often celebrated outside of India.
In the US, video rental stores like Blockbuster are getting more and more Bollywood movies. So, why don't you just do it? You can get lost in the magical world of Bollywood by renting good movies like "Hum Aapke Hain Koun" (1994) and "Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge" (1995).
