Bollywood is a popular name for the film industry in India. It combines the name of Hollywood, the capital of cinema in the United States and a de facto symbol for movies worldwide, and Bombay, the older name for the city of Mumbai, where the Indian film industry is based.

The bulk of Bollywood films are in Hindi, Urdu, or Hindustani, depending on the film and on your interpretation of these various languages. It is becoming more and more common for Bollywood films to feature extensive English as well, both in songs and in dialogue, as English becomes more widely-known in India and as Bollywood’s export market increases.

The Bollywood market is enormous. Bollywood is by far the largest film market in the world in terms of both films released and box office tickets sold. More than four billion tickets are sold each year to Bollywood productions. However, because of the disparity in ticket and DVD prices, Bollywood trails Hollywood drastically in terms of financial income. Hollywood makes more than $50 billion annually in combined sales from their productions, while Bollywood makes just over $1 billion.

Bollywood films until fairly recently were often of a production quality much lower than that of their Western counterparts. As Hollywood movies and Western television have become more prevalent throughout India, Bollywood has been forced to raise the bar in order to keep up. While modern Bollywood productions are still produced for very little by Hollywood standards, the production quality can still be quite lavish.

Costumes and sets are very important in most Bollywood productions, in a way similar to Hollywood of the 1950s. Bright colors, lavish designs, and exotic locations are all staples of Bollywood films. In recent years there has been an upsurge of interest in foreign locations, as well, and so many Bollywood films are shot out of the country.

Perhaps the most iconic aspect of Bollywood films — certainly to a Western audience — is the reliance on musical numbers and dance routines. While not strictly “musicals” in the way most Westerners would assume, Bollywood films do tend to have intricately-choreographed massive dance scenes with accompanying songs, usually made specially for the film. This is not so unlike many movies produced in the United States during 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, due not only to the large numbers of Indians and Pakistanis living in other countries, but because the production values and sheer entertainment kindles many people’s interest. A huge import market exists in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, and other Western countries with large Indian and Pakistani populations. Bollywood movies are also wildly popular in Afghanistan, and similarly popular in Iran and other sections of the Arab world.

As Bollywood’s production values continue to increase, and as their primary markets begin to have more and more disposable income, their overall profits will undoubtedly go up. With a burgeoning popularity of Indian culture in some Western countries, and the increasing frequency of English and English-language subtitles or dubbing on Bollywood films, they will likely see increased popularity amongst Westerners as well.