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Bollywood
It was Dadasaheb Phalke who's silent movies laid the foundations of Bollywood, today's centre of India's film and television industry. In the 1930s, the industry was already producing over 200 films per annum. The first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Irani's Alam Ara (1931), was a great success.
Bollywood, initially a nickname blending of "Bombay" and "Hollywood", has long become a world renowned name of origin and category of entertaining movies with a distinct use of dance and music. Most of Bollywood studios are located at Film City in the densely forested hills of Goregaon, next to tropical Sanjay Gandhi National Park.
Bollywood films make primary use of the languages of Hindi and Urdu, but there is a growing presence of English in dialogue and songs as well. A few films are also made in two or even three languages by either using subtitles, or several soundtracks.
Bollywood has become a strong part of popular culture of not only India, but also of the rest of South Asia, in the Middle East, parts of Africa, parts of Southeast Asia, and among the South Asian diaspora worldwide. There are increasing audiences in the UK and other European countries, in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the USA, and not only among the Indian immigrant population of these countries but in general. Since decades, Bollywood has been largely popular in Eastern Europe. Bollywood films are very popular in the Gulf countries where many Indian films are dubbed in Arabic upon their release. Indian film stars have a broad fan base in a variety of Arab countries, such as Egypt. Bollywood is very popular in most African countries. Recently, Bollywood has also become quite successful in Israel. Indian films dominate cinemas across the Iran. Bollywood is very popular in Oceanic Countries such as New Guinea and Indonesia. Bollywood films seem to unite the world. The only continent where Bollywood is not that popular yet is South America.
"Indian audiences expect full value for their money, with a good entertainer generally referred to as paisa vasool, (literally, "money's worth"). Songs and dances, love triangles, comedy and dare-devil thrills — all are mixed up in a three-hour-long extravaganza with an intermission. Such movies are called masala films, after the Hindustani word for a spice mixture, masala. Like masalas, these movies are a mixture of many things. Bollywood plots have tended to be melodramatic. They frequently employ formulaic ingredients such as star-crossed lovers and angry parents, love triangles, family ties, sacrifice, corrupt politicians, kidnappers, conniving villains, courtesans with hearts of gold, long-lost relatives and siblings separated by fate, dramatic reversals of fortune, and convenient coincidences." - wikipedia
Shah Rukh Khan and Aishwarya Rai seem to be the most popular Bollywood stars. Film kisses are no longer banned. In plots, westernised patterns of dating behaviour are about to outdate traditional arranged marriages.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bollywood