Bollywood

Bollywood is the informal name given to the popular Mumbai-based film industry in India.

Finances

Bollywood budgets are usually modest by Hollywood standards. Sets, costumes, special effects, and cinematography were less than world-class up until the mid-to-late 1990s. But as Western films and television gain wider distribution in India itself, there is increasing pressure for Bollywood films to attain the same production levels. Sequences shot overseas have proved a real box office draw, so Mumbai film crews are increasingly peripatetic, filming in Australia, New Zealand, United Kingdom, continental Europe and elsewhere. Nowadays, Indian producers are drawing in more and more funding for big-budget films shot within India as well, such as Lagaan, Devdas, and the recent production The Rising.

Related Topics:
Sets - Costume - Special effects - Cinematography - Television - Box office - Peripatetic - Australia - New Zealand - United Kingdom - Lagaan - Devdas - ''The Rising''

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Funding for Bollywood films often comes from private distributors and a few large studios. Indian banks were forbidden to lend money to film productions, but this ban has been lifted recently. As the finances are not regulated properly some of the money also comes from illegitimate sources. Mumbai gangsters have produced films, patronized stars, and used muscle to get their way in cinematic deals. In January of 2000, Mumbai mafia hitmen shot at Rakesh Roshan, film director and father of star Hrithik Roshan; he had rebuffed mob attempts to meddle with his film distribution. In 2001 the Central Bureau of Investigation, India's national police agency, seized all prints of the film Chori Chori Chupke Chupke after the movie was found to be funded by members of the Mumbai underworld.

Related Topics:
Studios - Bank - Hrithik Roshan - Central Bureau of Investigation - Police - Chori Chori Chupke Chupke - Mumbai underworld

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Another problem facing Bollywood is widespread copyright infringement of its films. Often pirated DVDs arrive before the print for the picture. Factories in Pakistan and India stamp out thousands of infringing DVDs, VCDs, and VHS tapes, which are then shipped all over the world. (Copying is particularly rife in Pakistan, since the government has banned the import of Indian films, leaving piracy as the only way to distribute them.) Films are frequently broadcast without compensation by countless small cable-TV companies in India and Asia. Small Indian grocery-spice-video stores in the U.S. and the U.K. stock tapes and DVDs of dubious provenance while consumer copying adds to the problem. The availability of illegal copies of movies on the Internet also contributes to the piracy problem.

Related Topics:
Copyright infringement - DVD

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Satellite TV, television and imported foreign films are making huge inroads into the domestic Indian entertainment market. In the past, most Bollywood films could make money; now fewer do so. Balanced against this are the increasing returns from theatres in Western countries like the United Kingdom, Canada, and the United States, where Bollywood is slowly getting noticed. As more Indians migrate to these countries, they form a growing market for upscale Indian films. 'Foreign' audiences—in Asian and Western countries—are also growing, if more slowly.

Related Topics:
United Kingdom - Canada - United States

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For an interesting comparison of Hollywood and Bollywood financial figures, see this chart: http://www.businessweek.com//magazine/content/02_48/art02_48/a48tab37.gif

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