India produces more films than any other country and its fame comes from Bollywood. The Indian film industry is situated mainly in Mumbai. Bollywood– its name comes from the word, “Hollywood” and the first letter from the word, Bombay, is quite possibly the world’s largest film industry. However, Bollywood still doesn’t have the fame and fortune of Hollywood. DivisionofLabour.com states that Bollywood’s global annual revenues, estimated at $1.3 billion this year, are small change compared with Hollywood’s $51 billion. But theaters worldwide still sold some 3.6 billion tickets to Bollywood films last year, compared with Hollywood’s 2.6 billion. Much of this success is driven by impressive world-wide popularity.

The scale of the business of Bollywood is not trivial. According to a Pricewaterhouse Coopers report, India’s film business earned $1.12 billion in 2004, up from $617 million in 2001. Much of this success is driven by global popularity. An average Indian movie’s budget is $500,000 (though the major titles can budget more than $10 million), far below the average $14 million spent in the US. However, there is no end in sight with some industry specialists predicting that Bollywood will double its revenues by 2009. It probably doesn’t help that movie tickets in India are probably the cheapest in the world.

Bollywood’s fame is helped by the fact that people living in countries around India, tend to understand Hindi very well. The national language of Pakistan is Urdu, which is very similar to Hindu. And Hindi movies are also popular in countries such as Nepal.

According to southasiabiz.com over the last few years ” Bollywood producers and directors are taking stories from Hollywood films and using them in their movies. For example, Ek Ajnabee copied “Men on Fire” by Denzel Washington; the movie “Holiday” is based on the story of Dirty Dancing by Patrick Swayze.

All of these trends indicate that Bollywood is alive and well, flourishing and making money.

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Supporters of Shilpa Shetty club took to the streets of India raising anti Richard Gere slogans. Elsewhere protesters burned and kicked effigies of the veteran Hollywood actor and Shilpa Shetty after footage of Gere repeatedly kissing Shilpa during an HIV-AIDS Awareness event aired on Indian television on April 17, 2007. Many saw the act as a violation against Shetty’s modesty and a outrage to Indian culture. Some protesters even went as far as calling for the deaths of Gere and Shilpa, while others demanded a apology to the public.

Shetty, the winner of “Celebrity Big Brother”, a reality Television show in the U.K., said that the protests made India look silly.

“I admit it went a little overboard but that was not the intention,” she said to a crowd of journalists and protesters that came to her film set in Mumbai a day after the spectacle.

“He (Gere) did not do anything obscene,” she said, adding that they had since spoken over the phone. “He apologized to me and told me to tell the media that he apologized.”

Gere began a campaign to unite Bollywood movie actors, government officials, and business leaders to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS in India. India currently has the world’s second largest number of HIV-infected people. The event was organized by different foundations including HIV/AIDS advocacy groups to help create awareness on unsafe sexual practices.

“No condom, no sex,” 58-year-old Gere shouted in Hindi. The crowd responded by yelling and whistling as Gere kissed Shetty’s hand. Gere then begain to kiss her cheeks repeatedly. An embarrassed Shetty pulled back and told Gere, “This is a bit too much.”

However, the Bollywood actress insists that Indians are over reacting. Shetty said, “I understand this is his culture, not ours. But this was not such a big thing or so obscene for people to over react in such a manner. I understand people’s sentiments, but I don’t want a foreigner to take bad memories from here.”

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Mike Tyson, the former heavyweight boxing champion is set to groove to Indian pop music in a promotional video for a Bollywood comedy set for a June release.

Tyson will be in Mumbai this upcoming summer to film a promo with the cast of “Fool n Final”, a comedic film in which two gangs clash over diamonds while they are being shipped from the Middle East to India.

“The movie is a laugh riot, and the filmmakers thought Tyson would be great in the promo,” the publicist said.

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The Big B has spoken. Amitabh Bachchan disregarded the idea that Indian films should try to win Oscars, saying that Bollywood is even more creative than Hollywood.

India produces about a thousand films in over ten languages each year. No film from India has ever won an Oscar, although Lagaan and Mother India have been nominated.

Bachchan said that he did not believe an Indian film winning an Oscar was the, in his words the “ultimate recognition for any great film”. He also went on to say that it was offending to all Indians to suggest that.

“I do believe that Indian film has its own exhibition,” Bachchan said, referring to the International Indian Film Academy’s annual awards. “Where we respect the Oscars and what they are, our creativity is the best,” he added.

Bollywood, which makes as many as 3 times as many films as Hollywood per year, has captivated movie lovers around the world with its escapist musical extravaganzas.

Bachchan welcomed films that married Western and Indian cinema such as Bride and Prejudice (starring Aishwarya Rai), featuring both Western and Indian actors.

“Any kind of marriage is going to be good when creative interests are common,” Bachchan added.

“I do believe that if the United Kingdom wants to make a film with India, there can only be benefits…”

Bachchan also indicated that he would certainly consider roles from the West.

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