The term “Bollywood’ has its origins in the 1970s, when India overtook America as the world’s largest film producer. This era also saw the rise of commercial cinema.
While the term is usually thought to represent the entire Indian community, the truth is that films are made in various languages in India and each language’s industry carries its own name.
The Hindi language film industry was founded in the most populous city of the Republic of India. Bollywood was established in Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay (hence the Bollywood nickname). The wealthiest city in India, Mumbai has long been one of India’s foremost centres for arts and culture.
Early influences of Indian cinema:
Bollywood was heavily influenced and created by artists in Parsi theatre, who were based in Mumbai. Parsi blended realism with fantasy, music with dance, narrative with spectacle as well as dialogue with stage presentation.
This industry represents the majority of net box office revenue in the country and has established itself as one of the largest centres of film production in the world.
Bollywood is one of the biggest film industries in the world in terms of people employed and the number of films produced.
This industry is also not offered protection by any state government.
The 2000s saw a growth in Bollywood’s popularity across the world. Post 2001, film budgets increased significantly, along with the frequency of worldwide releases.
Bollywood movies have found worldwide popularity, even influencing some Hollywood storylines, with some major films incorporating Bollywood-inspired themes and dances.
Bollywood movies have also spawned a number of Indian movie stars, including the likes of Ashwariya Rai, Anil Kapoor, Irrfan Khan, Shahrukh Khan, Salman Khan and Amitabh Bachchan.
Bachchan has a career spanning 50 years in Bollywood, with 150 Bollywood movies to his name. He was one of the top 10 highest earning actors in the world in 2015, according to Forbes, earning a cool $33.5 million.