{"id":24793,"date":"2021-01-21T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-01-21T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/?p=24793"},"modified":"2025-05-01T14:46:04","modified_gmt":"2025-05-01T13:46:04","slug":"bollywood-beginners-guide-indias-billion-dollar-film-industry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.trafalgar.com\/real-word\/bollywood-beginners-guide-indias-billion-dollar-film-industry\/","title":{"rendered":"Bollywood: inside India’s billion-dollar film industry"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

If you\u2019re not overly familiar with the big world of Indian cinema, welcome to our guide to Bollywood for beginners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you grew up in the west, it could be easy to think that Bollywood is a sub genre of Hollywood or just a term to describe all Indian cinema, but you\u2019d be wrong. The fact is, Bollywood produces around 1000 films every year, which is almost double the output of Hollywood. And Bollywood is just one sector of the Indian film industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the best movies to the best actors, our guide will help you uncover the biggest and best of the Hindi film industry and provide inspiration for your next trip to incredible India<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Bollywood?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

India is a big country that speaks many languages. Bollywood is the popular nickname given to mainstream Hindi-language films. Mostly based out of Mumbai, every year Bollywood creates at least 800 films and sells four billion tickets. Yes, four<\/em> billion<\/em>! And this is only a small part of the larger Indian film industry. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you think of Bollywood, you probably think of dancing and cheesy plotlines. Maybe music, romance, song, drama, comedy and action too, or all of the above! Historically the genre has been focused on family-friendly fun with elaborate dance scenes and plenty of songs. Each film plot has a heroic storyline with a love interest to create plenty of drama. More recently though, the genre has stepped things up with stronger themes and less predictable plotlines while staying true to its roots. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Where to watch Bollywood movies?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Hit the search bar in Netflix and you\u2019ll be surprised by just how many titles are there ready to watch. Of course it depends on your location, but some amazing films are available on the streaming platform, or you could try Amazon Prime (which even has an add-on channel called Heera with the best Bollywood movies). Or you can rent titles from iTunes or Amazon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hindi films are also often show at big cinema chains. While they might not have the long seasons and big posters of a Hollywood blockbuster, read between the lines and you will likely spot Bollywood movies showing a few sessions for a week or two at your local cinema. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RELATED <\/strong><\/em>CONTENT: <\/em><\/strong>9 reasons why you\u2019ll fall in love with the culture in India<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which Bollywood movies should I watch?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

With so many titles released each year it can be hard to know where to start. This is Bollywood for beginners so let’s start with the best Bollywood movies since 2000.\u00a0<\/p> The highest grossing film<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The biggest grossing Bollywood film ever was created in 2016 and is called Dangal<\/em><\/strong>. The story is a biopic of Mahavir Singh Phogat, a former wrestler who taught his daughters the sport too. One went on to become India’s first female wrestlers to win at the 2010 Commonwealth Games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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