Submitted By: Brandi Eng-Rohrbach

America has long enjoyed not only the exportation of its products and ideals but also its culture. In most other countries, American TV shows and movies are wildly popular. This has only been exacerbated by the internet and the ability to get these shows without waiting. This has created a world entertainment culture based on the American entertainment machine. American TV shows, music, and movies are the only global currency for entertainment. They are so sought out that you can find the latest American movies pirated on the streets of Beijing the day after they come out in the states. They are so sought out that you can hear the latest American Top 40 song blaring in the nightclubs of Mumbai. This is obsession is odd considering many other countries have a variety of shows, music, and movies popular within their country. Yet these indigenous entertainers generally receive little fanfare outside of their own borders.

Yet this has begun to change. We have seen in more recent years the remaking of many foreign movies with American actors. This is particularly true with Asian films in the horror genre. I wonder if soon this will happen with Indian which has its own wildly popular movie machine, Bollywood. Bollywood is the Indian cinema machine. In 2002, it had already surpassed Hollywood in the amount of movie tickets sold. See this chart for a comparison. India has the lion’s share of the world’s teenagers. As the country becomes more and more a country of consumers, will Bollywood gain more world presence? Some people believe so. Could the entertainment industry be changed like the manufacturing industry has? Will we begin to start importing more of Chinese and Indian culture and not just their products? Will our entertainment industry try to enter these markets with products specifically tailored towards these new consumers?

See this article in Business Week for more of a background on Bollywood.

For a taste of Bollywood watch this video of a song from the Bollywood blockbuster Devdas.