Western Countries Becoming Interested to Bollywood Movies

Bollywood is the second largest movie industry after Hollywood in the world. For a long time, Bollywood movies had audiences only from Asia and the other world was not interested about Bollywood movies at all. However, the situation has been changed a lot over the last decade with Western countries becoming more and more interested about Bollywood. Well, it does not mean that Bollywood movies are becoming popular to the people of those countries. Actually, the number of Asian people including NRI is increasing at a great speed in the European countries and these small groups of people have formed a large market of Bollywood movie outside India, because Bollywood movie is the main source of their entertainment.

Moreover, Bollywood have become an effective way to promote tourism to the vast number of Indian people. If a movie is shot in a location in a foreign country, Indian people find the place attractive to make a tour during the holidays. Now, having sensed the economic interest, delegates from Western countries are now frequently visiting India to invite producers to shoot their movies in those countries. Some are making co-producing deal with the Bollywood producers.

Hindustan Times reported:

For instance, Britain is promoting the Lake District in Cumbria as the latest destination because Mr Bhatti Ki Chutti starring Anupam Kher was shot there. It tells the story of a group of tourists holidaying in the lake districts.

Encouraged by the boost in tourism these countries have received through Bollywood, Canada is now sending trade delegations to India to talk to Indian producers' bodies like the Film and Television Producers' Guild of India and the Indian Motion Picture Producers' Association (IMPPA).

A Spanish delegation, led by Ignacio Martinez, deputy director, Department of International Relations, Confederation of Employers' and Industries (Madrid Region), has held a preliminary meeting with IMPPA and the Guild.

China is also inviting Bollywood films to be shot in China, despite having a large industry by their own. England has given extensive focus on Bollywood in order to promote their tourism sector. The country has recently launched a Bollywood tourism map where they have indicated the places Hindi movies were shot so far.

Raj Kapoor first shot outside India for his film Sangam. However, the film personalities like Dev Anand and Yash Chopra carried out the trend and made it popular. Aditya Chopra’s Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge is considered to be one of the path finders of this trend. Now, let us see how far Bollywood could go this way.