Bollywood – international shorthand for Indian movies – exerts a bigger hold on the Indian psyche than even cricket.

India probably makes more movies – mostly pathetic, occasionally unwatchable and rarely interesting – than any other country. And that is when Indian movie-makers are not brazenly stealing successful Hollywood plots.

India has a vibrant movie industry not just in the Hindi language but also regional languages like Tamil, Telugu and Kannada.

Of course there are stray glorious Bollywood aberrations like Taare Zameen Par but far too frequently what Indian movie-goers get to see are ugly Tamil movies like Billa.

Bollywood Statistics

Overall size of Indian movie industry – $ 1.8 billion
(2006)

97% of urban youth prefer to watch movies at multiplexes

75% of non-urban youth prefer to watch movies at home

Revenue from box office – 84%

Home video share of overall movie market – 8%

Bollywood movie tickets sold (2006) – 3.7 billion

Hindi movies account for 20% of movies made in India

Tamil & Telugu movies account for 40% of movies made in India

Total number of Multiplexes – 480

Multiplexes account for 10% of screens

Multiplexes account for 37% of theatrical revenue because of higher ticket prices

Source: India Today international Edition (December 17, 2007) , CII-AT Kearney study