Indian movies will earn $208 million (Rs 850 crore) in 2007 in the overseas market, India’s Minister for Information and Broadcasting P.R.Dasmunsi told the country’s parliament on Wednesday.

Last year, Indian movies are said to have earned $171 million in the overseas markets.

Indian movies in Hindi, Punjabi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and other languages are usually grand spectacles with dances, songs, garish costumes and occasionally stolen Hollywood plots.

Two recent Bollywood hits – Partner and Heyy Babyy – are ripoffs of successful Hollywood plots.

Bollywood and regional language movies are very popular with the large Indian diaspora in the U.S., Canada, U.K., Australia and elsewhere.

In the U.S., Indian movies are routinely screened in mainstream theaters in New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvannia and elsewhere.

Cable operators Comcast and Time Warner show Bollywood movies on their cable networks in certain areas like New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvannia and California.

Dasmunsi told the Rajya Sabha, the Lower House of India’s Parliament, that the government was taking several steps to promote Indian films in the overseas markets including participation in foreign film festivals and audio-visual co-production agreements.