How is the Hindi Film Industry a.k.a Bollywood performing?

There has been a massive increase in the number of blockbusters coming out of Bollywood. One recent Bollywood film to do well at the box office is ‘Dabbang 2’, which earned over 41 million in American dollars when it was released last year. Just like a conventional Hollywood blockbuster, ‘Dabbang 2’ is full of action and fight sequences, the plot revolves around a fearless Mumbai cop as he battles corrupt politicians and their henchmen in the name of justice and revenge.

This year’s ‘Chennai Express‘, an action comedy about a man who gets caught up with a kidnapping plot, has now become the highest-grossing Bollywood film ever. ‘Chennai Express’ has taken over from ‘Three Idiots’ which was, until recently, the most successful Bollywood blockbuster of all time and is featured in the IMDB Top 250.

‘Three Idiots’ might be the most famous Bollywood box office success, but there are other films coming out of the Indian film industry bringing huge returns. Bollywood is booming and there has never been such a wide choice of great Hindi films to watch. The only problem is knowing where to find such films. There’s a big market for Hindi films outside of India- especially in the UK.

Where can British fans find Bollywood movies? 

Bollywood films are actually available on the British high-street, if you know where to look. In multi-cultural cities like Manchester, London and Birmingham there are several rental shops that specialise in Bollywood films, particularly in areas famous for their Indian communities. These include Whitechapel in London and Rusholme in Manchester. In areas like these Bollywood fans might also find that the local cinemas that show Hindi films.

For people who don’t have any Bollywood film shops nearby, there’s always the internet. There are websites that specialise in world cinema, such as Cinema Paridiso, where customers can buy films from all over the world, including India. Many Western online movie streaming sites such as Lovefilm now have sections dedicated to Bollywood. Now that Bollywood is performing so well, perhaps it’s time for more retailers to stock up their world cinema sections with Bollywood blockbusters.