Bollywood/Talk

Is 'Bollywood' used as a name for the entire Indian film industry or just the one around Bombay? There are many other centers of film in India, especially due to the variety of languages.

And as long as i'm here, may i say that Hey, Ram was an absolutely fantastic film! --JohnAbbe

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I'm afraid I have to confess that I'm no Bollywood expert although I do have an awareness of this scene. My method for starting Wikipedia pages is to write from my existing understanding of a subject and then start to refine this picture, along with other contributers, through subsequent research and feedback. In this initial, draft version I generally try to restrict myself to making statements that I am confident are true so they can be expanded later.

However I suspect that Bollywood is just Bombay although such a cultural/creative industry that tends to spread over time, as the original town becomes too big or too expensive for it house all the people who want to make this kind of films.

-- Aristotle

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The distinction between "Indian film industry" and "Bombay film industry" may not be crucial here. We could probably make the case that "Hollywood" is a shorthand for "U.S. film industry".

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The article claim Bollywood as the world's largest film industry. Can someone quote some statistics? Is it largest by the number of films produced or number of film studios or by the total budget of these films?

I don't have the numbers on me, but I know the claim rests on the number of films produced.

-- A quick ref on this: http://www.the-week.com/20sep24/cover.htm (I have no idea who these guys are.)

Another: http://www.bollywhat.com/Firsttime_index.html

Here we go! From BBC News; I trust them: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/newsid_262000/262486.stm