Indian Cinema Takes On The World

Yet Bollywood, not Hollywood, is the largest film industry in the world and the studios of Mumbai effortlessly produce up to eight hundred titles a year. Bound by convention - no kissing or bloodshed - in the past only a fraction of these were taken up by the West. Those that did succeed - Mother India (1957), Kaagaz Ke Phool (1959) Sholay (1975) - were regarded as having done so in spite of the system rather than because of it. Instrumental have been a series of stylish, sophisticated Hinglish films - movies that blend the kitsch and colour of Bollywood with a Western-friendly cool. Many retain the old conventions - you won't see much snogging for example, and passion still gives rise to song. But there's a slickness to the production and an extravagance to the storytelling that makes for fantastic, escapist entertainment. And if success is measured in Oscar nominations, or even if it's not, then the daddy of the new Hinglish cinema was Lagaan.

Starring and produced by Aamir Khan, it's the story of a drought-stricken rural community rising up against the Raj and staking their livelihood on a game of cricket. The most expensive Indian film at the time of its release, it picked up a small cupboard's worth of awards and went on to become India's biggest international hit.For many, Lagaan served as an introduction to the revitalised Bollywood, yet it's actually the UK that boasts the biggest market for Asian films outside India. Non-Resident-Indians (NRI's) who grew up with Bollywood retain a voracious appetite for new releases. Cleverly capitalising on this was Mira Nair's Monsoon Wedding (2001), winner of the Golden Lion at Venice and a taboo-busting portrait of contemporary family life.

Centred around an arranged marriage, it sees the members of a modern, middle-class New Delhi family returning home from their lives in the West. It's a bittersweet drama punctuated with song and dance, but there's also passionate kissing, the suggestion of child abuse and an acceptance of the complex emotional issues facing the Indian Diaspora.

Approaching a similar subject from a softer angle is Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham (K3G if you're in a rush). In December 2001 it went head to head with Harry Potter And The Philosopher's Stone and got to number three in the British film charts, the highest ever entry for a Bollywood film in the UK. In an awesome example of the industry's ever escalating economy it too boasted the biggest ever budget for an Indian film. Yet it pales into insignificance beside Devdas.Sanjay Leela Bhansali's massive melodrama arrived on a tidal wave of hype, all of it entirely justified. The first Hindi film to be screened at Cannes, its $13 million price tag was more than Lagaan and K3G combined, with every cent on display. Shah Rukh Khan and former Miss World Aishwarya Rai are the ill-fated lovers who persistently fail to get it together prompting Devdas (Khan) to drink himself to death. It's a phenomenal enterprise, astonishing to look at and driven by good old fashioned star power.

Bollywood's reach now extends deep into the West and the industry's turnover is expected to quadruple over the next five years. You can see its influence in Baz Lurhmann's Moulin Rouge and even in the sets and sensibility of Gladiator. Bollywood's budgets are rising and there's a new candidness to the Hinglish films but purists shouldn't panic. The slinky dance routines in Devdas are deliciously sexy but it's still presented without a single kiss.