“Life and death is in the hands of God. You can’t change it ..we all are puppets of the theatre whose string is tied in the fingers of God.. when, who, how someone will die …no one can tell that. So my friend life should be big not long…”

No, it is not an inspirational quote by any famous personality, these lines are dialogues from the very popular Bollywood movie Anand. Generally films or movies are considered to be an important art form and mostly a source of popular entertainment. But Bollywood movies especially in India are not only a well-received source of entertainment but also a powerful medium for educating or indoctrinating the citizens, for whom Hindi movies are larger than life and mythical. And I think I did a mistake, not only in India, Bollywood movies have seized the hearts of the people of other countries too. So this edition of Cult Critic we will show you how Bollywood movies are progressing in its popularity throughout the world.

From the glitziest of entertainment to the sparest of intellectual abstraction, from lavish spectacle to minimalist poetry, issues of gender, issues of politics, poverty, Bollywood movies encompass them all. Bollywood is one of the biggest film industries in the world in terms of the number of people employed and the number of films produced. In the year 1913 the great Dadasaheb Phalke made the first silent feature film in India ‘Raja Harischandra’. And in 1931 the first Indian sound film, Ardeshir Irani’s “Alam Ara”was a major commercial success. That was the beginning of world’s one of the most eminent and booming film industry. Historically, the film industry in India has grown at a CAGR of over 10%. Currently, the film industry grosses total revenue of INR 138 billion ($2.1 billion). Going forward, the film industry is expected to grow at 11.5% year-on year reaching total gross realization of INR 238 billion ($3.7 billion) by 2020.