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From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film
industry based in Mumbai, Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly
used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the Indian
film industry.[1] Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of
the largest centers of film production in the world.[2][3][4]
Bollywood is formally referred to as Hindi cinema,[5] though frequent use of
poetic Urdu words is fairly common. There has been a growing presence of
Indian English in dialogue and songs as well. It is not uncommon to see
films that feature dialogue with English words and phrases, or even whole
sentences.
The name "Bollywood" is a portmanteau of Bombay (the former
name for Mumbai) and Hollywood, the center of the American film industry.[7]
However, unlike Hollywood, Bollywood does not exist as a physical place.
Though some deplore the name, arguing that it makes the industry look like a
poor cousin to Hollywood,[7][8] it has its own entry in the Oxford English
Dictionary.
The term "Bollywood" has origins in the 1970s, when India overtook America
as the world's largest film producer. Credit for the term has been claimed
by several different people, including the lyricist, filmmaker and scholar
Amit Khanna,[9] and the journalist Bevinda Collaco.[10]
The naming scheme for "Bollywood" was inspired by "Tollywood", the name that
was used to refer to the cinema of West Bengal. Dating back to 1932, "Tollywood"
was the earliest Hollywood-inspired name, referring to the Bengali film
industry based in Tollygunge, which rhymed with "Hollywood" and was the
center of the cinema of India at the time. The name "Bollywood" later arose
as the Bombay-based film industry overtook the one in Tollygunge as the
center of the Indian film industry |
