International Encyclopedia of Communication Online

Extract

When a descriptor becomes more than its immediate signified – the concept that it refers to directly – we begin to feel that there is something special, something rather unusual about it. Such a descriptor is “Bollywood.” The word refers to a film industry situated in Mumbai/Bombay (the slash here is important because without its colonial name, “Bollywood” cannot be generated). Bollywood has such pervasive currency in just about every part of the world that even the Oxford English dictionary (2005) has an entry for it: “a name of the Indian popular film industry, based in Bombay. Origin 1970s. Blend of Bombay and →  Hollywood.” The OED acknowledges the strength of a film industry which in 2006 produced 152 films but which, since the coming of sound in 1931, has produced some 10,000 films. This figure is not to be confused with the number of films produced in India overall. The latter would take the total number to well beyond 50,000. The numbers in all respects for Bollywood are quite staggering: a $3.5 billion per year industry which employs some 2.5 million people, ticket sales close to 4 billion every year, and a growing international market for the films. Films such as Salaam Namaste (2005), Veer-Zaara (2004), Kal Ho Na Ho (2003), Devdas (2002), and Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (2001) had box office collections of between $1.5 and $3 million in the US and between £1.5 ... log in or subscribe to read full text