History MediaNotes / Bollywood

Bollywood is influenced significantly by UsefulNotes/{{India}}'s censorship system. The Censor Board of Film Certification [=(CBFC)=] is more than a rating agency; it will dictate changes and order cuts to meet censorship standards, much like in Hollywood under UsefulNotes/TheHaysCode. It takes a particularly hands-on approach to films with subversive political or sexual content. But unlike the Hays Code, which was formed by Hollywood itself as a self-policing venture to forestall government interference, the [=CBFC=] is an Indian government office. Because of this, Bollywood films are generally very clean, with no nudity or graphic violence. This may also be one reason the films don't change so much; the writers know what works and don't want to risk anything further. Interestingly, the government oversight and censorship is mostly unchallenged by both the industry and the public, leading to the idea that it's really a protectionist scheme. The censorship applies equally to Hollywood imports, whether on television or released theatrically; in India, the only way to see most Western films[[note]]there are a few exceptions for particularly big-ticket films like ''Film/SchindlersList'' or ''Film/SavingPrivateRyan''[[/note]] is to see the equivalent of a U.S. "TV edit", or else to pirate it. Western film producers therefore see little market in India, and many Western films just aren't released there, allowing Bollywood to dominate the local box office. But there's a ''big'' pirate market for Western imports in India, whose influence can be keenly felt in the many local remakes (often plagiarised) of popular American films into Bollywood films.

Bollywood is often used as a shorthand for "Indian cinema" in the rest of the world, but it really only applies to Hindi-language films. There are films in all of the many UsefulNotes/IndianLanguages, each with their own [[UsefulNotes/TheOtherwoods "otherwoods"]] like "Tollywood" for Telugu cinema and "Kollywood" for Tamil cinema. Although some of these "otherwoods" can be really big in their own right, none have picked up the international notoriety of the Hindi-language Bollywood.[[note]]''Maybe'' you can say that for the Bengali film industry, which has produced influential and internationally recognised independent filmmakers like Ritwik Ghatak and Creator/SatyajitRay, the latter the first Indian to win an Oscar for Lifetime Achievement.[[/note]]

* FilmiMusic: : Indian music created for UsefulNotes/{{Bollywood}} productions.

* BellyDancer

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Out of every three Bollywood films, at least two will feature a perpetually barefoot heroine.

* FilmiMusic: Literally over 70% of India's music market.

* TriangRelations

* {{Main/Soaperizing}}