India produced its first feature-length movie in 1913: "Raja Harishchandra," which told the story of a king who sacrifices all that he has for the Hindi gods. It was a great success, and other productions soon followed. The turmoil India experienced during the 1930s and '40s--with the Great Depression, World War II and the civil war that followed their successful independence from Great Britain--gave Hindu movies of the time an escapist quality (similar to American films of the same period). International acclaim came with the release of the "Apu" trilogy--directed by Satyajit Ray--in the late 1950s, but emphasis remained on local markets and big budget spectacles for most of the 1950s and '60s. The '70s saw a rise in action thrillers and gritty crime dramas, but musicals and other colorful films returned to form in the 1990s and continue to define Bollywood today.
Though Bollywood movies embrace all sorts of genres, their influence largely arises from earlier forms of Hindu drama. Ancient works such as "Mahabharata" and "Ramayana" continue to affect the narrative structure of Bollywood films, and traces of Sanskrit drama can be seen in Bollywood's emphasis on stylized grandiosity. Hollywood musicals have also made their mark. Though no longer prevalent in American cinema, musicals were a staple of the movies for many decades, and Bollywood continues to focus on films with a musical bent.
Bollywood films tend to emphasize epic qualities, though not quite the way American films do. Hollywood movies in the 21st century place a great deal of emphasis on action: car chases, explosions, gunfights between heroes and villains. For Bollywood, the spectacle is centered on music. Song-and-dance numbers are quite common in Bollywood films, with the action taking a back seat to elaborate choreography and lengthy musical interludes. Accompanying that is an emphasis on lavish sets and costume design, lending a larger-than-life sense to many Bollywood films. Plotlines tend to follow melodramatic tenets: with stunning reversals, romantic entanglements, epic clashes and Dickensian twists of fate that help the hero triumph in the end. This isn't to say that all Bollywood movies follow such conventions, but those that don't are often regarded as "art house" movies with little commercial appeal.
Bollywood cinema has proven enduringly popular in India, where output and revenue often exceeds even that of the United States. It releases more than 800 movies each year (Hollywood releases about 600 a year) and domestic revenue averages between $8 billion and $9 billion (roughly the same as Hollywood's yearly take). It is estimated that about 300 million Indians go to the movies each month, and Bollywood films remain popular in other parts of the world as well. Its influence over Western movies has been slow to reveal itself, but the success of Danny Boyle's "Slumdog Millionaire" (a Western film with many Bollywood themes) may accelerate that process.
Censorship, piracy and other distribution problems remain an issue for Bollywood films. The Indian industry is governed by a censorship system that in some ways is much harsher than censorship in America or Western Europe. The Central Board of Film Certification, run by the government, dictates the ratings that each film receives and can ban a movie outright if it doesn't approve of its content. Furthermore, the rise of DVDs has made piracy a huge problem, with many consumers able to buy bootleg discs on the streets before a given movie hits theaters. Plagiarism and copyright infringement cause problems, too, as the need for new movies produced quickly drives some directors and producers to cannibalize earlier films.