Over the past few days Metroblogging cities have been posting about unique gifts that their city has given to the world. This is in the spirit of the holiday season and gift-giving which ensues in most parts of the world. In the same vein, we start our series. The countdown will go in reverse till we reach Gift #1. Note that they are not in any priority of importance, rather just gifts that India’s greatest city has to offer. Earlier posts are here

Internationally, three Indian exports make the world tick. Indian brainpower, Indian food and Indian movies. And when it comes to Indian movies, nothing beats Bollywood, the world of Hindi movies in India.

Nothing compares to Bollywood, which got its name from the famous movie making industry from Southern California, but in many ways has surpassed it. At least in the number of films made, and soon hopefully in the quality of them too.

As Wikipedia informs

Bollywood and the other major cinematic hubs (Tamil, Marathi, Bengali, Telugu, Malayalam, and Kannada) constitute the broader Indian film industry, whose output is the largest in the world in terms of number of films produced and in number of tickets sold. Bollywood is a strong part of popular culture of not only India and Pakistan, but also of the rest of South Asia, the Middle East, parts of Africa, parts of Southeast Asia, and among the South Asian diaspora worldwide. Bollywood has its largest diasporic audiences in the UK, Canada, Australia and the U.S., all of which have large Indian immigrant populations. [link]

Bollywood has a vast and varied history and even scratching the top of it will be a herculean task.

If you havent seen a Hindi movie, the one that is the all time favorite according to me is

It is the quintessential Bollywood Masala movie, the like of which has never been seen again.

Bombay is also the home of some of the greatest of Indian movie stars. It is not uncommom to see hordes of people standing outside the bungalows of famous movie stars, just to get a small glimpse of them.

Here the Indian movie star is even more famous and powerful than the politician.

And the movie stars of Bombay havent disappointed.

Two of the all time greats Dilip Kumar and Amitabh Bacchan call Bombay home.

Some of the first images, the teeming millions of India have of the city of Bombay, is from Hindi movie films that are shot in the city.

So next time you watch a Hindi movie, be rest assured that the city has something or the other to contribute to the success of the movie, if not everything.