Booming Bollywood comes home for 'Oscars' 20th edition

Mumbai hosts the "Bollywood Oscars" forthe first time in India in 20 years this week with the megastars, movers andshakers of a booming Hindi film industry celebrating another bumper year,including in huge markets like China.

With nearly 1,800 titles released in 2018, the South Asian country is thebiggest film industry in the world in terms of movies made, its flicks wowingviewers from Australia to Afghanistan to Africa.

The industry grew 12.2 percent in 2018, which included not only Hindi-language - Bollywood - movies, but also titles in regional languages likeTamil and Telugu, according to a report released in March by Ernst & Youngand the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry. The huge South Asian diaspora in North America, Britain and the Gulfregion has traditionally been the major overseas market.

Bollywood blockbuster releases in parts of North America and Britain arehuge events, with passionate fans often queuing for hours just to catch aglimpse of stars like Shah Rukh Khan.

But Indian films have also been making huge inroads elsewhere - most notably in China. The black comedy 'Andhadhun', for example, nominated for best picture atthe glitzy Indian International Film Academy Awards on Wednesday, was a hugehit with Chinese viewers, grossing almost $50 million.

Aamir Khan, the star of the two top-grossing Indian films in China, has acrazed following there and is known by many as "Nan Shen" ("male god").

Film distributor AkshayeRathi told AFP that the industry has also seen"great growth" in many European countries and in Canada, New Zealand andSingapore thanks to the South Asian community. "Now it is just a matter of time before we focus on the wider populations in these countries," Rathi added.