The Indian (aka Hindi) Film Industry is more commonly known as "Bollywood". Many of the big film production companies are based in Mumbai, India, formerly known as Bombay, and the "B" was borrowed along with an homage to Hollywood, hence Bollywood.
The term goes back to the 1970s when Indian overtook America as the biggest film producer in the world. It now produces over 800 films a year. Bollywood productions are mostly romantic musicals with extravagant costumes, photography and scenery, not to mention imaginative stories and dance routines.
Bollywood covers every genre: drama, comedy, action and, of course, romance. A single film can even have all of that rolled into one; in Bollywood that film is called a masala, which means, "spice mixture".
Many stories revolve around forbidden relationships but can also be about crime, betrayal, friendship or war. Family and cultural traditions play an important role in the films. In most of the films you will never see the boy and girl kiss, however times are a changing and in some of the newer films it is starting to happen more.
The movies are filmed all around India, with frequent location shoots in Switzerland, England, Australia and, more recently, the United States.
All the films are in Hindi but if seen on DVD or in a theatre here they will have subtitles. You will also notice that they do speak some "Hindlish": a mixture of Hindi and English. For example, "Woh actor, Vivek Oberoi, bahut handsome hai!", meaning "That actor is very handsome".
Key features
Why the characters don't kiss: Sometimes characters do kiss, but it's rare. The censor board is notoriously unpredictable; no one wants to risk getting a rating that would scare away families. Also, Bollywood plays to a diverse range of people, from the illiterate and provincial to the worldly and urban. Ideas of morality differ widely from group to group.
Tugging on your ears: You tug your ears in a variety of social situations, but mainly when apologizing, as a physical admission of wrong-doing and as a demonstration of repentance.
Touching someone's feet: Touching someone's feet is a sign of respect usually accorded to elders, or by wives to their husbands.
Pressing palms together: You'll see in Bollywood films that, upon first meeting someone, a character will press his palms together and say "Namaste." This is like a handshake, although pressing your palms together connotes a respect the handshake no longer does.
Waving your hand at or over someone's head: This is a way of expressing admiration for how lovely the bride looks.
Wearing a bindi on your forehead: Some people claim it's the sign of marriage, though unmarried women wear bindi's as well. Others claim its symbolism rests in its correspondence to an energy point, or "chakra," located between and slightly above the eyes.
Wearing red stuff in your hair: This has one clear meaning -- the lady is married, and her husband is alive.
Wagging your thumb at someone: Making a fist and extending your thumb, as in "thumbs-up!", then wagging it back and forth, is used as a "shame on you" gesture.
Putting a black mark on someone's cheek: When someone looks especially beautiful, it's assumed that she'll attract a great deal of jealousy. Putting a dot of black on her face as a makeshift "blemish" serves to ward off the evil eye that might otherwise be attracted by her perfection. This is most often done to babies, but women occasionally place a black smudge on their faces when they're especially well dressed.
Lifting only your little finger: This sign means that you have to go to the bathroom, or that you just have.
