The songs and music
An integral part of Bollywood films are the songs and dances. Most films will have 4 to 6 songs which aim to both entertain and move the story along.
The music usually encompasses every musical style, not only Indian, and in one album you can hear a ballad, a hip/hop song, a Punjabi Bhangra, and sometimes a mixture of them all. The soundtracks for the movies are usually released a month or so before the films open in theatres, and sometimes the albums are more eagerly anticipated than the films.
The actors and actresses are not actually doing the singing, they are lip-synching. Sometimes the stars can have different singing voices in each film they appear in. The singers are often famous in their own right in Bollywood. At award shows there are categories for Best Song and Best Playback singer, male and female. Some of the famous singers are Sonu Nigam and Sunidhi Chauhan.
The dance routines
The choreography encompasses all types of dance including: classical Indian dance, jazz/hip hop, modern and sometimes a fusion of all these styles. Often there is also one number called an "item number" which has a special guest appearance of a star.
During most Bollywood films you have to suspend reality a bit - during some songs, the city-bound hero and heroine are suddenly in the snow on a mountain in Switzerland, bounding through blooming sunflower fields, or riding on the top of a bus surrounded with singing people.
