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NEW DELHI - INDIAN movies are gaining popularity in the overseas market and are expected to fetch 8.5 billion rupees (S$323 million) this year, an Indian minister said yesterday.
The market is growing by 18 per cent annually mainly because of the growing Indian diaspora around the world, Information and Broadcasting Minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi said in a statement in India's Parliament.
Indian movies are popular in Europe, North America, Japan and even in China, he added.
Latin America is also considered a new market. Mainstream cable companies in the United States have also started a 'video on demand' service for Indian movies, the minister said.
Though movies are produced in more than a dozen Indian languages, Bollywood is the name given to the popular Mumbai-based Hindi-language film industry.
Indian movies are generally musicals with songs and dances, love triangles, comedy and daredevil thrills.
The overseas market for Indian movies was estimated at 7 billion rupees last year, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
The Indian government is promoting Indian movies through participation in foreign film festivals.
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