Slumdogs & Copycats

The Bollywood Kung Fu comedy, Chandni Chowk to China, is remarkable not just for its marriage of popular genres from the world's most populous countries. It is also one of the few Bollywood movies to be bankrolled by a major studio. The studio, Warner Bros, announced stern anti-piracy measures as part of its worldwide marketing of the movie. It may also be that rare beast, a Bollywood movie that is not a copy by the standards of the world's largest entertainment industry. Yet the film is an anomaly in a country where both copycat plots and piracy are rife.

Bollywood is India's largest film industry and gained industry status in 2001. It now produces close to 1000 titles a year providing an estimated annual turnover of $10 billion. It is estimated that domestic box office collections will grow at 11%, overseas collections at 19% and home viewing at 15% per year.