Bollywood refers to the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, India. A portmanteau of the city's former name "Bombay" and "Hollywood", Bollywood is the biggest slice of the Indian cinema pie, the largest in the world by the number of feature films made each year. As Bollywood grows its global presence, so has Bollywood tourism. Ardent fans visit famous shooting locations around the world, celebrity homes and other Bollywood-themed destinations.
Destinations
[edit]
Map of Bollywood tourism
Mumbai
[edit]- 1 Film City (Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari). The film studio complex that serves as the venue for many shootings has since 2014 started guided tours taking you to historical and live shooting sets.
- 2 National Museum of Indian Cinema, Cumballa Hill. The museum houses artefacts, kiosks and digital sources of the history of Indian cinema.
Rest of India
[edit]- 3 Lucknow. Lucknow has a huge influence in Bollywood. It is the birthplace of numerous actors and several Bollywood movies were shot in the city.
- Noida Film City, Noida, Uttar Pradesh (near Delhi). A complex of film studios and film sets. It has been the location for many Bollywood and other Indian films outside Mumbai.
- 4 Prayag Film City, Chandrakona, West Bengal. The only dedicated film city in West Bengal. It has replicas of famous monuments.
- 5 Ramoji Film City, Ranga Reddy, Telangana (near Hyderabad), [email protected]. The largest film studio in the world with a film-themed park. It is modelled after Universal City in California, United States. Many Telugu and Hindi films are produced here. The city encompasses massive buildings, gardens and other sets suitable for filming movies. Fans of Indian movies will find many locations where scenes from their favourite films were shot.
- 6 Tollygunge, Kolkata, West Bengal. The Hindi film industry was originally based in what was then known as Calcutta. The earliest superstars, including K.L. Saigal, Durga Khote, Kanan Devi and Prithviraj Kapoor established themselves in the films produced by the New Theatres (NT) film studio in Tollygunge during the 1930s. By the mid-1940s, the leading Hindi-speaking actors, writers and directors had shifted to Bombay but Tollygunge remained the fertile heartland of West Bengali cinema.
Rest of the world
[edit]- 7 Gstaad. Many Bollywood blockbusters have been filmed at the mountain resort town in Switzerland such that Gstaad now has multiple guided Bollywood tours showing visitors the locations of famous film scenes.