[icernet] Is Bollywood an imitation of Hollywood?

[Arul Selvan]

  Yes, Bollywood is merely a media coinage. Just like the media had 
dubbed Rajiv Gandhi Mr Clean.

Some names are easy on the tongue and one gets hooked to it. Also the 
NRI population has had a lot to do with the popularisation of this word. 
It is the Hindi blockbusters which are popular with the NRIs in the UK 
and US and not the Tamil or Telugu blockbusters. So it was with a very 
patronising attitude that the NRIs dubbed popular Hindi cinema as 
Bollywood films which the foreigners found stylish and easy on the tongue.

Shabana Azmi finds the term Bollywood infuriating, because according to 
her it suggests a pale imitation of Hollywood, which is not true. “We 
produce many more films than Hollywood and perhaps India is the only 
country, and particularly Hindi cinema, which has resisted Hollywood. 
Hence the term Bollywood is a great disservice to the Hindi film 
industry,” says the actress.

Source:
http://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/news/2002/november/35811.htm