The Indian film industry is the largest movie industry in the world producing over 1000 films annually - more films than Hollywood. Films are by far the number one form of entertainment for Indians in India and around the world. While the demographics in itself are large enough to support this type of endeavor (nearly 1 in 6 people worldwide is Indian), management believes, and it has been widely reported that Indian films, and its talent are due for crossover into mainstream culture. This has slowly started to manifest itself with success stories such as Lagaan, Monsoon Wedding, Devdas, The Guru

Even though the Indian film industry was one of the largest industries, the Indian Government did not officially recognize it as one, till a few years back. Till then, the Indian film industry was very unregulated, which meant missed schedules, actors routinely not showing up and therefore films either being late, over-budget and/or not getting released at all. Since a vast majority of the film producers were independent individuals, the film business was more or less an ad hoc one, lacking accountability and corporate governance. The Government of India ("GoI") has now entered the picture and granted "Industry" status, which has lead to a greater degree of corporatisation, accountability, and financial incentive, which is luring new foreign investment