The recent Adam Sandler starrer 'You don't mess with the Zohan' features a song from the hindi film 'Disco Dancer' (composed by Bappi Lahiri). Another recent film 'Slumdog Millionaire' has a full Bollywood style song and dance routine composed by A R Rehman (apart from Anil Kapoor acting in it).

While these may seem like stray incidents, the fact remains that Indian Cinema has come of age and is getting the recognition it deserves. More and more directors and producers in Hollywood are waking up to the fact that Indian Cinema could be the next big thing. Of course, this will not happen overnight. Fact is, our brand of cinema will need to evolve and mature a great deal before we take that jump, but the stepping stones are in place. There is also no denying the fact that things have changed and we are no longer making the two-brothers-lost-in-a-mela brand of cinema. The multiplex culture has ensured that now there is cinema for the discerning viewer and directors are being adventurous and experimenting with this art form. In the past few years, for every formulaic big budget 'blockbuster', there have been a couple of small budget art house films which have been equally successful.

Also, India, by virtue of its rich cultural heritage and diversity, has the best source(s) for cinematic material. If a 1000 page 'Lord of the Rings' can be made into a 9 hour film, imagine what we could do with our 'Ramayan', "Mahabharat', ;The Puranas' and so on. If fictional characters like 'Superman' and "Batman' can spawn multi-million dollar franchises, imagine what we could do with the hundreds of characters available in our collective literature and mythology. Just one epic like Mahabharat can give you reams of material as each character in the book has his own story, which sometimes is as detailed as the main story itself !!

M&Ms foray into this field could not have been better timed. This is the best time to be in this industry if you happen to be in India. I'm sure the day is not too far when the name 'Bollywood' will not be derogatory in tone and an Oscar for an Indian film will not be a pipe dream.