For most Germans, the word Bollywood is associated with Indian films featuring colorful costumes, lavish musical numbers and extravagantly choreographed dances. One of India's largest TV networks, Zee TV, now aims to bring these films and other Indian programs into the living rooms of Germany.
Believe it or not, Bollywood is really popular in Germany, especially among women! It has a presence at the Berlinale and at dedicated film festivals. Today, Germany is the second-largest Bollywood market in Europe, trailing only behind the UK.
Movies Shot in Germany
- Aap Ka Suroor.
- Aur Pyaar Ho Gaya.
- Dil Toh Pagal Hai.
- Don 2.
- Hadh Kar Di Aapne.
- Hero No. ...
- Jeena Sirf Merre Liye.
“In Germany, [there is] a large fan base for a few Indian stars, Shah Rukh Khan being the most recognized and followed.
Germany is considered the second-largest market in Europe for Bollywood films, and Shah Rukh Khan is the most recognised and followed Indian actor. When Shah Rukh Khan's Don 2 was being shot in Berlin, a lot of fans had gathered outside his hotel in the freezing cold for just a glimpse of the superstar.
Shahrukh Khan himself made a grand entry at the 58th Berlin International Film Festival. The actor who essentially visited the festival for the screening of his then upcoming movie 'Om Shanti Om', managed to win more hearts than any Indian actors ever has in his 2 days of stay in Germany. At least not on foreign land.
The overwhelming majority of Indian films filmed in Switzerland have been shot in the center of the country, mainly in the canton of Bern in places such as Interlaken and Gstaad.
Bollywood is the global leader in production of movies with a staggering 27,000 featured films and thousands of short films. Globalisation is often misrepresented as the growing influence of the western culture in the world and so we tend to state that Hollywood is influencing Bollywood to a great extent.
The European journey scenes and songs were mainly filmed in Saanen, Montbovon and Gstaad, Switzerland. Other scenes were shot in England, at locations including Trafalgar Square, King's Cross railway station and Angel Underground station.
Cinema films produced in Germany 1999-2018
This statistic shows the number of cinema films produced in Germany from 1999 to 2018. According to the Formatt Institut, a total of 353 cinema films were produced in Germany in 2018.
This was the first Bollywood movie to be shot in Baden-Baden, Germany, and in the German theme park Europa Park. At one point the movie was titled, Tevar and had Urmila Matondkar playing Karishma Kapoor's character.
SRKians-SRK is God in Germany.
BERLIN: As German fans drooled over Shah Rukh Khan, the national media shed its perceptions of "bullock cart India" and trained its attention on the Bollywood superstar when he landed here, with one journalist even saying "he is as popular as the Pope".
Not just India, the kind of emotions and feelings that are shown in SRK's movies are unique even for the European countries and their movies and it is because of this ability to relate with emotions that make SRK's movies popular worldwide.
Though they're fewer in numbers, Bollywood films are by far the most popular in India. They are also the most popular Indian films abroad, second only to Hollywood films in box-office take worldwide. India has the most prolific film industry in terms of sheer output and numbers of viewers.
Evidently, Bollywood has become increasingly popular in China during the past few years. Figure 1. Box office of popular Indian films in China (2010–2020), by Chinese currency.
The Japanese have taken a keen interest in Bollywood. It is not unusual for Japanese females to travel all of the way to India in order to study Bollywood dance. Indian films have played a significant role in promoting this tendency.
In terms of the number of movies per year and worldwide audience, Bollywood is clearly bigger, producing 1,000 movies in a typical year watched by a worldwide audience of 3 billion, compared to Hollywood's 500 movies annually watched by 2.6 billion viewers worldwide.
Tollywood comes in third place, while Bollywood is two steps ahead in the list of the highest-grossing film industry. Bollywood tops it. The reason is there are more Hindi speakers than in Telugu. We all would agree that Tollywood is much more superficial than Bollywood.
Dadasaheb Phalke is considered the father of Indian cinema, including Hindi cinema.