The word is out

Strictly speaking, it is a case of 'you either love it or hate it, but you can't ignore it'. But that's Bollywood, say publications around the world.

Strictly speaking, it is a case of 'you either love it or hate it, but you can't ignore it'. The growing presence of Bollywood among Western audiences can be gauged from the fact that leading publications like Variety, Time Out New York, the Guardian and the Time (Asia) have been devoting reams to it for a while now.

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The idea is twofold: One, to introduce 'Bollywood' to Western audiences, and two that the growing Indian diaspora cannot be ignored and frankly, it does thrive on homegrown entertainment at the end of the day.

The Guardian, UK devotes a whole column to Bollywood penned by the celebrated author Hari Kunzru, and BBC.co.uk offers the Hindi film heroine Preity Zinta a monthly column to string her thoughts together.

So while Time takes time out to bring out a Special with Aishwarya Rai on its cover, the Time Out New York (TONY) rolled out with a 14-page supplement with Ayesha Dharkar in a scene from Bombay Dreams when it opened in Broadway earlier this year.

Read on and find out what they have to say about Bollywood in fine print.