2.  Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), Maharashtra, India.  Bollywood is the largest film producer in India and one of the largest centers of film production in the world.  Bollywood is formally referred to as Hindi cinema.  There has been a growing presence of Indian English in dialogue and songs as well. It is common to see films that feature dialogue with English words (also known as Hinglish), phrases, or even whole sentences.

3.  Bollywood films are mostly musicals, and are expected to contain catchy music in the form of song- and-dance numbers woven into the script.  A film's success often depends on the quality of such musical numbers. Indeed, a film's music is often released before the movie itself and helps increase the audience.  Songs and dances, love triangles, comedy and dare- devil thrills are all mixed up in a three-hour-long extravaganza with an intermission.  Such movies are called masala films, after the Hindi word for a spice mixture.  Like masalas, these movies are a mixture of many things such as action, comedy, romance and so on. Most films have heroes who are able to fight off villains all by themselves.

4.  Bollywood plots have tended to be melodramatic.  They frequently employ formulaic ingredients such as star-crossed lovers and angry parents, family ties, sacrifice, kidnappers, conniving villains, courtesans with hearts of gold, long-lost relatives and siblings separated by fate, dramatic reversals of fortune, and convenient coincidences.  There have always been Indian films with more artistic aims and more sophisticated stories, both inside and outside the Bollywood tradition. They often lost out at the box office to movies with more mass appeal.

5.  Bollywood film music is called filmi music (from Hindi, meaning "of films").  Songs from Bollywood movies are generally pre-recorded by professional playback singers, with the actors then lip synching the words to the song on-screen, often while dancing.  The hero or heroine often perform with a troupe of supporting dancers.  If the hero and heroine dance and sing a duet, it is often staged in beautiful natural surroundings or architecturally grand settings. This staging is referred to as a "picturisation".

6.  During the 64th Cannes Film festival-Bollywood has made its presence with some projects including National award winning filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar's 'Heroine'-starring Aishwarya Rai, and 'Prague' directed by the creative head of 'Dev.D'- Ashish Shukla,also Shekhar Kapoors 'Bollywood-The Greatest Love Story Ever Told' was premiered in out of competition segment  Another project 'Prague' is a romantic psychological thriller based in Czech capital. This is second film after Imtiaz Alis Rockstar that is completely based in Prague the mysterious city

7. The Cannes film festival has always seen a splash of Bollywood through the years. Here's a look at the presence of Bollywood at Cannes Festival who created waves and added glitz and glamour to the event.  Aishwarya Rai has been part of Cannes since 2002, when her film 'Devdas' was screened there. The following years saw her either as part of the jury or the glitterati..  The Indian presence at the annual Cannes Film Festival just got hotter with another hottie walking the red carpet besides Aishwarya Rai, Deepika Padukone Deepika Padukone Aishwarya Rai Bachhan

8. Get-together: (From right to left) Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, father-in-law actor Amitabh Bachchan, husband Abhishek Bachchan and mother-in-law actress Jaya Bachchan arrive at the 61st Cannes International Film Festival on May 17, 2008 in Cannes, southern France.

9. Aishwarya and Shahrukh Khan pose together to give a generous spalsh of Bollywood touch to the 55th Cannes film festival.

10. Preity Zinta looks resplendant in a black dress during the 59th Cannes film Festival in France May 18, 2006.

11. Sonam Kapoor The actress who, like Ash, endorses cosmetic giant L'Oreal, walked the red carpet for the Cannes Film Festival 2011 for the first time when she attended the premiere of The Artist at the Palais des Festivals.