India boasts the largest film industry in the world, measured by film production, following more than a century of cinema growth.

The Hindi film sector, nicknamed Bollywood, has made India a hub for film-making to rival Hollywood with a consumer appeal and distribution model of huge international appeal.

According to the Global Entertainment and Media Forecasts, prepared by auditors PwC, the Indian media and entertainment market was worth more than $6bn at the end of the 20th Century and could reach $18bn within the first decade of the new century.

The industry born in 1896 – when the Lumiere Brothers’ Cinematographie unveiled six soundless short films in the Watson Hotel, Bombay – has expanded from Hindi language films to include titles Tamil, Telugu, Bengali and Malayalam, all made in India.

The huge domestic appeal of such productions has made India one of the Box Office capitals of the world, with cinema admissions exceed a staggering 3bn a year.

Industry analysts estimated that 14m Indians go to the movies on a daily basis (about 1.4% of the population of 1bn), who pay the equivalent to the average Indian’s day’s wages (US $1-3) to see any of the over 800 films released by Bollywood each year – more than double the output of the US.

Among emerging markets, India now leads the film-making sector. The industry employs more than 6m people and was worth $1.3bn in 2005, with significant additional revenues generated by international distribution and TV demand.

Popular demand for Bollywood films has also gained international currency, with buoyant theatrical releases and home entertainment demand around the world.

Leading Hollywood studios have now moved into the Bollywood industry, following the path carved out by Indian film-makers. The phenomena has also grown to include stage productions and a buoyant new media sector, taking Bollywood to a new audience through mobile phones, the internet and on-demand devices.

After more than 100 years in business, Bollywood continues to defy signs of a slowdown elsewhere in the industry with near double-digit annualised growth and an audience appeal that is increasing globally.