Determinants of the spatial diffusion of Bollywood cinema

The aim of the paper is to indicate which determinants had the major impact on the spatial diffusion of the Bollywood cinema in two aspects: the first appearance of this cinema in different countries and the number of films distributed there. The distance between the country and Mumbai and the size of the diaspora were taken as key determinants. The concept of Hägerstrand was adopted as the spatial diffusion model. The procedure involved gathering data for 5,832 Hindi movies produced in Mumbai distributed in cinemas in 76 countries from 1970 to 2010. The hypotheses were verified and it was proved that the spatial diffusion of the popular hindi cinema was influenced by a number of social, cultural and political determinants, of which the size of the Indian diaspora was the most important. The paper can be a reference to the discussion about diaspora identity and the intersection of cultures.