ABSTRACT
Popular Hindi films have a special place in current British film culture. Screenings of the latest “Bollywood” blockbusters consistently fill those cinemas around the UK that choose to show them. It is certainly possible to argue that in some ways these screenings represent the last bastion of family moviegoing in the UK – that is, films that appeal to different generations as opposed to films that parents are dragged along to because youngsters want to see them. Indeed, the release of Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham in December 2001 saw the film enter the UK box-office chart at number 3, behind the more traditional blockbuster Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (2001) and the Liverpool-set Samuel L. Jackson star vehicle The 51st State (2001).
