Bollywood may sound just like a step-sister of Hollywood; however, the language, syntax, grammar and scale of both the industries are poles apart. What was it then that allowed Bollywood to establish its stronghold not only in Hollywood but in other continents like Africa and Europe, and countries like Africa, China and Japan. National Award winning author Roopa Swaminathan's book Bollywood Boom: India's Rising Soft Power explores that and much more.

Dubai has announced plans to set up the first Arab Film Institute (AFI), a non-profit cultural association dedicated to celebrating and promoting regional film. Designed to bring together the most promising and brightest of Arab filmmakers under one roof, the AFI will be a unique meeting point between the art, technique and commerce involved in a prosperous film industry through learning, advocacy and networking.

The Government has taken a new initiative to create a Film Promotion Fund to promote Indian cinema in the International Film Festivals. This initiative would help independent filmmakers to promote their work across the globe. The Government efforts to project India as a soft power and filming destination has been a win-win situation so far, in terms of attracting global stakeholders from various quarters of film industry to India as well as Indian films, expertise and talent being accepted globally at international festivals.

Neither the people behind A Taste of China nor those at Light Chaser are intentionally pushing political agendas.  That is what makes this a genuinely new era in Chinese propaganda. These projects have their own voice, yet they do propagate a preferred narrative, one of a problem-free Chinese culture. 

The myriad emotions that Bollywood  evokes and the chord it strikes across the border undeniably makes cinema the glue that binds people, transcending barriers of culture, geography, even a chequered past.