Sony makes move into Bollywood

The film Saawariya (Beloved) - which will still have Bollywood's trademark song-and-dance sequences - will hit cinemas in November.

"Bollywood makes roughly 200-odd films every year. We believe there is reasonably good money to make here," said Gareth Wigan, vice chairman of Columbia Tristar Motion Picture Group, a Sony Pictures Entertainment Company.

Mr Wigan was in Mumbai, where the Bollywood film industry is based, for the launch of the soundtrack to the film, which features leading stars Salman Khan and Rani Mukherjee.

The film is directed and co-produced by the acclaimed director Sanjay Leela Bhansali, whose films have been some of the biggest hits in the Hindi-language film industry.

"We are working with him [Bhansali] also because we want to work with talent of [the] Indian system. We are not imposing anything but we are a part of this system," Mr Wigan said.

Sony Pictures says it will announce more projects in India.

Bollywood - which churns out the largest number of films in the world - is estimated to have an annual turnover of 60 billion rupees ($1.76 billion). - VOA News