Go West: The Growth of Bollywood

This paper builds insight into how globalization impacts cultural clusters, through a case study of Bollywood, the Indian film cluster in Mumbai. The paper’s analysis of the recent growth and consolidation of Bollywood, as well as the cluster’s development of a new film formula, illustrates that globalization does not necessarily entail westernization of culture. Instead, the paper suggests that early-mover advantages held by the world’s core cultural clusters may be eroded by globalization, as it creates pipelines of information, talent and capital, allowing hitherto peripheral cultural clusters to access export markets and develop exportable products. Analyzing the role of the Indian diasporas for the export growth of Bollywood, the paper also offers a discussion of the difference between two different aspects of globalization: Global flows of people and global bridgeheads of people.