Its films are often described as formulaic and many people scoff at the song-and-dance sequences that usually pop up without warning in even the most serious of its products.

But India's movie industry must be doing something right, as it gains more and more fans not only in its home country but even abroad.

Not that Bollywood has not made any effort on its own to go global. Indeed, for the last few years, the most prolific movie industry in the world has been pushing hard to get a firmer foothold in the international movie market.

Since 2000, it has even made it a point to hold its version of Hollywood's Oscars outside of India, which is why for a week-end here earlier this month, Bollywood gods and goddesses descended in droves upon this famous mountain resort  Genting Highlands  that is just 50km from Kuala Lumpur.

Last year, the site of the awards festival had been Sun City, South Africa. The first International Indian Film Academy Awards (IIFA) was held in London's Millennium Dome.

According to IIFA organisers, the idea was not only to woo more overseas audiences for Bollywood films, but also to attract international investors into the industry.

Bollywood insiders say that while the industry is doing fine domestically, its movie and music products could well bring in billions of US dollars to the Indian economy within the next 10 years if it maximises its efforts to expand its audience across the globe.

As it is, Malaysia is only one of the many countries where Bollywood films have become big hits. Since January, the Indian movie Lagaan has been making good at the British box office and has already made it to that country's top 10 films so far this year.

Legendary Bollywood star Amitabh Bachchan told a screaming audience here, ''The world is waking up to see that Indian cinema is not all song and dance. It's much, much more. A frontier has opened and a global rush has begun.''

Bollywood watchers say one proof of this is the nomination of 'Lagaan' in the Best Foreign Film category in the 2002 Oscar Awards.

Another is the fact that while Indian films grossed a mere US$10 million in international ticket sales a decade ago, they raked in some US$200 million last year in the international market.

Fantasy world

Abdul Rashid explains why he likes Bollywood films so much, ''Hindi movies gives people a world of fantasy. When we watch these for three hours or so, makes us forget what problems we have. It makes us want to see more.''

Tourism Minister Abdul Kadir Sheik Fadzir, meanwhile, has his own theory on why Indian films are extremely popular in this country, whose ethnic Indian population makes up only 10 percent of its 22 million people.

''The theme of most Indian movies are on family values,'' he said in his remarks at the IIFA ceremonies here. ''Asians by nature are very emotional people. Because of that Indian films have had a tremendous following in Malaysia for a very long time.''

But the Indian film industry's aggressive push to gain a global audience has made hardcore fans worry that their favourite fare would soon be shedding the very ingredients that have made them, well, Bollywood products.

Bollywood after all is aiming to conquer markets beyond Asian borders, and there are fears that some compromises may be forthcoming.

In other words, will the hero and heroine no longer burst out singing, and then swing, swagger and sway along with an entire village of back-up dancers?

Lagaan director Ashutosh Gowariker at least does not see that happening anytime soon.

During a lively seminar here, he pointed out that songs and dances, as well as colourful costumes, have been part of Indian culture for centuries. ''All our films need that aspect,'' he said.

For his part, acclaimed director Karan Johar, whose movie Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham was a monster hit, said, ''When I use songs in the movie it makes sense to the story. It moves the love story. It gives you settings and people can fall in love with the character.''

He did predict that perhaps in five years, songs would no longer play that big a role in Indian movies, which are being churned out at a clip of more than a thousand a year. Still, Johar said that ''the traditional aspects of Indian cinema will always remain intact''.

He also stressed, ''We are proud to be Indian and we will always be associated with Indian cinema and the Indianness associated with it. We will be singing and dancing all throughout our careers.''

Bollywood wanna-be

To be sure, there are those who say that it's Hollywood that's turning Bollywood and not the other way around.

They argue that the Nicole Kidman-Ewan McGregor starrer Moulin Rouge , which had all that singing and dancing, was an obvious Bollywood wanna-be.

Bollywood has even invaded Britain's West End, where Andrew Lloyd Webber of Cats and The Phantom of the Opera fame is set to launch in June the musical Bombay Dreams .

The music will be composed by one of Bollywood's stalwarts, AR Rahman. Dalip Tahil, who has starred in more than a hundred Indian movies, will be playing the lead role.

Actor Bachchan believes that when it comes in talent and art, Bollywood is no poor cousin to Hollywood.

He said that the Indian film industry does lag behind in technology, mainly because of cost factors, but that this is slowly being solved by extensive collaboration with cinema experts in other parts of the world.

He thinks that holding the annual IIFA in various places overseas can only help ''globalise Indian cinema''.

Said Bachchan: ''What we need is to get people accustomed to seeing our kind of cinema. And I think that's gradually happening.'' (IPS)