Bollywood films are regularly beating American and British films at the box office. How do they do it? The Guardian investigates.

bq. Overseas ticket, video, and DVD sales now account for perhaps 40% of revenues for Bollywood, a multibillion-pound industry. “The export market for Hindi films is especially important due to the low value of the rupee,” says Rachel Dwyer, chair of the Centre of South Asian Studies at the University of London and author of several books about Indian cinema and pop culture. “A ticket in London is 10 times the cost of a ticket in even the most upmarket theatre in India.”