Researching Bollywood: Survey
There is no business like show business, but what do you do when the money doesn’t pile up high enough? Bollywood surpasses Hollywood by over 1 billion tickets every year, but still reaps a profit only a fraction of Hollywood’s. Okay, so maybe this has something to do with the U.S. dollar being stronger than the Indian rupee. But, I have a hunch it also has something to do with filmmakers not understanding the needs of their audiences, and therefore creating products that inevitably disappoint. Perhaps it also has to do with not using marketing, advertising and PR tools as effectively as Hollywood.
So, how do we really know what the Indian and N.R.I. audiences want and what the best vehicles are for Bollywood film and music promotion?
Well, a research study can certainly shed some light on the answers to these questions.
Unfortunately…there really aren’t many Bollywood research studies out there. In fact, there are none.
After conducting numerous searches in various databases—Proquest, Factiva, Lexis-Nexis, Expanded Academic ASAP, you name it—I was surprised that there is no research study in any of these databases on Bollywood audience preferences and marketing techniques. No wonder strategic film and music promotion is a rare occurrence for Bollywood!
So what is one to do about this?
I don’t know what answer the Bollywood industry and other Bollywood scholars have devised, but I’ve decided to conduct my own Bollywood research study. That’s right, I’ve decided, with the help of my marketing professor at Marymount University, Dr. Nancy Furlow, to find out for myself what Indian college students in the U.S. and in India want when it comes to Bollywood and what the best forms of Bollywood entertainment promotion really are.
But, if it isn’t easy to do research, it isn’t any easier to get people interested in your research. So, if you happen to have a few moments to spare at your computer, please take the brief Bollywood survey I have created which is available online. And, if you happen to have any friends who are in college, feel free to pass along the link to the survey 
Bollywood Survey for College Students in the U.S.A.: https://vovici.com/wsb.dll/s/2a5eg313ed
Bollywood Survey for College Students in India: https://vovici.com/wsb.dll/s/2a5eg31521
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
I am not a college student … :(
I have finished your survey…
good luck
@Anand: You can still take the survey
Our target audience for the survey is college students, but everyone is welcome to take the survey. The more, the merrier;)
@Vikrant: Thank you^:)^
Amanda….Done …
@Anand: Thanks!!! Feel free to pass along the link to all of your friends, too.
If anyone happens to have a good idea as to how I can administer this survey in colleges in Delhi & Mumbai, please let me know. Thanks!
@Amanda
You dont have PFC in your list of ” Where do you get your bollywood information, news, reviews and knowledge???” ;);)
@Varun: oops:”> But, I DO have an option called “Other” for people to type in PFC :D
@Varun–FYI, I just added “Passion for cinema” as an answer option–thanks for pointing that out :d
Thanks Amanda, let us know about your results and how many of them voted for PFC…..
@Varun: Sure, I will definitely submit another article through Projekt iView in 3-4 weeks once I see the results to the survey.
done the survey, though I am not a college student but still did it.
Enjoyed listening to your radio interviews, Amanda. Keep up the good work.
@Tushar: Thanks for taking the survey! I’m glad you enjoyed the interviews I did at the VOA
I’m going to upload the Music Call-in Show to my site soon in case you want to listen to that also. Oh, I’m just a bit curious–how did you manage to get a hold of my online portfolio? The link to it isn’t on PFC.
@Tushar: Never mind, I figured it out–clicking on the name links to the site. Wow, that took me a while to figure out :D
lol, I am a cyber stalker
jus kiddin’, will look forward to your call-in shows. Just a coincidence that I am going for a radio audition today and here we are talking about all this stuff.
In Australia… but did the survey nevertheless. Best of luck.
@Tushar: Cool–have fun with the radio audition! I hope it goes well
@Anand G: Thanks! Glad you took the survey all the way from Australia
Thanks Amanda. It went well.
i m not a college student but finished your survey.
good attempt Amanda. Keep it up
kcp
@ Shailesh: Thanks! It actually looks like most of the people taking the survey so far are not college students, so I guess I may just end up changing the target audience to include everyone who is over 18
@KCP: Thank you. FYI, I just got your email.
@Amanda
but I am not studying in India or USA.
I took it too and I am a student
@Neeraja: Great, glad you took the survey. So where are you studying?
France
@Neeraja: France–Cool! Merci for taking the survey, once again
Good Start!
Keep up the good work….I have noted and studied the changes in Bollywood since 1991…will be in touch with you….
Have filled the form and will share it with others
@Ashok: Thanks! I’m looking forward to hearing more from you about the changes you noted in Bollywood since 1991. And yes, please do share the survey with others