As the sun sets, preparations get underway to shoot a scene at Film City, a vast Mumbai (Bombay) film studio complex. Running three hours or more, Bollywood films mix extravagant MTV-style musical numbers with plots rich in intrigue and romance.
India's film industry is the biggest in the world, producing more films and drawing a larger worldwide audience than Hollywood.
Text adapted from and photograph published in, "Welcome to Bollywood," February 2005, National Geographic magazine