Casts and crews

Bollywood employs people from throughout India. It attracts thousands of aspiring actors hoping for a break in the industry. Models and beauty contestants, television actors, stage actors and ordinary people come to Mumbai with the hope of becoming a star. As in Hollywood, very few succeed. Since many Bollywood films are shot abroad, many foreign extras are employed.

Very few non-Indian actors are able to make a mark in Bollywood, although many have tried. There have been exceptions, however, and the hit film Rang De Basanti starred the English Alice Patten. Kisna, Lagaan, and The Rising: Ballad of Mangal Pandey also featured foreign actors, and Australian-born actress Emma Brown Garett has starred in a few Indian films. Bollywood can be insular, and relatives of film-industry figures have an edge in obtaining coveted roles in films or being part of a film crew. However, industry connections are no guarantee of a long career: competition is fierce, and film-industry scions will falter if they do not succeed at the box office. Stars such as Dilip Kumar, Dharmendra, Amitabh Bachchan, Rajesh Khanna, Anil Kapoor, Sridevi, Madhuri Dixit, Aishwarya Rai and Shah Rukh Khan lacked show-business connections.