Author: Kellner <[log in to unmask]> Date: 12/13/94 5:06 AM [Editor's note: This message was submitted to SCREEN-L by the "Author" noted above, and not by Jeremy Butler ([log in to unmask]).] As should be an all too common saying now, the Indian (or Indic, for that matter) film history is, in terms of output, the biggest in the world. It has its own roots, its own traditions, its own dynamics (speaking about *Bollywood* mainly, that is). It has its specific traditions and dynamics (economic, especially political and with reference to mass entertainment), and has, at least to my knowledge, hardly ever been accounted for in film theory. My personal background is not film theory, but rather the dusty paperwork of classical Indian philosophy. Anyway, Indian film history is one of my more *serious* hobbies, and I always found the general issues involved in it (Third Cinema etc.) useful not only, but also for reflecting upon the background of my main activities, viz., translating and *comparing* concepts. I would like to know whether anybody out there, probably more involved with film theory than me, is interested in popular Indian cinema, mainly as a case-study of *Bollywood as opposed to Hollywood*, its distribution policy etc. I myself tried to organize a festival of popular Indian cinema in Vienna this summer, but failed for reasons which are not [D [D [D [A [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [ C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [C [D [D [, in some respects, due to the specific setup of distribution policy in this area. Anyway, this is just to attract attention from those people who might be working in this area (Third Cinema theory, for example) and establish contacts. Hope this does not sound too confused or confusing. Birgit Kellner Institute for Indian Philosophy University of Hiroshima