The lavish sets, lush locales and energetic song and dance sequences of Indian movies are a far cry from the world of hi-tech software and hard-nosed investing.
But for some Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and venture capitalists looking for options after the bursting of the technology bubble, Bollywood represents a big opportunity.
"The pattern is the same as the outsourcing of IT services to India: high-calibre services at a much lower cost," said Vivek Wadhwa, chairman of North Carolina software firm Relativity Technologies.
India's movie industry is the world's most prolific, churning out about 1,000 films a year and providing a large section of the country's one billion-plus population with entertainment.
So far, investors have brought in only a few million dollars, but experts say more is headed to an industry which generated revenues of about 39 billion rupees ($856 million) in the last financial year that ended in March.
While that figure is flat against a year earlier, revenues are forecast to grow at a compounded annual rate of 19 per cent over the next four years, thanks in part to a rise in "crossover" films, or those that appeal to local and overseas audiences.
Investors are being lured by low production costs and the potential to tap the global market for Indian movies, which have won overseas acclaim in recent years.
The industry's international profile has been boosted by recent films with Indian themes such as Bend It Like Beckham and Monsoon Wedding, and the Bollywood hit Lagaan which won a 2002 Academy Award nomination.
The cost of producing and marketing the average Indian film ranges from $2 million to $4 million, a fraction of the average cost of a Hollywood film that ranges from $70 million to $80 million, industry observers say. Mr Wadhwa, an executive producer on a film being made by former investment banker Brad Listermann, said the industry could follow in the footsteps of India's highly successful and globally recognised software industry.
Other investors include the Chatterjee Group, a US-based investment firm with a 22 per cent stake in film and television content producer Pritish Nandy Communications Ltd (PNCL), which reported a net profit of 16 million rupees in the last fiscal year ended March on revenue of 412 million.
The Chatterjee Group also recently set up its own film production company in India, Crossover Films.
Valley venture capitalist Kanwal Rekhi has a stake in Kaleidoscope Entertainment, which has produced films such as Bandit Queen, a highly acclaimed story of a bandit who was later elected to India's lower house of parliament.
"They are ready to put their money into high-risk ventures, hoping for the kind of obscene returns they made during the IT boom," said Munesh Khanna, managing director of N M Rothschild & Sons, an investment bank.
In recent years, corporations such as veteran film-maker Subhash Ghai's Mukta Arts have assumed a greater role in an industry traditionally dominated by individual financiers and family owned businesses.
Other listed companies include Adlabs Films, PNCL, Padmalaya Telefilms and Balaji Telefilms, production houses looking to tap additional revenue streams such as overseas theatre viewership, home video and music rights.
Top corporate houses have jumped on board too. The Tata group, India's second-largest conglomerate by sales, has Cutting Edge Entertainment, while the Aditya Birla Group, which has revenues of about $6 billion, has Applause Entertainment. Financing sources for Bollywood have improved since 1999 when investors turned to media and entertainment companies following a global surge in their valuations.
India's central bank first let banks fund films in 2001. This has led to professional management, improved business and production processes, and paved the way for better-quality movies targeting global audiences, analysts said.
"This is a high-risk, high-return venture, and a product that has a global appeal will obviously have a multiplier effect on returns," said Sunir Kheterpal, a head of corporate and investment banking at Rabo India Finance.
Investor interest was likely to increase in 2004 with the release of crossover films such as Bride and Prejudice by the director of Bend It Like Beckham, 1857: The Rising and Marigold, said Kheterpal.
Despite the glamour, this is still a risky business. Nearly 80 percent of films fail at the box office, and the industry ran up losses of about three billion rupees in 2002.
In addition, the returns are nowhere near those of Hollywood films. This year's top Hollywood earner, Finding Nemo, took in about $700 million in box office revenues worldwide on an investment of $150 million.
By contrast, Bollywood's Koi Mil Gaya (I Have Found Someone) made about 600 million rupees on an investment of 300 million ruppees.
Most Indian production companies are small and privately held, and exit routes for investors are hamstrung by low liquidity and players' small market capitalisations.