Aishwarya Rai | Aishwarya Rai in Bikini

Aishwarya Rai may be the most widely known Bollywood actress outside India.

The world is waking up to mainstream Hindi movies—and is helping to perk up box-office revenues

The trailer is promising: film production house UTV has already pre-sold the distribution rights for Farhan Akhtar’s Don in Germany, film maker Karan Johar sold the distribution rights for Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (KANK) in Germany and Poland, and Rang De Basanti became the first Hindi film to be screened in a mainstream movie theatre in Israel. And that’s not all: the Rajnikant-starrer Chandramukhi was screened in Japan recently.

There are new markets opening up for Bollywood. Restricted to NRIs in the US, UK, Middle East and Australia for years, mainstream Hindi movies are fining audiences in Germany, France, Poland, Israel, Turkey, Japan, South America and China. Earnings from overseas markets from January-September amount to Rs 550 crore, according to industry estimates, and have changed the fortune of many films which wouldn’t have been able to cover their costs of production otherwise.

Clearly, the made-in-India formula seems to have caught on in a big way. And this is a vital source of revenue: films earn between 25-50% of their revenue from the overseas box-office depending on the budget of the film).

Some multiplexes in the US and the UK even serve Indian snacks to cater to the growing number of Indian film buffs abroad. Besides the multiplex experience, most smart film makers targeting NRIs offer add-ons like videos-on-demand, pay-per-view and DVD releases. A huge number of grocery shops in Southall go to the extent of offering free beer cans and popcorn with three movies.