Around the world, when many people think of India, the first thing that comes to their mind is Bollywood. Bollywood has created a major brand in India and around the world. In 2011, CNBS reported that Indian cinema was a $2.2 billion industry, which creates 1,200 films per year, provides employment to more than 1.8 million people, and welcomes more than 14 million viewers daily (Jetley). People who have had little or no exposure to Bollywood films may wonder what sets Bollywood films apart in the global market, and the answer is easily the presence of songs and dances in films. Singing and dancing is a creative art form and has been anchored in Bollywood cinema since the 1930s (Marcoux and College). Every popular Bollywood film has at least 3 song and dance sequences, and these sequences allow the characters to freely express their emotions in what is considered a "dream sequence" (Marcoux and College). In Indian films, women are depicted as the objects of men's desires and are often seen but not heard. Singing and dancing in Bollywood cinema allows women to express their sexual desires in a non-disruptive manner. I argue in particular that this goal is achieved through women being made respectable. Bollywood films depict unequal power relations between female and male characters. Men are assumed to have sexual desires and are depicted as active spectators, while women, on the contrary, are portrayed passively and seen as objects of the male gaze (Mulvey, 11). Audiences watching the film subconsciously identify with the male characters because of the film's narrative and the way the camera responds to the male gaze (Smelik, 494). The women are not shown to have sexual desires throughout the film because of the middle of paper...until they are presented as respectable women. Works CitedAnneke Smelik, And the Mirror Cracked: Feminist Cinema and Film Theory, London: Macmillian, 1998. 491-585. Web. May 4, 2014. Jetley, Neerja P. “Behind the song and dance, the story of Bollywood's flop.” » CNBC.com. Np, and Web. May 5, 2014. “Madhuri Dixit Biography.” IMDb. IMDb.com, and Web. May 5, 2014.Mulvey, Laura. “Visual pleasure and narrative cinema” Visual pleasures and others. Bloomington: Indiana Univ. Press, 1989. 14-26. Nijhawan, Amita. “Excusing the dancer: tradition and transgression in Bollywood dance.” South Asian Popular Culture 7.2 (2009): 99-112. EBSCO host. Kaplan, Ann. “Women and cinema on both sides of the camera.” Google Books. Methuen & Co., nd Web. May 4, 2014. “Rekha Biography.” IMDb. IMDb.com, and Web. May 5, 2014. “Sridevi Biography.” IMDb. IMDb.com, and Web. May 05 2014.