Bollywood valued at $21billion

The world may be facing its biggest economic crisis to date, but Bollywood is booming.

The industry looks set to top $21billion over the next five years, building on an annual 15% increase since 2006, according to a joint study by a leading chamber and a consultancy released this week.

But the growth projection for the industry for 2009-13 has been lowered to 12.5% a year from 18 percent predicted earlier for 2008-12, due to current economic meltdown, adds the study by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and KPMG.

Last year's report, also released during the annual FICCI-Frames exposition on media and entertainment industry, was prepared by the chamber in association with leading accountancy firm and consultancy PricewaterhouseCoopers.

"In many ways, 2008 was a testing time for the industry," says the study. "With the global economic slowdown affecting advertising spends, sectors like TV, print, radio and outdoor that depend on advertising revenues were affected."

The new study lowered the projections for the advertising industry during the two periods under review from 18 percent to 12.4 percent, adding that this segment had grown 20 percent during 2004-07 and 17.1 percent in 2006-08.