Like many Canadian kids, I grew up loving the movies of John Hughes, watching Degrassi Junior High on television, and listening to New Wave pop. However, my teenage idols included not only Molly Ringwald and Duran Duran, but also the likes of Aamir Khan and Sridevi — actors from the Bollywood screen. My identity, along with that of countless other Indo-Canadians, has been characterized by this duality of cultural influences.

Hindi films have been a part of my life for as long as I can remember. My earliest memories include sitting in the backseat of our family car as my parents listened to film soundtracks from the ’50s and ’60s. The music of Hindi films punctuated my childhood and adolescence.

Though I grew up in New Brunswick, I spent many childhood summers in India, where my grandparents would treat us to Hindi films. Sitting quietly in a darkened theater, I would be transported to an alternate universe where brothers were separated at birth and beautiful heroines swathed in chiffon sang sweetly while running through the Alps. This early initiation into Hindi cinema continued when we returned to Canada, where trips to Little India on Toronto’s Gerrard Street provided us with videocassete editions of the latest movies.

The films and music of my parents’ homeland was a thread that kept me tied to my cultural roots. It was something special that I shared with my family — a part of my life that was separate from the one I shared at school and with my friends. In the ’80s, Indian megastars like Amitabh Bachchan, a demi-God in South Asia, could have easily walked around unnoticed in a Canadian city.

Though India has one of world’s largest film industries — producing more than 400 films each year — this immense cultural force possessed little profile in North America until recently. But while Western society takes it for granted that its cultural products are the templates for international literature and film, India’s film industry is equally — if not more — prolific and influential.

Indian films are viewed extensively in the Middle East and Africa, as well as Russia and China — where Raj Kapoor, one of India’s most famous actors and directors, has a dedicated following and the songs from his films are commonly performed by regional musicians.

In the past few years, the gap between Eastern and Western films has been shrinking. Film festivals (including the Toronto International Film Festival) have brought current Indian films to newer and broader audiences, leading to stars like Aishwarya Rai acquiring fame in Hollywood. (Rai landed a prestigious contract with L’Oreal after making a splash at the Cannes film festival with her Devdas, an epic musical featuring lavish period costumes and sets.) The term “Bollywood” is now a commonly-used term that conjures glamorous images of commercial Indian cinema. This year, HBO’s post-Emmy Awards bash featured a Bollywood theme with turquoise Mughal-inspired decor, sitar players, and displays of Hindu idols.

The question remains, however, how Indian films will be assimilated into the cultural fabric of the West. Will “Bollywood” be forever equated with kitschy, over-the-top excess? Or will an audience be cultivated that truly appreciates the phenomenon of Indian cinema, with its myriad forms?

This question speaks to the tensions currently inherent in the Indian film industry. Films containing the typical Bollywood formula of song, dance, romance and action now compete in theatres with grittier films that address issues such as organized crime, premarital sex and terrorism. The film industry is in a state of transition, as it races to keep up with a rapidly growing Indian middle class, increased global awareness and hundreds of television channels now available via satellite.

This tension is good for the industry. Filmmakers who celebrate the Bollywood tradition are achieving new heights in their creative achievements, filmmakers such as Yash Chopra and Karan Johar continue to dictate fashion trends while their movies’ soundtracks dominate the music charts. Meanwhile, filmmakers such as Vishal Bhardwaj and Ram Gopal Varma are pushing the industry to new heights with films that challenge the viewer and question established ideas.

It is an exciting time for Hindi cinema as it continues to evolve within India while simultaneously making the leap to Western audiences. The door to American and Canadian audiences has partially been opened by viewers like myself — second-generation Indo-Canadians (and Americans). You can now go to almost any major North American city and find a Hindi cinema and countless rental shops that specialize in Indian films. Toronto has two multiplexes devoted to Hindi movies, and in suburbs such as Oakville and Mississauga, where there are higher populations of South Asians, Hindi films play alongside Hollywood films at the mall.

Indian cinema, music and culture has become such an integral part of youth culture in the United States that MTV recently debuted a new channel, MTV Desi, focused solely on the sounds and style of young South Asian Americans. The next time you turn on Entertainment Tonight, don’t be surprised if it is being broadcast from Mumbai.