In the USA - Bollywood beginning?

Urmila, the Khans, almost all our stars love to be in the USA. Shooting, shopping or singing on stage. I can't believe it. It's summer in New York, I'm here savouring the 4th of July holiday and pleasant summers (beats Mumbai rain madness) and all seems well with the world. But hey, wassat? Not too many smiling desi faces. People are depressed. Fans of Shah Rukh, Karan Johar, Aishwarya, Amitabh, Rani, Preity, Priyanka, Salman and Co.are almost in tears - all because of a newspaper headline.
A headline screaming 'Bollywood Ending'. Not in the Times of India, Mumbai Mirror or Bombay Times. But in one of the biggest circulated newspapers on the east coast of the USA - The Record.
It talks about the closing down of the region's biggest Bollywood theatre - the Columbia Park Multiplex. And about how many New Yorkers (and those from the Tri-state area) are upset for it. The 12 screen multiplex has Bollywood films running in about half the screens at any given point and second run Hollywood biggies in the other half. And there's the problem. With Hollywood films losing sheen (except for some big 'uns) at the BO, it doesn't make sense for theater owners to go on making losses. So they may be selling to some big corporation which will probably make a mall, a recreation centre, a shopper's paradise , a restaurant and a chain of cinemas showing new ones. Good for Hollywood, but what about our great world cinema that reaches out to the fastest growing (and highest spending) diasporas in the world? Many shattered South Asians - Pakistanis, Indians, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, etc - who got their weekly fix from Aamir, Rajnikanth, Hrithik and other mega Indian stars regaling hearts yearning for their homeland flavours. And Bollywood gives it to them. It's also growing bigger here by the day.
Earlier it was only the (Indian) Independence Day parade held on Manhattan streets every year that hosted a star guest leading a motley crowd. Today it is a big do and getting better by the year in terms of attendance.
Earlier only the Big B was big enough to hold a Jumma Chumma concert in the huge Madison Square Gardens and get full house. Today Aishwarya, Abhishek, Hrithik, SRK, Rani are as much sought after.
Earlier, London and Switzerland was it for holidaying stars. Today our stars love the Big Apple on the east and Sunset Boulevard in the west as much. Urmila, the Khans, almost all our stars love to be in the USA. Shooting, shopping or singing on stage. The high is tremendous, being applauded by a 'foreign' audience.
And the demand here goes on increasing. People have been coming upto me asking me about all assorted 'rumours' , enquiring about what movies are coming up, which stars are visiting next it's just never ending.
Believe me, in a week, I'm tired of reading about the 'exploits' of Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and gang. I'm yearning for my 'hotline' with the stars, whispering about 'how Roshan junior hurt his knee. How Apne is faring and what Rani is upto.
And like me, every desi is too.
Which is why, one theatre shutting down didn't sadden me. For I know that this is just the beginning of a new year when B'wood will overtake its western cousin Hollywood with a bang. And the headlines in the NY Times and The Daily News will scream 'Bollywood Beginning' - who knows, I may write that too!!!
Views expressed by columnists in Bombay Times are their own, and not that of the paper