Bollywood has now re-entered the Russian homes in the form of India TV channel

The Bollywood has now re-entered the Russian homes in the form of India TV channel after staying out of the silver screens for a long time. Russia's largest producer of theme channels the Red Media group launched the paid cable TV channel last year which is devoted to Bollywood and it has already got a large number of viewership. The channel now bradcasts 24 hours a day."Its audience is currently estimated at 5.5 million viewers and has the potential to grow tenfold to 50 million," says India TV channel's editor-in-chief Yuri podstolnikov. According to him the only factor that slows down the growth is that up till now only about 15% of the country's households have the required equipment to receive cable TV channels. The channel is said to be extremely popular among the older generation. A public opinion survey by a group reveals that about 78% of the total viewership of the India TV channel is made up of women in 16 to 54 age group middle class people, who live in cities of 1 lakh to 1 million population.During the soviet era, then Bollywood films used to draw 40 to 63 million viewers to movie theatres across the country. By the time the releases were stopped, more than 900 Indian films were released in dubbed VHs and DVD formats in the country.