Bollywood on Broadway Courts South Asians

The New York Times > Theater : "'Bombay Dreams,' after all, is essentially a staged version of a Bollywood film, the immensely popular kind of musical melodramas, produced in Mumbai (as Bombay is now called), that draws huge audiences from all across the Indian subcontinent. And the best estimates say that there are more than 500,000 South Asians living in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

In addition to advertising in major media outlets, producers have also placed ads on South Asian radio stations like RBC Radio and cable television programs like "AVS" (which stands for "Asian Variety Show." They have promoted actively in South Asian enclaves like Jackson Heights, Queens, and Jersey City, putting up window cards in Indian restaurants and arranging dinner-and-a-musical deals. They've also reached outside the city, courting South Asian tour groups from Georgia to California.

Part of the reason for the concerted push is that for many South Asians, this is their first brush with American theater. "For a sizable section of the community, this is serving as their introduction to Broadway," said Prem Panicker, a managing editor of India Abroad, a weekly English-language newspaper. Mr. Rao also said he felt some degree of pride that the show had made it to Broadway at all. "Generally I think people think of Indians as being doctors or in software or in science," Mr. Rao said. "But it's nice to see people coming out to experience the culture."