When I told my friends that I would be coming to NYU Abu Dhabi to study film, a number of them came up with an apparently hilarious reply, “Oh, great, you can go work in Bollywood now!” They put their hands together in front of their chests and wiggled their hips in a terrible belly-dancing motion.

Something about Abu Dhabi’s proximity to India led them to believe it was a geographically appropriate joke. But most importantly, they meant it as no more than that, a joke.At the time I did find it very funny.

No one back home, in Mexico, watches Bollywood films. What little exposure I had to them resulted in a satirized outlook on the whole industry: no more than corny love stories of people in exotic costumes who, I hoped ironically, would break into song out of nowhere. Even the name came off to me as a failed attempt at imitation, and I wondered if anyone actually took Bollywood seriously.

It took longer than it should have for me to understand that Bollywood is actually a multi-billion dollar industry making more than 900 films a year, several times as many as Hollywood, and awarded and recognized by art institutions worldwide.

My limited Western-centric understanding of filmmaking clearly prevented me from considering this type of cinema as relevant or serious, leading me to treat it as a joke instead. I find it interesting, however, that I did not have this same approach to other types of non-western filmmaking, say, Iranian or Bengali cinema. It is Bollywood’s particular aesthetic and production values that were the alienating factor in our troubled relationship.

After years of separation, I think I might have finally breached the gap and rediscovered the lively world of catchy tunes and masala film extravaganza. I am not going to say it was easy; in fact, it consisted of a rather difficult process of seemingly endless screenings with required follow-up texts and even a trip to Mumbai, India — hats off to my professor Dale Hudson — but it has completely shifted the way I view Hindi cinema.

Firstly, like Hollywood, the Bombay film industry is commercially driven. Nonetheless, it operates on a more informal manner, often depending on oral contracts and personal interactions between producers and actors, rather than going through agents and intermediaries for agreements. The intimacy of this style stems, I believe, from the systems of traditional values ingrained in South Asian society. Even though production is commercially oriented, it upholds the importance of showing respect to a potential co-worker by approaching them directly, simultaneously strengthening the bond formed between collaborators.

Another thing about the industry is that it is not at all centralized, but rather scattered and largely family-based, something that has allowed for anyone well connected with the right amount of money to make a film. Hence the 900 films a year production rate.

Thirdly, Hindi cinema is a cinema of epics. From its origins, it has been deeply influenced by the mythological aura that pervades the culture around it, largely based off of stories from the Ramayana and Mahabharata. It does not pretend to be a portrayal of reality — it is an ambitious recreation of it. It is meant to be extravagant, unrealistic and over the top. As I would expect certain things from an action film or a romantic comedy, the genre conventions in the so-called masala Bollywood films are all about giving the audience a larger-than-life experience.

A single film will generally be around three hours long and contain elaborate dance sequences, love-triangles and family drama as well as some sort of action-type conflict. If a film does not incorporate one or more of these elements it might face failure at the box office.  After all, people are paying to see an epic.

Although I am still not a fan, I do have a much greater appreciation for Bollywood aesthetics and I am glad to have somewhat dissipated the veil of ignorance that made me see it as some sort of a failed spin-off, as opposed to the potent, complicated mess it really is.

In conclusion, my previous perspective on Bollywood films was clearly wrong on all counts except for one: they are really corny and people do randomly break into song, but that is exactly what makes them beautiful. Also, Shah Rukh Khan.