Hollywood, meet Bollywood

Outside, it’s the usual Sunset Strip scene: A clipboard jockey checks his list, a bouncer cards for sneaky teens and a line of fabulously dressed twenty- and thirtysomethings moves through the doors.

But inside, the Key Club has abandoned its rock ‘n’ roll vibe for an entirely different aura. The sound system is alive with exotic beats, bursts of strings and acrobatic Hindi vocals. The stage is aflutter with veiled dancers swirling before a bhangra house band and singer. TV screens are a flash of multicolored saris and synchronized dance routines. The production is called the Bollywood Follies, the club’s new cabaret-style tribute to Indian cinema. That the first show, on a recent Saturday, is a sold-out success should be no surprise.

Bollywood -- that mega-billion-dollar moviemaking behemoth long popular everywhere else in the world -- is finally touching America. The evidence is everywhere. Indian film stars are beginning to pop up on TV shows and in Hollywood movies. Bollywood composers are collaborating with megastars like Michael Jackson and Andrew Lloyd Webber. Bollywood singers are sampled in American hip-hop and movie soundtracks, and choreographers are working with stars like Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.

Scratch a little deeper and you’ll find the Bollywood aesthetic popping up all over the place: There is an all-Bollywood dance studio in Artesia and a Bollywood comic book out of the Bay Area. The style is being picked up by everyone from Dolce & Gabbana to Target. It’s even part of the decor at Tantra, a hip Indian restaurant in Silver Lake that continually plays classic Bollywood films on plasma screen TVs.

“It’s going to be huge,” predicts Darrin Henson, a choreographer and longtime fan of the genre who taught Spears and Aguilera to shake it like a Bollywood star. “To fuse the American and Indian culture, whether through dance or acting, is just going to be really powerful. Look at the guys and women. They’re beautiful. The dance is beautiful. It’s all about love and passion and growth. That’s what we need more of anyway.”

Americans are just beginning to catch on to what Bollywood fans have loved for years: The universal stories of family, friendship and love; the glamorous and colorful costumes; the lively, upbeat music; the elaborate dance routines. Anglo-Indian film hits, such as “Bend It Like Beckham,” have helped; so have Hollywood films that riffed on the style, such as “The Guru” and “Moulin Rouge.”

Now India’s biggest players are beginning to infiltrate Hollywood. One of Bollywood’s most popular female stars, Aishwarya Rai, will be in the upcoming American films “Singularity,” with Brendan Fraser, and “Chaos,” opposite Meryl Streep. Composer A.R. Rahman, who has scored more than 50 Bollywood films and sold 200 million soundtrack records, is fielding offers from Miramax, Columbia and Sony.

“Monsoon Wedding” director Mira Nair is directing Reese Witherspoon in a Bollywood version of “Vanity Fair.” And there’s a growing trend of Bollywood movies being shot in the United States, starting with the 2001 filming of a “Reservoir Dogs” rip-off, “Kaante,” in San Pedro.

“Each thing that brings Indians more in the public eye, people are more receptive,” says Shawn Makhijani, producer and host of “Namaste America.” The program (locally broadcast Saturday mornings on KSCI-TV), is one of several English-language shows with a Bollywood component. “Namaste America” regularly features viewers’ requests for songs, which, until a couple years ago, were exclusively from Indian Americans.

“Now we get requests from people saying, ‘I’m not Indian; I’m American. I love this artist,’ and they name the movie. They get everything correct,” Makhijani says. “It’s amazing how Bollywood is penetrating. It’s through the songs, really.”

There is something in the uniquely Indian beat, created with traditional South Asian drums, that appeals to artists with a dance element. Britney Spears’ recent hit, “Me Against the Music,” was remixed by top British bhangra producer Rishi Rich. Rich has also remixed hits by Mary J. Blige and Ricky Martin.

Last year, Jay-Z and Truth Hurts each scored hip-hop hits with Indian-inflected tracks, Jay-Z with “Beware of the Boys” and Truth Hurts with “Addictive,” which sampled the vocals of Bollywood superstar Lata Mangheshkar (and wound up in a lawsuit as a result). The English group Panjabi Hit Squad, which has worked with top American artists such as Ashanti, Dizzee Rascal and Sean Paul, was also signed to Def Jam.

“The music industry is going so global, sampling and pulling from everywhere, that Bollywood films are going to increasingly influence them,” Makhijani says. “It’s because of the films’ accessibility and the uniqueness of Indian music.”

When Broadway hit-maker Andrew Lloyd Webber first heard the work of A.R. Rahman in 1999, he said it was the most beautiful music he had ever heard. He approached Rahman to collaborate on the musical “Bombay Dreams,” which opened in London in June 2002 and became the hit of the West End theater scene, selling more than 1.5 million tickets. This month, “Bombay Dreams” starts its run on Broadway.

Elizabeth Williams, half of the Broadway entertainment team Waxman Williams, said she was so “knocked out by the show” when she saw it in London that she decided to bring it to New York. The story of a young boy from the slums who dreams of becoming a Bollywood star was “both familiar and exotic at the same time,” she says. “Especially here in the U.S., the rags to riches story is pretty universal.”

Even so, there were revisions made for its Broadway run to accommodate Americans’ unfamiliarity with Bollywood. Words like “ji,” a term of respect for elders, were dropped. The traditional over-the-top villain character was removed because American audiences might find him a caricature. Some of the music is still in Hindi, “because we thought American audiences would love that,” says Meera Syal, the playwright. “And Rhaman’s music works only in its original language, oftentimes.”

In England, where Indians are the largest ethnic minority, Bollywood is already huge. Mainstream movie houses regularly screen Hindi-language films. There are Bollywood nightclubs, art exhibits and exercise classes. One London travel agency even offers a Ski-Bollywood Dance Holiday billed as “Bollygroovin’ on the Slopes,” enabling participants to “ski to dusk and dance ‘til dawn.”

Indians have long wielded cultural influence all over the globe -- everywhere, that is, except the U.S. The Internet and satellite television, however, are changing that, making Indian entertainment accessible to anyone who wants it. Oftentimes, that’s Indians themselves, who in turn influence Americans.

“A whole generation of Americans have grown up with Indian friends,” says Makhijani, 31. “Kids come over to their friends’ houses and hear the music. They see someone’s mom dressed in a sari and they see it on TV. It’s not totally alien.”

That’s how Antony Mazzotta first learned about Bollywood. When the 28-year-old comic book artist was studying at the Rhode Island School of Design, “I knew a lot of South Asian people. We’d just have nights where we’d rent movies, and sometimes it would be Bollywood movies,” says Mazzotta, who was so touched by the films’ colorful spirit and universality of the stories that he created the Bollywood-inspired comic series “Bombaby.”

“All the South Asians who live in North America, they retain a very vibrant link with their motherland through Bollywood. That’s basically how they keep their culture alive, by watching movies,” said Danny Dandona, producer of the Bollywood Fashion Awards and Bollywood Awards, taking place April 30 and May 1 at the Trump Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City, N.J.

While not as well known as, say, the Academy Awards, the Bollywood Awards, which are broadcast to 300 million viewers worldwide, attract their fair share of American heavy hitters. Harvey Weinstein of Miramax, Richard Gere and Steven Seagal have all attended events. It shouldn’t be so surprising that Bollywood has found an American audience.

It’s an incredibly alluring genre. The stories, costumes, music and dance are so vibrant that you can’t watch a Bollywood film without feeling somehow moved.

Nakul dev Mahajan was so moved that he opened NDM Dance Studios, the nation’s first exclusively Bollywood dance school, in Artesia last May. He now has almost 200 students.

The enormous collage of Bollywood stars decorating a studio wall was ample inspiration for a giddy group of 6- to 10-year-olds during a Friday afternoon class. The 28-year-old Mahajan took them through choreographed routines of snake arms, yoga-like poses and hip shakes set to various Bollywood hits.

“Bollywood dancing has taken the world by storm,” says Mahajan, a second-generation American. “It’s almost as if Bollywood dancing is the new belly dancing. It’s real exciting that we’re finally getting attention.”

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

A variety of Indian delights on a multimedia thali plate

Bombay Melody Film Series

All UCLA screenings are at the James Bridges Theater in Melnitz Hall, on the northeast corner of the UCLA campus. $8 online in advance. $7 general; $5 students and seniors at the box office. Five-film pass, $30, at box office only. Information: (310) 206-3456 or www.cinema.ucla.edu.

“Mughal-e-Azam”: Sunday, 2:15 p.m. at ArcLight Cinemas. $11; $9 students, seniors. Tickets: www.arclightcinemas.com.

“Al Aipayuthey”: Wednesday, 7:30 p.m. at UCLA.

“Kal Ho Naa Ho”: April 23, 7:30 p.m. at UCLA

“Munn Bhai M.B.B.S.”: April 24, 7:30 p.m. at UCLA.

“Sarfarosh”: April 25, 7 p.m. at UCLA.

Events

Bollywood Follies: Key Club, 9039 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood. May 21. $20. A sexy striptease cabaret tribute to Indian cinema. (310) 786-1712.

NDM Dance Studio: 17711 S. Pioneer Blvd., Artesia. Bollywood dance classes for ages 5 to adult. (562) 402-7761 or www.ndmdance.com.

“Bombay Dreams”: The hit London musical opens April 29 on Broadway. At the Broadway Theatre, 53rd and Broadway, New York. (800) 292-9465.

On Television

Bollywood Awards: The annual film awards at Trump Taj Mahal Casino in Atlantic City on May 1. Locally, they’ll be broadcast on dish channel 621-Ary Digital; airdate hasn’t been announced.

“Namaste America”: The hourlong TV show features a half-hour of Bollywood clips, news and gossip; 11 a.m. Saturdays on KSCI-TV.

Networks: Several dish channels specialize in Bollywood programming, including films, talk shows and news:

Zee TV, Dish Network, Channel 611

TV Asia, Dish Network, Channel 613

Sony Entertainment TV Asia, Dish Network, Channel 614

Zee Cinema, Dish Network, Channel 617

B4U, Dish Network, Channel 619

Ary Digital, Dish Network, Channel 621