Planet Bollywood?

Working almost nonstop this year on Bollywood-related projects, for this publication and for Film Comment, tapping into the DVD mother lode and watching Hindi movies almost exclusively, I've begun telling people that I no longer think of myself as a tourist, but as a "resident alien" in Bollywood, increasingly comfortable and conversant with the local customs, even though I never expect to go native altogether, or to renounce my Hollywood citizenship. This assertion seems somewhat outlandish to some people, even to many Indians who claim to love their movies dearly. It elicits a wonderfully expressive variation of that all-purpose subcontinental gesture, the side-to-side head wobble, the exact desi equivalent of the French pout-'n'-shrug, which in this case unmistakably means: "If you are pleased to say so, sir, I have no response. I am much too polite a person to dispute this bizarre claim of yours."