Hindi cinema, widely called Bollywood, is the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai, and it is only one part of India's much larger film world. The name blends Bombay, the former name of Mumbai, with Hollywood. Since the 1970s the most popular commercial style has been the masala film, which mixes action, comedy, romance, drama and melodrama with musical numbers. India has produced more musical films than any other country since the 1960s. Alongside masala films, a parallel cinema movement made realistic films without songs, but the line between the two has increasingly blurred. Hindi films sold an estimated 341 million tickets in India in 2019, and Hindi cinema accounted for about a third of box office revenue in 2022.

Hampi is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Karnataka, India, with more than 1,600 surviving remains spread over 4,100 hectares. It was the capital of the Vijayanagara Empire from 1336 to 1565. Travellers from Persia and Portugal described it as a prosperous, wealthy and grand city with temples, markets and farms along the Tungabhadra River. By 1500 it was estimated to be the world's second-largest city after Beijing, and probably India's richest at the time. In 1565 a coalition of Muslim sultanates defeated the Vijayanagara Empire, its capital was conquered and destroyed, and the city was left in ruins. Hampi remains a religious centre, with the active Virupaksha Temple at its heart.