At the 2007 Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry Convention (known as FICCI-Frames), a discussion between representatives of international film industries marked a significant change of attitude towards the film sequel. Italian director Adriano de Micheli remarked that sequels and prequels ‘target audiences with two different [kinds of] movies – and why not!’, whilst Indian film director and scriptwriter Sudhir Mishra noted the benefits of sequelisation in recasting old stories and characters in a new light: ‘what we add to the older scripts is our personal experience in today's reality.’ Some delegates spoke of the sequel as a way to indulge in the ‘sheer passion of filmmaking’; others saw further advantages in the sequel as a way of ‘making yourself perform better than your previous best’. Quite distinct from rumblings in the West about the sequel as creative bankruptcy and industrial faux pas, these discussions pinpointed the film sequel as a structure that holds great potential for the growth of film markets around the world.

Established in 1927, FICCI states its main objective as ‘to integrate the Indian economy with the global mainstream’, and to this end the Mumbai meeting brings together over 2,500 figures from film industries all over the world each year at what is Asia's biggest global entertainment industry convention. In the context of FICCI's aim to globalise Bollywood cinema, as well as a number of recent developments in Bollywood and beyond that I go on to explore here, the sequels discussion at FICCI-Frames seems indicative of more burgeoning issues of globalisation and the expansion of domestic film markets.