very brand owner, advertiser and market observer worth his salt must pepper conversation with two words, preferably together - �consumer� and �insight�. These ladies and gentlemen give their verdicts every now and then on the changing fabric of the Indian society, the nuclearisation of Indian families and perhaps the fragmenting value system in the country.

But brands have frequently failed and advertising has gone haywire. In short, where facts are rare, we have many experts. So rather than digging deeper in the same hole, we at The Brand Reporter would like to provide a new construct on the Indian consumer and her behaviour, based on ... well, lessons from Bollywood. The word - which an Indian journalist coined in the seventies to convey the message that Bombay (now Mumbai, but Mumbaiwood doesn�t yet sound right) rivalled Hollywood - refers in the larger sense to Indian pop cinema, the world�s most teeming film industry, a bewildering blend of chuckles and tears, song and dance. ... more