As Time Out's Bollywood film critic, I can be found every Friday at Waterloo station, not heading off on the Eurostar to Paris for a glamorous weekend, but rather taking a suburban train to a less glitzy Feltham or Wandsworth multiplex to catch the latest Bollywood release.

Why do I endure this weekly trip to the suburbs when other critics do their job in the comfort of Soho's screening rooms? The answer is that I don't have a choice. The ten or so Bollywood films that are released in London every month are rarely screened in advance for the press. The only way I can review the new releases is to make the journey to one of the outlying cinemas that serve London's Indian communities, buy a ticket, and catch them on the same afternoon they are released to the public.

So why are there no press screenings? The answer lies partly in Mumbai. Back in India, most film producers regard critics with contempt and are aware that the great majority of Indian audiences are not swayed by reviews. As such, there is no tradition of holding press previews – a convention that has spread westwards.

'Most Bollywood films are aimed at the core Indian audience in the UK, who are not influenced by reviews, so a press preview will not benefit the film,' concurs Avtar Panesar, head of Yash Raj Films, one of the three main UK distributors of Bollywood movies.

He's right. Any film, regardless of its quality, that stars one of the three 'King Khans' (Salman, Shah Rukh and Aamir) will do roaring business in its first week of release in the UK. (At the time of writing, however, Salman Khan has been jailed for five years for poaching a protected deer, so we are down to two Khans for the moment…)...

Continue Reading Courtesy TimeOut UK