Indian film music

Indian film music refers to the music produced for India's mainstream motion picture industry and written and performed for Indian cinema. In cinema, music directors make up the main body of composers; the songs are performed by playback singers and the genre represents 72% of the music sales market in India.

Indian film music tends to have appeal across India, Nepal, Pakistan, Bangladesh and overseas, especially among the Indian diaspora. Songs are often in different languages depending on the target audience, for example in Hindi, Urdu, Malayalam, Kannada, Telugu, Tamil, Odia, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Assamese, etc. Playback singers are usually more noted for their ability to sing rather than their charisma as performers. Their level of success and appeal is tied to their involvement with film soundtracks of cinema releases with the highest box office ratings.