What are bollywood films typically about?

First thing you need to know is that Bollywood is the name used by some people for Bombay(Mumbai) film industry. Bombay film industry deals with Hindi films. There are several film industries in India. All these industries combines to make Indian Film Industry the largest in the World. Other popular film industries in India are Tamil, Malayalam, Telugu, Kannada, Bhojpuri etc.

There is not a fixed subject in Bollywood. There are varieties in themes. For example the recent Oscar entry from India Taare Zameen Par was about a 8 year old who suffers greatly until a teacher identifies him as dyslexic. Also another Huge hit of 2008 'Rock On' is the first Indian film to deal with the Rock Music category.

The recent trends Indicate that Bollywood is favoring stories that seems real. This is further confirmed by the success of 'Aamir', 'A Wednesday', 'Mumbai Meri Jaan' etc. Also the action movies had a huge revival after the success of John Abraham starrer 'Dhoom'. Many horror films are also in the making following the huge success of '1920', 'Phoonk', 'Raaz 2 - The mystery Continues' etc.

Also 'Love' play an important part of Bollywood films. But that doesn't mean that every film is a love story.

Another important feature of Bollywood from other film industries are the songs in the film. Most songs are visually rich with different costumes & locations.

I hope that I have covered everything you needed to know.

Almost every Drama film in India, is mainly centered around family, and each of the dramas are extremely similar to those of soap operas.