<P> In the 2000s, Bollywood musicals played an instrumental role in the revival of the musical film genre in the Western world . Baz Luhrmann stated that his successful musical film Moulin Rouge! (2001) was directly inspired by Bollywood musicals . The film thus pays homage to India, incorporating an Indian - themed play based on the ancient Sanskrit drama The Little Clay Cart and a Bollywood - style dance sequence with a song from the film China Gate . The Guru and The 40 - Year - Old Virgin also feature Indian - style song - and - dance sequences; the Bollywood musical Lagaan (2001) was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film; two other Bollywood films Devdas (2002) and Rang De Basanti (2006) were nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Film Not in the English Language; and Danny Boyle's Academy Award winning Slumdog Millionaire (2008) also features a Bollywood - style song - and - dance number during the film's end credits . </P> <P> Unlike the musical films of Hollywood and Bollywood, popularly identified with escapism, the Soviet musical was first and foremost a form of propaganda . Vladimir Lenin said that cinema was "the most important of the arts ." His successor, Joseph Stalin, also recognized the power of cinema in efficiently spreading Communist Party doctrine . Films were widely popular in the 1920s, but it was foreign cinema that dominated the Soviet filmgoing market . Films from Germany and the U.S. proved more entertaining than Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein's historical dramas . By the 1930s it was clear that if the Soviet cinema was to compete with its Western counterparts, it would have to give audiences what they wanted: the glamour and fantasy they got from Hollywood . The musical film, which emerged at that time, embodied the ideal combination of entertainment and official ideology . </P> <P> A struggle between laughter for laughter's sake and entertainment with a clear ideological message would define the golden age of the Soviet musical of the 1930s and 1940s . Then - head of the film industry Boris Shumyatsky sought to emulate Hollywood's conveyor belt method of production, going so far as to suggest the establishment of a Soviet Hollywood . </P> <P> In 1930, the esteemed Soviet film director Sergei Eisenstein went to the United States with fellow director Grigori Aleksandrov to study Hollywood's filmmaking process . The American films greatly impacted Aleksandrov, particularly the musicals . He returned in 1932, and in 1934 directed The Jolly Fellows, the first Soviet musical . The film was light on plot and focused more on the comedy and musical numbers . Party officials at first met the film with great hostility . Aleksandrov defended his work by arguing the notion of laughter for laughter's sake . Finally, when Aleksandrov showed the film to Stalin, the leader decided that musicals were an effective means of spreading propaganda . Messages like the importance of collective labor and rags - to - riches stories would become the plots of most Soviet musicals . </P>

Who created films with dance and musical sequences