Bollywood actress Katrina Kaif the choice of a new 'generAsian'

Katrina Kaif trumps Christina Aguilera. At least, that's what our online readers seem to think. Last weekend, our interview with the Bollywood actress was the most-read story, over and above cover girl Christina. Both were in the UAE for shows – Aguilera was the latest high-profile star to play Emirates Palace, in a concert on Friday, while Kaif was the opening act in an all-star Bollywood show headlined by Emirates Business favourite Shah Rukh Khan at Dubai Festival City on Saturday.

This is a pattern that consistently shows up in reader interactions: Quite simply, the UAE loves Bollywood.And as you might expect, it's a finding that often leaves people wondering. People who don't understand Bollywood cannot figure out its popularity or why anyone wants to read about films made in a language they cannot comprehend.

Or indeed, why anyone wants to read about Hindi language films in an English newspaper.As Entertainment Editor, I've had to defend the inclusion of Bollywood content time and again – but as journalists, allowing our personal views to influence our professional decisions truly is career suicide.

Bollywood may be little more than a song-and-dance sideshow to the uninitiated, but as our readers have proved, despite the fact that more than 20 per cent of the world's population speaks Hindi, the industry transcends language barriers.

It reaches out to even the most jaded and cynical with its hokey blend of emotions: Laughter, tears, anger, happiness, song and dance, love, even a little kitchen sink action. Trying to explain the allure of this unique art form – even solely by way of its multi-billion-dirham revenue-spinning ability – is like trying to explain the popularity of football in cricket-mad India.

But 23-year-old Katrina Kaif also brought home one more thing – the popularity of our interview proved the importance of timing. Journalism is all about getting the right story before anyone else; and in getting our man in Bollywood to go across and interview the actress, Emirates Business was able to scoop the nation.

We didn't wait till she hit Dubai to print a reactive piece after the dust had settled at the venue, we sat down with Bollywood's new number one actress before she boarded the flight to the shiny emirate.

Kaif's appeal is partly due to her international roots: Born to a British mother and a Kashmiri father and raised in London, she is internationalising Hindi cinema alongside former Miss World Aishwarya Rai – who is as well known for her Longines and L'Oreal endorsements and for her appearances on the jury at Cannes as she is for her film work for the likes of Gurinder Chadha.

But it is Kaif who epitomises the globalised world we live in; she is the most successful of a series of foreigners seeking fame and fortune in the world's biggest film-making nation. Neither Norwegian-born Negar Khan nor Czech mate Yana Syncova Gupta are anywhere near as famous. In a world of expatriates, where the credit crunch and a tighter-knit international community mean more and more people are working overseas, Kaif is the face of the globalised talent hunt. Which quite puts Christina in her place.