Yes, Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire racked up eight Oscars and has scored nearly $250 in box-office receipts worldwide.

But does that mean Hollywood can or will take advantage of the global interest in films reflecting Hindi culture and language, and get in on the Bollywood action?

Not necessarily.

“The studios are finding out that negotiating the distance between Burbank and Bollywood is trickier than expected,” Anupama Chopra writes in a report published today in the New York Times.

Sony, Warner Brothers, Disney and 20th Century Fox have all established Mumbai-based offices and production facilities over the last decade. But the Hindi-language movies they’ve produced or co-produced have all fallen short of commercial expectations.

Despite that failure, those studios have a couple of dozen or so Indian projects in the works.

The plan for the future: Pay attention to what works in Bollywood, revise accordingly, and have patience. The potential payoff – an opportunity to tap into the movie business in India, where more than three billion tickets are sold annually.

“There is professionalism, passion, work ethic and talent among the production houses in India, and in reality they don’t need us at all, Richard Fox, an international exec VP at Warners, told the Times. “We want to be there, and we will adjust our ways to be in line with theirs and not the other way around.”