India's "soft" ware power - Reality or Hype?

Much has been made of India's so-called soft power, the loudest vocalist being our very own Shashi Tharoor. I can assure you this is not mere hype as far as my experience goes.
The Egyptian software programmer with whom I worked with in Kuwait (On Kuwait) surprised me one day when he asked me questions about Amitabh Bachchan. I don't know how this guy from a conservative Arab culture came to hear about the evergreen Bollywood hero, but his name seems to have reached far flung corners of the world. Another occasion of Bollywood power reared its head was while watching a popular German TV show on the German equivalent of MTV in Germany (On Germany). The hep female anchor (who I noticed wore a different hairdo at every one of her shows) mentioned "Hollywood-Bollywood" before a racy Bollywood number was shown. The rest of what she said was in German but the word "Bollywood" was loud and clear. I don't know whether Germans are aware of the thriving film industry in India, but it seems they do have some inkling of it ('Dil to Pagal Hai' must have received publicity in Germany when parts of it were shot there).
That rests the case of the hype about the Indian film industry, but India, Indians and the Indian culture are known for other things as well.
I remember the occasion when before I travelled to Germany, my German boss requested me to bring some Ayurvedic herbs. This was, he said for a friend of his who suffered from chronic pain, but it turned out it was at the behest of his German girlfriend of two years who was a pharmacist in town. Ayurveda must not be much popular away from its cradle in South India, but it is extremely popular in the land which gave the world the science of Homeopathy.
Another request was for Alphonso mangoes, the popular export quality mango strain from India; however I could not fulfil this request, the fact being that I could not procure these costly mangoes in Kerala at short notice, without the risk of being duped by some shrewd businessman who might pass off some commonplace mangoes as "Alphonso".
Another request was from the subordinate of my German boss who requested for a couple of pair of jeans, giving me his waist size as well. I could not understand the reason for this request when I believed the West was the cradle of the jeans culture. When I asked this guy the reason, he told me matter of fact that all the high quality clothes that came to Germany nowadays were imported from countries such as India and other Asian countries. This was proved for good measure once again when my brother in the US of A returned last month with T-shirts manufactured in India and Sri Lanka.
The cycle has turned full circle!