Why do Bollywood movies switch between English and Hindi in dialogue?

I'm watching Azaan right now which is like a Jason Bourne or 007 movie and like a lot of Hindi movies there's mostly Hindi but a lot of English passages? Why and what's the reason.

Have you been in Dilli lately? Or anywhere else where the cool people toggle between the two? Seems to me it's a toss of the coin whether they speak more of this one or that one.

English has been an essential part of 'being elite' and so speaking only Hindi in movies, TV shows, daily conversations etc will be considered downmarket.

Listen to film/TV stars giving interviews, most of them will be talking in pure English and Hindi would be nowhere to be heard. The anchors taking interviews for Hindi channel will also ask half the questions in English because they have to be part of the elite.

Language assimilation is not bad if it eases communication, but here it is all about being hip and above the rest.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Code-switching

Really , no body in India speaks in pure hindi , without some english common words . These english words have became part of our vocabulary. So, using only pure hindi dialogue in hindi cinemas would look unnatural .

'Hinglish' - for those unaware about this not so uncommon language!!

The worst part is when they say something in English, then repeat it immediately in Hindi.

Thanks for all the replies. The thing is in the movie mentioned above there is more English spoken than any other Hindi movie I've seen. Not just a word here or there but complete sentences or two. Just found it strange as not everyone in India speaks english or Hindi for that matter.

Were subtitles given during English dialogues? It seems to be movie which is shot abroad as well as India with foreign actors.

Yes, but the subtitles were in English just like the whole movie. And it was shot in Europe and other places.

Some English words are quite normal in daily conversation in at least North India and in Bollywood Hindi movies and words such as "ticket", "doctor", "bus", "train" etc. are now part of the commonly spoken "Hindustani" language and are regularly used in Hindi movies.

But if a Hindi movie has complete sentences and many many words in English then it will not have a wide appeal and it will certainly not become a box office success as it will alienate its customer base and then it really cannot be called a regular Hindi movie and will be regarded more like a foreign movie appealing to a narrow customer base in India.

I don't think the movie "Ganga Jamuna" would have been a big hit if the actors were speaking lot of English.

English is an Indian language. I remember an announcement " up upper India express station e asche " .

Here's the whole movie in question. Maybe 20% is in English.

This particular song text isn't even in Hindi but in Avadhi (or Poorbi).

Yes, it is not exactly the Hindi of the city folks but the language used in "Ganga Jamuna" was Avadhi/Bhojpuri that I would consider a variation/dialect of Hindi and is widely spoken in U.P villages and the use of the dialect of the village folks was consistent with the rustic setting of the movie and the dialect was an added attraction for the movie fans.