I'm sure you know I'm perfectly aware of both Herrmann's and Williams' places in film music history. Yes, where I live, there are a lot of older composers who've lived most of their lives behind the Iron Curtain and obviously aren't too familiar with American culture. But since the fall of the USSR we've had more and more cultural influence from the West and now plenty of young people are into film music. The older generation is more familiar with Soviet film music. I've heard a lot of it and I can tell you that apart from just a few gems, it was way behind its Western counterparts. And from what I've heard of Bollywood music I really don't expect them to have some kind of Indian John Williams over there.
John Williams is one of the greatest living film composers. I don't disagree with anything you said, Chris, but by saying it in this thread you were just shitting on our parade.