Bollywood: A Guidebook to Popular Hindi Cinema Tejaswini Ganti (New York University, USA) 9780415583886

'Bollywood' is the dominant global term to refer to the prolific Hindi language film industry in Bombay (renamed Mumbai in 1995). Characterised by music, dance routines, melodrama, lavish production values and an emphasis on stars and spectacle, Bollywood films have met with box-office success and enthusiastic audiences from India to West Africa to Russia, and throughout the English-speaking world.

In Bollywood, anthropologist and film scholar Tejaswini Ganti provides a guide to the cultural, social and political significance of Hindi cinema, outlining the history and structure of the Bombay film industry, and the development of popular Hindi filmmaking since the 1930s. Providing information and commentary on the key players in Bollywood, including directors and stars, as well as material from current filmmakers themselves, the areas covered in Bollywood include:

• history of Indian cinema
• narrative style, main themes, and key genres of Hindi cinema
• significant films, directors and stars
• production and distribution of Bollywood films
• interviews with actors, directors and screenwriters.

"Ganti's book is by far one of the best introductions to Bollywood, a subject that reveals itself to possess many fine layers." -- Devapriya Sanyal, Centre for English Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India