Tempus Publishing Ltd, 2007

The first comprehensive history of India’s film industry. Hollywood may define our idea of movies but it is Mumbai on India’s west coast that can claim to be the centre of world cinema. More than a thousand feature films are made annually, a billion more tickets every year are purchased than for Hollywood productions and fourteen million Indians go to a movie daily.

 

Bollywood uses the cinematic techniques of Hollywood, producing movies bearing no relation to the original but with a compelling appeal, and has enthralled audiences throughout eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa for over fifty years. It is a self-contained world with multiple song and dance routines, intense melodramas, plots that range from farce to tragedy, but always with a happy ending.

 

The creators of these movies are even more remarkable and it is this fantastic, rich, diverse story, a veritable Indian fairyland that Mihir Bose, a native of Mumbai, explores. Only latterly recognised in the West, Bollywood movies have long defined cinema for many millions across the globe. The recently acknowledged son of its American parent, Bollywood has long since overtaken its father.