Bollywood’s New Woman examines Bollywood’s construction and presentation of the Indian Woman since the 1990s. The groundbreaking collection illuminates the contexts and contours of this contemporary figure that has been identified in sociological and historical discourses as the “New Woman.” On the one hand, this figure is a variant of the fin de siècle phenomenon of the “New Woman” in the United Kingdom and the United States. In the Indian context, the New Woman is a distinct articulation resulting from the nation’s tryst with neoliberal reform, consolidation of the middle class, and the ascendency of aggressive Hindu Right politics.

From Bombay to Bollywood analyzes the transformation of the national film industry in Bombay into a transnational and multi-media cultural enterprise, which has come to be known as Bollywood. Combining ethnographic, institutional, and textual analyses, Aswin Punathambekar explores how relations between state institutions, the Indian diaspora, circuits of capital, and new media technologies and industries have reconfigured the Bombay-based industry’s geographic reach. Providing in-depth accounts of the workings of media companies and media professionals, Punathambekar has produced a timely analysis of how a media industry in the postcolonial world has come to claim the global as its scale of operations. Based on extensive field research in India and the U.S., this book offers empirically-rich and theoretically-informed analyses of how the imaginations and practices of industry professionals give shape to the media worlds we inhabit and engage with. Moving beyond a focus on a single medium, Punathambekar develops a comparative and integrated approach that examines four different but interrelated media industries--film, television, marketing, and digital media. Offering a path-breaking account of media convergence in a non-Western context, Punathambekar’s transnational approach to understanding the formation of Bollywood is an innovative intervention into current debates on media industries, production cultures, and cultural globalization.

Gendered Violence in Public Spaces: Women’s Narratives of Travel in Neoliberal India examines the vulnerability of women in public spaces in India through an analysis of narrative representations ranging from emerging digital media, commercial Hindi films, and graphic narratives to accounts of real and lived experiences of women. In doing so, this collection initiates a scholarly discussion on manifold forms of emotional, mental, epistemic, and above all sexual violence female travelers face in male-dominated public spaces. Gendered Violence in Public Spaces therefore challenges contemporary readers to re-frame India’s public spaces against misogyny and gendered violence.

The subtitle says it all: how and why Bollywood found it worthwhile to explore the reality of the millennial women who are thriving in India - small part of the demographics but very influential. Advertising discovered women as The Hindi film Heroine is a brand and brand ambassador. The market met contemporary women who are independent, with freer attitudes to relationships, including pre-marital sex, Rom coms of the new millennium reflect this new-found freedom, defying patriarchy that still defines our society. Globalisation is culturally irreversible. From the 1990s onwards, Bollywood has responded to globalisation with fear of loss of identity and desire to integrate with global trends. It results in popular cinema becoming glocal. Bollywood celebrates nonconformists, subversives woman as the hero, stories in their own way unequivocally said No means No. Most daringly. Iconic characters like Choti Bahu, Paro and Chandramukhi transformed into today’s women with the power to change their lives. This happened with the energy infused into the mainstream by indie filmmakers with vision and the will to tell stories in their own way.

Research and popular culture illustrate that Bollywood cinema plays an essential role for Indian national and diasporic audiences across the globe, showing that such films shed light on the history and cultural politics of India. Over time, Bollywood filmmakers have played a key role in assisting Indian women with their evolutionary practices. Films that focus on important aspects such as culture, patriarchy, and gender politics within this context are analysed in this text. Karan Johar is internationally recognised as an auteur, especially because of the novel representations of the Indian diaspora in his films. His unique relationship with Shah Rukh Khan, a global icon with a worldwide following of some 3.5 billion fans, is explored here. This book’s study of Bollywood films elucidates how Indian women have transformed over the years, from being subjugated to individuals with human rights. As such, it is a valuable source of information for cinema studies students and instructors, and an important resource for anyone interested in the history of the Bollywood industry and its impact on society as it evolves.

Commercial cinema has always been one of the biggest indigenous industries in India, and remains so in the post-globalization era, when Indian economy has entered a new phase of global participation, liberalization and expansion. Issues of community, gender, society, social and economic justice, bourgeois-liberal individualism, secular nationhood and ethnic identity are nowhere more explored in the Indian cultural mainstream than in commercial cinema. As Indian economy and policy have gone through a sea-change after the end of the Cold War and the commencement of the Global Capital, the largest cultural industry has followed suit. This book is a significant addition to the study of post-Global Indian culture. The articles represent a variety of theoretical and pedagogical approaches, and the collection will be appreciated by beginners and scholars alike.

This is the first book to investigate how mental illness is portrayed in Hindi cinema. It examines attitudes towards mental illness in Indian culture, how they are reflected in Hindi films, and how culture has influenced the portrayal of the psychoses. Dinesh Bhugra guides the reader through the history of Indian cinema, covering developments from the idealism of the 1950s to the stalking, jealousy and psychopathy that characterises the films of the 1990s. Critiques of individual films demonstrate the culture’s approach towards mental illness and reflect the impact of culture on films and vice versa. Subjects covered include: Cinema and emotion Attitudes towards mental illness Socio-economic factors and cinema in India Indian personality, villainy and history Psychoanalysis in the films of the 60s. Mad Tales from Bollywood will be of interest to psychiatrists, mental health professionals, students of media and cultural studies and anyone with an interest in Indian culture.

Key changes have emerged in Bollywood in the new millennium. Twenty-First Century Bollywood traces the emerging shifts in both the content and form of Bollywood cinema and examines these new tendencies in relation to the changing dynamics of Indian culture. The book historically situates these emerging trends in relation to previous norms, and develops new, innovative paradigms for conceptualizing Bollywood in the twenty-first century. The particular shifts in contemporary Bollywood cinema that the book examines include the changing nature of the song and dance sequence, the evolving representations of male and female sexuality, and the increasing presence of whiteness as a dominant trope in Bollywood cinema. It also focuses on the increasing presence of Bollywood in higher education courses in the West, as well as how Bollywood’s growing presence in such academic contexts illuminates the changing ways in which this cinema is consumed by Western audiences. Shifting the focus back on the cinematic elements of contemporary films themselves, the book analyses Bollywood films by considering the film dynamics on their own terms, and related to their narrative and aesthetic usage, rather than through an analysis of large-scale industrial practices. It will be of interest to students and scholars of South Asian Studies, Film Studies, and Cultural Studies.

This book provides an in-depth exploration of the evolving landscape of Bollywood cinema in response to recent socio-political changes in India, including a surge in sectarian violence and the ascent of Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership. Through a comprehensive analysis of prominent filmmakers and actors like Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Kangana Ranaut, Akshay Kumar, and Anupam Kher, Ajay Gehlawat investigates the extent to which their recent works align with key tenets of the Hindutva movement. He scrutinizes the growing influence of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on film production, manifesting in collaborations covering diverse themes, from Modi's Clean India initiative to the nation's space exploration endeavors and grand historical epics such as Padmaavat (2018) and Manikarnika (2019) that seek to reshape Indian history in line with Hindutva ideology. Gehlawat goes on to dissect smaller budget films like Article 15 (2019) and Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan (2020), which tackle pressing social issues like caste-based violence and homophobia exacerbated by the surge in right-wing extremism in India. In doing so, he elucidates the profound and far-reaching impact of Hindutva ideology on Indian cinematic narratives and aesthetics, while also considering the broader implications for Indian society as a whole.

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