Fantasies of a Bollywood Love Thief - by Stephen Alter (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Bollywood movies are glorious, colorful spectacles of romance, action, drama, song, and dance. The biggest film industry in the world, Bollywood puts out some nine hundred movies a year, which are watched by passionate fans around the globe.

Stephen Alter--a writer who grew up in India and has inside access to Bollywood--acts as translator and tour guide in this firsthand look into the world of Bombay films. Following the making of a Bollywood version of Othello, he explores the enormous popularity of Hindi movies and reveals the actors, directors, musicians, and feats of artifice that make them so compelling and unique. From the blessing ceremony performed each time a movie starts shooting to the secrets behind the song- and-dance extravaganzas, Fantasies of a Bollywood Love-Thief is a beguiling introduction to the rituals and culture of a moviemaking industry so similar to and yet utterly different from our own.

From the Back Cover

Masala: 1. A pungent concoction of spices that excites all five senses. 2. The perfect combination of dramatic elements in a successful Bollywood film.

Bollywood movies are glorious, colorful spectacles of romance, action, drama, song, and dance. India has the biggest film industry in the world, which produces some 900 movies a year, watched by passionate fans around the globe.

Stephen Alter a writer who grew up in India and has inside access to Bollywood acts as translator and tour guide in this firsthand look into the world of Bombay films. Following the making of a Bollywood version of Othello, he explores the enormous popularity of Hindi movies and reveals the actors, directors, musicians, and feats of artifice that make them so compelling and unique. From the blessing ceremony performed each time a movie starts shooting to the secrets behind the song-and-dance extravaganzas, Fantasies of a Bollywood Love Thief is a beguiling introduction to the rituals and culture of a moviemaking industry so similar to and yet utterly different from our own.

STEPHEN ALTER is the highly praised author of seven books of fiction and four books of nonfiction, including Elephas Maximus: A Portrait of the Indian Elephant and Sacred Waters: A Pilgrimmage up the Ganges River to the Source of Hindu Culture. As a writer-in-residence at MIT, he received both a Guggenheim and a Fulbright fellowship. He now lives and writes in India.
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Review Quotes

PRAISE FOR ELEPHAS MAXIMUS

"Magical and fascinating."--THE BOSTON GLOBE

"Deftly blend[s] Indian history and culture with current debates about animal conservation . . . Joyous."--THE SAN DIEGO UNION-TRIBUNE --