Bollywood Hardcover – January 1, 2017

Such a fun Bollywood recap! Love the info and it makes me go back and watch old movies !

This book is what I expected. Ce livre est exactement ce que j’esperais.

Amazing book. Hours of pleasurable reading about Indian Film industry. Highly recommended.

The book is absolutely beautiful, the colors pop off the page and there’s lots of attention to detail to many elements of Bollywood. However, with that being said, the book has quite a few inaccuracies: It states that Aishwarya Rai Bachchan won the Best Actress Filmfare Award in 2008 for “Jodhaa Akbar”, she was only nominated, Priyanka Chopra won that year for “Fashion”. It also claims that “Devdas” was nominated for an Academy Award, it wasn’t, it was India’s selection for the 2003 Academy Awards but it did not become a finalist. Irrfan Khan was also not nominated for an Academy Award, the film he was in, “Salaam Bombay”, was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award.There also could have been way more emphasis on the Kapoor sisters (especially Kareena), Manish Malhotra, Farah Khan, Preity Zinta, Rani Mukerji, Kajol, Hrithik Roshan, Farhan Akhtar, Sonam Kapoor, Anushka Sharma, Shahid Kapoor and Ranveer Singh instead of simply a few paragraphs or a minor mention.“Dil To Pagal Hai” “Koi... Mil Gaya”, “Kal Ho Naa Ho”, “Haider” and “Black” all should have had their own pages instead of being mentioned in the back of the book or not being mentioned at all. “Black” proved itself to be an incredibly groundbreaking film for Bollywood, as were the other aforementioned films, which is why I was flabbergasted that there was hardly anything on them.

For those that dont know, Bollywood is in some ways, larger than Hollywood. It releases more films than the US and in the world. It is probably in the last 20 years that America has been paying more attention to their films as well as their history. And DK Books has chosen a rather curious topic to explore its history. With its fully illustrated and well written text, DK seems the perfect company to release a full sized coffee table style book that is both entertaining and informative.Starting all the way in the beginning, the Indian Cinema started in 1913 releasing films focusing on society and religion. Many of the films, even by our current Western standards, are all still obscure, save for select few. But for a movie lover, this is a perfect book to start exploring films and their plots to discover a whole new world that someone might not otherwise be aware of. It gives historical context and importance to select films in relation to other films made in India that will give you appreciate and inspiration to want to see them.The book is all-encompassing with many movies to read about, along with their directors, producers and stars of their world. You will go from its beginnings in 1913 all the way to 2016 discussing the film Dangal. The book is beautifully put together with tons of images with rare pictures of movie posters. I will have a lot of fun going through this book and discovering films I will want to see.

I enjoy movies. And whenever I get some spare time, I consume them voraciously. Being Indian, I have always enjoyed good Hindi (Bollywood) movies.The world is more familiar with Bollywood than any regional cinema power centers in indian cinema (aka Kollywood, Tollywood etc.). This DK book is a terrific start to explore Indian cinema mainly through the lens of Hindi movies. ‘Bollywood’ makes hundreds of movies a year - it is in fact the most productive cinema industry in the world. DK has endeavored to provide an overview of the industry with critically or popularly acclaimed movies showcased on each page.The book is magnificent in its design - it is a visual feast. Every page includes reproductions of classic stills or photographs or posters and murals of the subject movie on the page as well as the plot and other nuggets of info related to the movie or its actors. Tons of photos make this book stunning. All the major films in each decade are covered.As I flipped through the pages I went back in time to those years and was able to remember some memories associated with the year in which a particular movie was made. This could be a nostalgic trip down memory lane for people who grew up in the 70s through the 90s.A 5 star effort. I wish DK would make this an even more comprehensive look by including more movies, interviews with directors and actors as well as which movies won what awards on the same page as the movie.

This book is physically impressive, with its heft, colorful and reflective cover, and lively pages with lots of photographs. It is pretty much what one would expect for a coffee table book on Bollywood.It uses color and consistent elements and layout to aid in organization and has a useful table of contents and index. It is arranged chronologically, starting with a chapter on early Bollywood to 1950, then by decades, and finishing with a chapter on post-2000 subjects. Sections are devoted to both films and important figures, from actors and directors to playback singers. More ambitious films have helpful timelines relating songs to plots.It is fun to browse or look up a favorite film or person but the text also provides a good overview of Bollywood history. It is not encyclopedic, and many topics are mentioned only in passing or not at all, but it is certainly interesting to revisit some old favorites and find some unknown films to watch, especially the older ones.