Bollywood

Indian cinema: Songs! Dances! More songs and dances! Bollywood! Strip away the visuals, however, and you are left with the curious feeling that the music is both a complete stranger and a long-lost friend.

In excerpts from exclusive interviews, some of India's leading composers, lyricists, singers, actors, and filmmakers shed light on how they have brought this genre to life - and how you, the listener, keep it alive. This book might just be the first history of the Indian film song as told through all the other music it has incorporated over the decades, from Hindustani to hip-hop. It also looks at what such musical cross-pollination means in a world of increasing debates on intellectual property rights.

Whatever genre you can think of, there's a song in an Indian film that has tipped its hat to it (or picked its pockets). Songs from Hindi-language cinema - "Bollywood" - are omnipresent in India, and it is no surprise that Indians are not fazed by unfamiliar music: they probably heard it in the film they watched last night, if only for a few seconds and while at least two other kinds of music were playing.

About the author

Shwetant Kumar is a composer, performer, and musicologist from Mumbai, India. He is currently writing the authorised biography of Indian composer Vanraj Bhatia, for whom he was an archivist.

Product details

• Authors: Shwetant Kumar, Shwetant Kumar
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Release: 01.10.2026
• EAN: 9798765119075
• ISBN: 979-8-7651-1907-5
• No. of pages: 160
• Dimensions: 127 mm x 197 mm x 25 mm
• Weight: 454 g
• Series: Genre: A 33 1/3
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Music > General, dictionaries; MUSIC / Genres & Styles / General, MUSIC / History & Criticism, India, Asian History, Music reviews & criticism, Music reviews and criticism, Music: styles and genres, Music: styles & genres, HISTORY / Asia / South / India