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Pre-order. Available Apr 02 2026
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Description

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.

Table of Contents

1. 1947 and Before
2. The 1950s
3. The 1960s
4. The 1970s
5. The 1980s
6. The 1990s
7. The 2000s
8. The 2010s
9. 2020 and Beyond
Ten Essential Tracks

Product details

Bloomsbury Academic Test
Published Apr 02 2026
Format Paperback
Edition 1st
Extent 160
ISBN 9798765119075
Imprint Bloomsbury Academic
Dimensions 197 x 127 mm
Series Genre: A 33 1/3 Series
Publisher Bloomsbury Publishing

About the contributors

Author

Shwetant Kumar

Shwetant Kumar is an Indian composer, multi-instru…

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