Networked Bollywood: How Star Power Globalized Hindi Cinema - Softcover

Rai, Swapnil

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1009400630 ISBN 13: 9781009400633

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2026

Synopsis

Networked Bollywood provides an interdisciplinary analysis of the role of the stars in the transformation of Hindi cinema into a global entertainment industry. The first Indian film was made in 1913. However, filmmaking was recognized as an industry almost a hundred years later. Yet, Indian films have been circulating globally since their inception. This book unearths this oft-elided history of Bollywood's globalization through multilingual, transnational research and discursive cultural analysis. The author illustrates how over the decades, a handful of primarily male megastars, as the heads of the industry's most prominent productions and corporations, combined overwhelming charismatic affect with unparalleled business influence. Through their “star switching power,” theorized here as a deeply gendered phenomenon and manifesting broader social inequalities, India's most prominent stars instigated new flows of cinema, industrial collaborations, structured distinctive business models, influenced state policy and diplomatic exchange, thereby defining the future of Bollywood's globalization.

About this title

About the Author

Swapnil Rai is Assistant Professor in the Department of Film, Television and Media at the University of Michigan. Her research focuses on global film and television, media industries, women and gender studies, race and ethnicity, transnational stardom, and celebrity culture. She has served as a Postdoctoral Visiting Fellow at the Center for Contemporary South Asia at Brown University and has taught at the College of Film and the Moving Image at Wesleyan University. Her work has appeared in a range of publications including Communication, Culture & Critique, Feminist Media Studies, International Journal of Communication, JumpCut, Journal of the School of Literature (JSL) and Cinephile.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1009400630
• ISBN 13: 9781009400633
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 334