Understanding Bollywood

Asma Ayob holds a Master's degree in Dramatic Art and a PhD in Literature and Philosophy. During her career, she has lectured at Mercy College, Fordham University and the State University of New York (SUNY). Before moving to the US, she held a tenured position in the Department of Afrikaans and Theory of Literature at the University of South Africa (UNISA). She was the first South Asian woman to stage a play at the South African State Theatre. Her background includes experience as founder and producer of developmental theatre, playwright, screenwriter, and script consultant. She has published both feature and academic articles on Bollywood cinema and the Indian diaspora. Her presentations at various international conferences have focused on transnationalism, representations of women in Bollywood films, post-colonial societies, and the impact of auteur theory on social awareness and change.

"This is an impressive study of the aesthetics and social impact of Bollywood on Indian society. It explores the complex synthesis of tradition, culture, religion, patriarchy, nationalism, and gender which shaped this spectacular indigenous cinematic tradition with a growing international and diasporic reach. Ayob sheds light on the history and controversies centered on assertions that patriarchal culture and the subordination of women inscribed in the aesthetics of Bollywood can be linked to the subordination and abuse of women in postcolonial and contemporary India. By investigating the extent to which Bollywood's aesthetics are embedded in precolonial Indian society and how this has been gradually superseded, Ayob has produced an incisive, nuanced and illuminating study. Her scrupulous attention to detail and incisive application of cinematic and postcolonial cultural and gender theory, framed by family history and personal experience, has resulted in a ground-breaking and highly readable work on popular Indian cinema."Andries Walter OliphantProfessor of Theory of Literature, University of South Africa"Ayob balances incisive analysis with a refreshingly personal take on Bollywood cinema. She treats these fascinating films as complex texts that both affirm and critique cultural and patriarchal norms, while never losing sight of her own history and identity within the Indian diaspora. Understanding Bollywood serves at once as a useful introduction to the sub-genre, and a repeatedly rewarding deep dive."Greg TaylorAssociate Provost and Professor of Cinema Studies, Purchase College, SUNY; Author of Artists in the Audience: Cults, Camp, and American Film Criticism