India is the largest film producing country in the world and its output has a global reach. After years of marginalisation by academics in the Western world, Indian cinemas have moved from the periphery to the centre of the world cinema in a comparatively short space of time. Bringing together contributions from leading scholars in the field, this Handbook looks at the complex reasons for this remarkable journey.

1. Introduction Part 1: Historical Analysis 2. From Cultural Backwardness to the Age of Imitation: An Essay in Film History 3. The Indian New Wave 4. Regional Cinemas: 4.1 'Bengali' Cinema: Its Making and Unmaking 4.2 Assamese Cinema: Dreams, Reality and Dichotomies 4.3 Odia (the new name for Oriya) Cinema at 75 4.4 Marathi Cinema: The Exile, the Factory and Fame 4.5 Gujarati Cinema: Stories of Sant, Sati, Shethani and Sparks Afew 4.6 Matriliny to Masculinity: Performing Modernity and Gender in Malayalam Cinema 4.7 Kannada Cinema and Princely Mysore4.8 The Star-politicians of Tamil Nadu: The origin and emergence 4.9 Beyond the Star: Telegu Comedy Films and Realpolitik in Andhra Pradesh 4.10 Mapping the invisible world of Bhojpuri cinema and its changing audience 4.11 From Lahore to Bombay...and Vancouver: The Chequered Journey of Punjabi Cinema Part 2: Themes and Perspectives 5. The evolution of representing Female sexuality in Hindi Cinema 1991 - 2010 6. Queer Times in Bollywood 7. The Scale of Diasporic Cinema: Negotiating National and Transnational Cultural Citizenship 8. The Shifting Terrains of Nationalism and Patriotism in Indian Cinemas 9. Digitizing the National Imaginary: Technology and Hybridization in Hindi Film Songs of the Post-Liberalization Period 10. Trends in Hindi Film music with special reference to Socio-Economic and Political Changes11. Music in Mainstream Indian Cinema 12. Scriptwriting- In and Out of the Box 13. The Fictions of Science and Cinema in India 14. Film Censorship in India: Deconstructing an Incongruity 15. Advertising and marketing of the Indian Cinema Part 3: The Business of Indian Cinemas 16. Film Distribution: The Changing Landscape 17. Corporatization and the Hindi Film Industry 18. Indian Cinemas: Acknowledging Property Rights 19. Foundations, Movements and Dissonant Images: documentary film and its ambivalent relations to the nation state Part 4: Cinema Halls and Audiences 20. Active Audiences and the Experience of Cinema 21. Hindi film audiences outside South Asia 22. Cinema as Social Space: The Case of the Multiplex 23. Virtual Darshan: social networking and virtual communities in the Hindi film context 24. Conclusion