Routledge Handbook of South Asian Cinemas

The Routledge Handbook of South Asian Cinemas is the first collection of original contributions to comprehensively analyze one of the most diverse and prolific cinema-producing regions of the world. It features chapters by up-and-coming and established scholars from a diverse array of academic specialties that survey South Asian cinemas, placing an emphasis on new, emerging, and underexplored cinematic terrains.

The handbook is organized in two parts: Regions and Themes. The first part examines the film industries from a regional perspective, including the cinemas of various Indian languages, in conjunction with the cinemas of other South Asian countries, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. The second part examines issues, themes, and practices that cut across regions, including distribution platforms, audiences, song and dance, and gender and sexuality.

A crucial intervention in the field of South Asian Cinema Studies, this handbook is an essential reference work for students and researchers of Asian cinema, film and culture and a significant contribution to South Asian Studies.

Ajay Gehlawat is Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Theatre and Film at Sonoma State University and author of several books on popular Hindi cinema (aka, Bollywood) including, most recently, Bollypolitics: Popular Hindi Cinema and Hindutva (2024) which was awarded the Best Monograph prize by the British Association of Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS).

Jayson Beaster-Jones is a Professor of Music at the University of California, Merced and the author of several books, including Bollywood Sounds: The Cosmopolitan Mediations of Hindi Film Song (2015), Music Commodities, Markets, and Values: Music as Merchandise (Routledge, 2016), and the Dil Chahta Hai Soundtrack (2024).