Jonathan Torgovnik; Bollywood Dreams Postcards

Publisher Description Bollywood Dreams Postcards is a collection of the best images from the very popular Bollywood Dreams publication from Spring 2003. The images include lively and dynamic images from each of the four chapters in the book, 'The Touring Cinema', 'The Set', 'The Characters' and 'The Screening', and show of a broad spectrum of the world-famous Bollywood industry. The images show: portraits of actors in costume and on the set; the touring cinema; action sequences; dances; devoted fans queuing up and in the movie theatres; the projectionists; images of Bollywood posters on the streets and in production. In Bollywood Dreams photographer Jonathan Torgovnik explores the beloved pastime of an Indian population of over 1 billion. As the largest film producer in the world with more than 800 films made each year, the Indian movie industry is a cultural phenomenon. Paying tribute to the stars, filmmakers, technicians and moviegoers who make this possible, Bollywood Dreams puts a human face on the fantastical, spectacle-rich films that compel more than 14 million people to the cinema on a single day in India. Bollywood Dreams is both a behind-the-scenes personal diary of the magic and contagious excitement of Indian film and a discerning photo-essay on the film industry's profound impact on Indian society. Singular in its conception, this book is unique in the way it introduces the general audience to the profound and spectacular way that Bollywood permeates everyday life in India. In this way Torgovnik's Bollywood Dreams stands as an important testament to the power of cinema in the twentieth century as both entertainment and social phenomenon. Deriving its name from its American equivalent, Bollywood is the highly successful Indian movie industry predominantly based in Bombay and Madras. Every day more than 14 million people go to the cinema across India to watch films produced by this massive and powerful industry. In India, movies are not just a form of entertainment, it is practically a religion. Streets in major Indian cities are lined with colourful posters of Indian movies and their stars. Movie stars are treated like demi-gods, no match even for American standards of celebrity obsession. More than any other cultural or political institution of the 20th century, the cinema has captured the hearts and minds of India's growing population of almost one billion even against the stark backdrop of the vast country's struggle with poverty and hunger and often tense Muslim-Hindu relations. The experience of actually going to the movies in India is as much a part of the Bollywood phenomenon as are the stars themselves and Bollywood Dreams documents this important aspect of understanding the important role Bollywood plays in contemporary Indian culture. "Going to the cinema," Torgovnik says "is about going to see the actors larger-than-life. It is about living the glamorous life for a few hours and leaving your daily hardships behind." Once inside the movie theatres, the audience can expect at least three hours of entertainment including several song and dance numbers, love scenes, action sequences, and most surely a happy ending. Each film includes the necessary ingredients for success: action, violence, music, dance, romance, and morals. The themes of the movies are often social issues like communalism, ethnicity, religion, and caste, and the movie theatres themselves are often fill of lively interaction between viewer and star. Cheers and boos pervade the atmosphere: the audience becomes a part of the film, and likewise, the film becomes a part of them. Bollywood Dreams begins with a vignette of the touring caravans that bring Bollywood on the big screen to India's villages in portable tents. We then follow the Indian film from its creation on the movie set, to the larger-than-life stars, directors, and character actors, to the editing chamber, to the city streets where ubiquitous promotional posters abound, and finally, to the multitude of movie theatres that abound in India.

Author Biography Jonathan Torgovnik (b. 1968) began his career as a combat photographer in the Israeli army. In 1992 Torgovnik entered the photography department at the School of Visual Arts in New York where he graduated with a BFA degree. His photographs have been published in numerous American and international publications including Newsweek, Smithsonian, London Sunday Times Magazine, The Telegraph Magazine, Paris Match, and Stern, among others. Torgovnik's award-winning photographs have been included in numerous group and solo exhibitions in New York and Europe and have been acquired by museums such as The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston and The Jewish Museum, New York. Torgovnik was seduced by the spectacular and passionate world of Indian cinema, and Bollywood Dreams is the result of a long-term documentary project. Since the publication of Bollywood Dreams (Phaidon, 2003), he has travelled extensively lecturing and a selection of photographs from the book have been exhibited in the States and Europe.

Table of Contents 50 postcards: 2 X 25 images; Each postcard is identified on the back by the scene and place. For more information on each image, please see the extended captions in the Bollywood Dreams book. Clockwise from top left in the Sales Catalogue, the 25 images can be found on the following pages: p. 11, p. 15, pp. 28-9 (cover image on tin box), p. pp. 30-1, pp. 46-7, p. 49, p. 57, p. 59, p. 65, p. 64, p. 67, p. 68, p. 83, p. 84, p. 86-7, p. 94-5, p. 99, 109, p. 111, pp. 114-5, pp. 38-9, pp. 62-3, p. 80, p. 97 and p. 74. Please note, the image on the cover of the tin box features the stars Govinda and Sonali Bendre during a song-and-dance sequence on the set of Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hai. The caption in the book reads: 'Stars Govinda and Sonali Bendre during a song-and-dance sequence on the set of Jis Desh Mein Ganga Rehta Hai. Locations are an important element of Hindi musical cinema. This was shot in Mahabaleshwar, a hill station in the state of Maharashtra. Songs are typically performed by the hero and heroine with dozens of dancers moving in unison behind them.'

Long Description A collection of glamorous and colourful postcards of the best images from Bollywood Dreams by the award-winning photographer Jonathan Torgovnik, showing the magic and passion of Indian cinema. The postcards show behind-the-scenes images from the entire spectrum of movie-making, including the sets, the stars, the make-up, the cinemas and the fans. They are packaged in a specially designed tin. A great gift for Bollywood fans and all cinema aficionados.

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