Bollywood Boy

This amusing exploration of Bollywood and its twin extremes of extravagance and underworld by journalist Justine Hardy does justice to the high-concept day-glo filmi world of India. Set at the time when Hritik Roshan, an unknown actor with a famous dad was suddenly catapulted to megastardom, Hardy explores his sudden success and uses it to hold up a mirror to different aspects of the film industry in India and desperately trying to score an interview with the elusive star because... well everyone woman in the world (including her) is infatuated with him.

In a flurry of triceps and biceps, tight T-shirts and slick dance moves, Hritik remains Hardy's white whale as her hunt for an interview with him brings her into contact with heroes, heroines, villains, exotic locations, a cast of thousands, myriad constume changes and highly charged dop-de-bop dance routines. She meets independent filmmakers trying to go against the melodramatic grain of typical Bollywood fare, she meets dance teachers and underworld gangsters and manages to get to the heart of this world-wide phenomenon. This funny, energetic and observant book is an utterly absorbing deconstruction of its main subject: the Bollywood myth.