Designing and Building Reality in Hindi Film

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by Clare Wilkinson

Type

Studies

Subject

Countries > India

Keywords

Hindi cinema, reality, film making

Publishing date

2026 (March 31, 2026)

Publisher

Edinburgh University Press

Collection

Film and Fashions

Language

English

Relative size

Physical desc.

Paperback • 176 pages
6 ¾ x 9 ¾ inches (17 x 24.5 cm)

ISBN

978-1-3995-3213-6

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Book Presentation:
For an industry that is known for its escapism, the quest for settings that look real seems out of character. Yet the achievement of verisimilitude in Hindi (aka Bollywood) film sets and locations has grown apace in the 21st century, even in star vehicles and cinematic spectaculars.

This book inquires into how and why this is done, and who does it, drawing the reader into the thoughts and actions of art department personnel, from production designers all the way down to painters and carpenters. The key to their work is time – making the most of the time they are given, capturing the signs of the passage of time in artificially aged sets, creating settings that speak of the present or the past through the artfully chosen or fabricated props. Their work reveals a little-known side to the film industry that is indispensable to the filmmaking enterprise.

About the Author:
Clare M. Wilkinson is Professor of Anthropology at Washington State University. After graduating with a BA in anthropology from Durham University, she earned her PhD in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania. Her long-term research interests are craft and labour in India, and her publications include Fashioning Bollywood: The Making and Meaning of Costume in Hindi Film (2013), and a co-edited book with Alicia DeNicola, Critical Craft: Technology, Globalization and Capitalism (2016).

Press Reviews:
Building on her decades of fieldwork in the Mumbai film industry, Wilkinson’s compelling ethnography lures us in to the hitherto hidden worlds of production design workers – at all levels – whose collaborative labour constructs Hindi film reality plank by plank and prop by prop. A ground-breaking and very welcome contribution to the field. ― Rosie Thomas, Professor of Film at University of Westminster and author of Bombay Before Bollywood: Film City Fantasies

See the publisher website: Edinburgh University Press