Image credits: Pranjal Asha
Notes from some of our contributors:
I’m not sure I necessarily desire Bollywood. But as a south Asian, the concept of desire—material, romantic, sexual—is constantly conversing with Bollywood’s depiction of it. Sometimes we agree, of late we tend to disagree. ‘Desiring Bollywood’ still does make sense to me, though, since independent of its viewership, Bollywood is an entity that constantly desires something. Love, melodrama, a hero’s journey, revenge, justice, family, tears, friendship, happily ever afters: Bollywood wants it all…and it seldom settles for anything less.
DUKHTAR
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Desiring Bollywood is the only way I know how to desire. And not to sound like the introduction of a Literature course (with an alliterated title) in a private university but it’s true. Bollywood has given me the space to desire with shiddat, while still saying handle with care yaar, I’m a fragile.
Aditi Dindorkar
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To desire Bollywood is to dream of a love so powerful it touches the soul. It’s about believing in the kind of connection that can overcome any challenge, the kind that feels like coming home. It’s a celebration of love in its purest, most heartfelt form—a love that inspires us to hope, dream, and feel deeply.
MADHU KUMARI
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Desiring Bollywood is to come face to face with the makings and failings of the Indian state, and embrace the romance of it all.
pulari meera baskar
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Desiring Bollywood is desiring an escape from sacrificing yourself at the altar of the Algorithm Gods of Dating Apps, is desiring breaking away from the labour of swiping, is desiring someone who will love us because and despite of who we are, is desiring a great love, is desiring a small love, is desiring a fantastical love, is desiring just that. Love. Desiring Bollywood is desiring love.
Shayoni Thakkar
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What Bollywood means to me is the way an alien emotion suddenly becomes someone else’s. I have laughed, I have cried, I have felt the agony of the cine stars along with the cine characters they portray. Growing up in a middle class setup I have known cinema as a mode of entertainment and a source of evergreen songs. From there I have found my true love for words. I have caught myself hooked to lyrics, dialogues, images and what not. I haven’t forgotten Rajkumar’s dialogue delivery or Shahrukh Khan’s slant open arms posture. Everything perfect. Everything so well described just like a life blooming with each fulfilled desire.
Purbasha Roy
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For me, desiring Bollywood evokes the heightened celebration (or representation) of the emotion. When I say heightened, it doesn’t necessarily mean maximalist but just showing how deeply weird this emotion makes your life. From creating an entire alter ego in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi to the street lamp tests of Barfi. Nothing about desire makes sense, but it does envelope you whole – atleast in the moments you experience it. This is why I steadfastly believe Titanic is the most Bollywood Hollywood movie.
Shhreyas Kairoli
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You dream of epiphanies and bounties of wealth, you dream of mirages of cold buildings and painless death; I shudder at your thought, at your desired penance, for I desire boundless mirth, countless stars, and my lover’s countenance.
Kasturi
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Desiring Bollywood is a moment of freedom from extremely layered, oppressive structures.
EKTA RATHORE
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Desire is as important to Hindi cinema as cinema is to the Indian population. It resides in the excesses of colourful drama, song sequences that do not merely serve the narrative, and powerful fantasies that casually break social taboos. Look closely, and you’ll find desire oozing out of all crevices of the screen.
SHREYA SHARMA (REYA)
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Desiring Bollywood has been something which has been passed over to me by my lovely mother. Growing up and listening to her enjoying her late 90s and early 2000s songs, I, too, found myself enjoying and finding a safe place in these songs which I initially was super hesitant about. Bollywood now means nostalgia to me, and I can’t help but hold onto it for as long as I can.
Ojaswani Parewa
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Desire is chaos. It is pure, unfiltered madness. It hijacks the mind, wrecks sanity, and takes over until nothing else matters. You want what you want, and until you have it, breathing becomes difficult.
Maybe this is why, we were made to feel like this longing was dangerous and sinful.
But films showed me that wanting isn’t wrong. It is human. Movies made desire tender, passionate, and fearless and offered me permission to dream, to imagine, to accept.
So, for me, Desiring Bollywood is actually about embracing wanting and longing. It’s about love, freedom and acceptance.
SPANDANA
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“Itni shiddat se maine tumhe paane ki koshish ki hai,
ki har zarre ne mujhe tumse milane ki saazish ki hai.”
These words echo endlessly in my mind. As if etched into the marrow of my being. It is only poetic justice that the man who is Bollywood stood tall, unshaken. He broke the fourth wall, shed tears that spoke more than words ever could, and locked eyes not just with the world but with me. An ordinary, lovesick dreamer. A loser. But, in that moment, he made me believe in the audacity to desire, the courage to dream. Because even when dreams feel like delusions, they are our most faithful companions. At their worst, they are evanescent phantoms. At their best, they are eternal — a song without an end.
ANAS ARIF
A red-veiled, gold-spun ode to Hindi cinema: Issue II: Desiring Bollywood, is open for preorder now. We would love to send it to your doorstep.