Villains are sent flying through the air to pulsating guitar riffs.

Socio-economic problems are solved with sermonizing monologues.

You can rest assured that good shall prevail-since the protagonist can change the world at will.

We are in the presence of the Telugu hero: a character that spills over from myth onto the screen. The celluloid hero speaks like you and me and looks like us, but can perform superhuman feats.

The Age of Heroes looks at the historical-cultural factors that have produced cult heroes like N.T. Rama Rao, Chiranjeevi and Pawan Kalyan-and Vijayashanti, who embodies the concept of the female hero.

With the growing popularity of Telugu films across the world, especially blockbusters like Bahubali and RRR, Mukesh Manjunath's book-which won the inaugural HarperCollins-MAMI contest for writing on cinema-is a timely and fascinating study of Telugu cinema, which entertains an audience close to 10 crore globally.