Central to the plot of one of the biggest releases of 2016—Inferno—was Irrfan, and the star of the hit American TV series Quantico is our very own Priyanka Chopra. From Raj Kapoor to Amitabh Bachchan to Aamir Khan and Shah Rukh Khan, Bollywood has been India's best cultural ambassador, be it in Russia, Africa or East Europe, and now in the UK and the US. In Bollywood Boom, National Award–winner Roopa Swaminathan explores the spectacular success of Bollywood in the twenty-first century and its rapidly rising power to influence the world. She argues that besides international goodwill, Indian cinema brings to the country real income through trade and tourism, and also enhances its global standing.

Extensively researched and peppered with fun anecdotes, this remarkable book shows how Bollywood has the power to mould India's fortunes by winning the hearts of people across continents.