Designing and Building Reality in Hindi Film
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.

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Designing and Building Reality in Hindi Film
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.

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Designing and Building Reality in Hindi Film

Designing and Building Reality in Hindi Film

by Clare Wilkinson
Designing and Building Reality in Hindi Film

Designing and Building Reality in Hindi Film

by Clare Wilkinson

Hardcover

$130.00 
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Overview

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.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781399532136
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Publication date: 03/31/2026
Series: Film and Fashions
Pages: 164
Product dimensions: 6.69(w) x 9.61(h) x 0.00(d)

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).

Table of Contents

List of figures

Acknowledgements


1. Introduction

2. Makers and spaces

3. Making time

4. Inscribing time

5. Interleafing time scapes

6. Endings and cyclings

References Cited

Films cited

Index

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