BBC Blogs - The Radio 4 Blog - Bollywood: Music, Mystery and Magic on BBC Radio 4 Extra

Bollywood, India’s popular cinema industry, produces thousands of films that are enjoyed around the world. As the nights draw in and the mercury falls, BBC Radio 4 Extra presents a selection of Bollywood-themed features and dramas filled with warmth, light, music and song. The programmes are introduced by Bobby Friction, Bollywood aficionado and presenter of the eponymous weeknight music programme on BBC Asian Network.

Sanjeev Bhaskar delves into Bollywood’s early history with Lights, Camera, Akshun! (2013), exploring how three of the industry’s key players started out in London. Niranjan Pal wrote a West End play before co-directing The Light of Asia (1925) with Himanshu Rai, who went on to found the production company Bombay Talkies with actress Devika Rani. In Nightingales of India (2013), Yasmin Alibhai Brown looks back at the careers of Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle, the sisters who’ve sung the songs in thousands of Bollywood movies for the past 70 years.

Bollywood Jane (2008) is a drama series that shows how Bollywood crosses cultures. Jane, a teenager from a tough background, discovers Bollywood through her friend Dini. The films’ themes of hope and love sustain her as she makes the difficult adjustment to working life in a new city. And we have two detective dramas from 2007: Feluda - The Golden Fortress and Feluda - The Mystery of the Elephant God, written by renowned Bengali director Satyajit Ray, best known for his Apu film trilogy. The adaptor, Ray Grewal, has described the detective Feluda as a mixture of Sherlock Holmes, Tintin and Indiana Jones. Prominent Bollywood actors take the lead roles in this drama, including Rahul Bose as Feluda, and Anupam Kher as his friend Lalmohan Ganguly.

Written by Alison Frank