This book will appeal to anyone interested in the anthropology of material culture, social systems, gender studies, dress and body, film studies, Indian culture, and fashion. It will also appeal to the more analytically minded Bollywood cinema lover. It is essential reading for those whose focus is on dress.
Lynne Hume, The University of Queensland
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
In the increase in scientific literature surrounding the Indian film industry, there is very little ethnographic analysis of the production culture. This study is an important addition that can serve as a model for further studies ... It asks many interesting and inspiring questions, clearly demonstrating the productive level of research in progress here.
Anthropos (Bloomsbury translation)
In its discussion of how film costumes are not simply the tangible outcome of a designer’s imagination, but of material and ideological practices that implicate a range of social actors, Fashioning Bollywood takes the study of costume outside the narrow realm of text and narrative, providing a rich material culture perspective of the changes wrought in Hindi filmmaking.
Tejaswini Ganti, Associate Professor of Anthropology, New York University, USA Wilkinson-Weber deftly connects the Bollywood costume world of film and fashion, unraveling a complex system of stars, designers, dressmen, and costume assistants. Although dealing with specifics, her theoretical analysis asks the reader to think beyond Bollywood to recognize that in film and theater across the world “costume is instrumental in crystallizing character.”
Joanne B. Eicher, Editor-in-Chief, Encyclopedia of World Dress and Fashion and Regents Professor Emerita, University of Minnesota, USA