Prior to the late 1990s Bollywood was an all together different being and has since gradually metamorphosed into a slick new avatar. Anupama Chopra takes us on this journey of change through a series of previously published magazine columns (most from India Today) punctuated with extracts from her books on specific Bollywood films and personalities.
As most of the content in the book was written when the events were actually unfolding, the writing has a live feeling that writing in retrospect cannot possibly capture.
Chopra begins with the biggest Bollywood blockbuster of them all. Sholay, and then leapfrogs to 1993, a time when Bollywood was struggling to get out of the wastebasket that was the 1980s and culminates with an extract on Shah Rukh Khan.
As the book is made up of short pieces it does not demand a dedicated long read. It took me more than two weeks to finish reading 376 pages. Filled with interesting anecdotes and loads of trivia the First Day First Show: Writing from the Bollywood Trenches is a Bollywood addict's delight....
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12:51 PM, Jul 26, 2011
