Conclusion: A Bollywood Renaissance?

This book has highlighted some of the fundamental changes that have occurred in Bollywood cinema after its economic liberalisation at the turn of the twenty-first century. Through an analysis of various film texts, it has demonstrated how Bollywood, as well as being global and transnational, has reached a postmodern stage that has provided new ways of reading Indian cinema. It has also examined the Bollywood remake, arguing that remaking was contemporary Bollywood's most significant and effective means of achieving creative innovation. Furthermore, it has described some of the devices at the core of New Bollywood's unique cinematic language, such as figural excess and hyperrealism, which enable the cinema to operate differently as an art form and film language. The book concludes by offering a redefinition of contemporary Bollywood cinema, proposing the value of postmodernism as a new alternative method for studying, teaching and articulating Bollywood in the West. It also reflects on Bollywood's future prospects.