In a Cult of Their Own: Bollywood Beyond Box Office

‘Cults become cults, they are not made. It’s the becoming that is interesting, not the making.’There are some films that sure fizzle out of the theatres in a heartbeat, but figure out a way to survive. Through a torrenteaked online, on an old bootlegged DVD or VHS, or YouTube upload and then in the hands of the omnipresent Twitterati—the films form a ‘cult’ of their own.This book is a tongue-in-cheek ode to these cult movies of Hindi filmdom, ones that despite not having made moolah at the box office, still made it to viewers’ memories for reasons—good or bad. Drawing from his own reminiscences of growing up on these delectables and also face-to-face interviews with actors and directors such as Aamir Khan, Pankaj Kapur and Deepti Naval, the author celebrates these underdogs in a manner that is extremely readable and relatable.