"Going to the cinema," Torgovnik says "is about going to see the actors larger-than-life. It is about living the glamorous life for a few hours and leaving your daily hardships behind". Once inside the movie theatres, the audience can expect at least three hours of entertainment including several song-and-dance numbers, love scenes, action sequences, and most surely a happy ending. Each film includes the necessary ingredients for success: action, violence, music, dance, romance and morals. The themes of the movies are often social issues like communalism, ethnicity, religion, and caste and the movie theatres themselves are often full of lively interaction between viewer and star. Cheers and boos pervade the atmosphere: the audience becomes a part of the film, and likewise, the film becomes a part of them. "Bollywood Dreams" begins with a vignette of the touring caravans that bring Bollywood on the big screen to India's villages in portable tents.
We then follow the journey of the Bollywood film from its creation on the movie set, to the larger-than-life stars and directors, to the editing chamber, to the streets where ubiquitous promotional posters abound, and finally, we see the multitude of movie theatres in India. A brief timeline of important moments in Bollywood history is included in the back of the book.



![Manchan, Magan IRISH INTEREST Magan Manchan: Listen to the Land Speak [2022] hardback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/manchan-magan-magan-manchan-listen-to-the-land-speak-2022-hardback-57197364117843_{width}x.jpg?v=1743077146)
![Lynch, Paul IRISH FICTION Paul Lynch: Prophet Song [2023] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/lynch-paul-paul-lynch-prophet-song-2023-paperback-57686922002771_{width}x.jpg?v=1732016939)
![Fallon, Donal & Flanagan, Frank BARGAIN DUBLIN INTEREST James Flanagan: The Lamplighters of the Phoenix Park [2023] hardback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/fallon-donal-flanagan-frank-james-flanagan-the-lamplighters-of-the-phoenix-park-2023-hardback-58346832265555_{width}x.jpg?v=1780312547)
![Yarros, Rebecca SCIENCE FICTION FANTASY Rebecca Yarros: Onyx Storm [2025] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/yarros-rebecca-rebecca-yarros-onyx-storm-2025-paperback-1177341848_{width}x.jpg?v=1752166886)
![Norton, Graham FICTION HARDBACK Graham Norton: Frankie [2024] paperback](http://chaptersbookstore.com/cdn/shop/files/norton-graham-graham-norton-frankie-2024-paperback-60131430170963_{width}x.jpg?v=1760095851)