About the Author

Kumar Shahani (b. 1940) began his filmmaking career with the celebrated Maya Darpan (1972), which made him one of the most significant directors of the New Indian Cinema. He has since made feature films such as Tarang (1984), Khayal Gatha (1989), Kasba (1990), Bhavantarana (1991), Char Adhyay (1997) and Bamboo Flute (2000), which have received wide international recognition. Less well known is his work as a teacher and his interventions as a public intellectual. He has taught in several film schools in India and internationally, made short workshop films with students, and lectured extensively on academic and other platforms. Ashish Rajadhyaksha is co-editor of the Encyclopaedia of Indian Cinema (1999), author of Ritwik Ghatak: A Return to the Epic (1984), and Indian Cinema in the Time of Celluloid: From Bollywood to the Emergency (2009).