Book Review - Khwaabon Ka Safar with Mahesh Bhatt

The biggest benefit of reading is “it will leave you informative”. "Khwabon ka Safar" is one such book. It left me with many facts about Indian film industry called as Bollywood.

Book Blurb

Relive the golden era of Hindi cinema with Mahesh Bhatt as he recounts the Khwaabon Ka Safar (the journey of dreams) of iconic film studios in India.

Did you know that German filmmaker Franz Osten partnered with an Indian studio on some of India’s earliest blockbuster films in the 1930s? Do you know which production house invented the Hindi ‘formula filmmaking’ style in the 1950s that still drives big budget Bollywood films?

Khwaabon Ka Safar with Mahesh Bhatt takes us through the incredible journey of Bollywood’s landmark film studios which gave us iconic stars and cinematic masterpieces. This book provides the captivating stories behind Bollywood’s top thirteen studios—from Prabhat Film Company (1929) to Filmayala (1958) with which the studio era ended.

The book weaves in various interesting anecdotes about our erstwhile studio system, the great entrepreneurial skills of the forefathers of Hindi cinema, their iconic films and the superstars they created.

A must-read for all film aficionados

Talking about content, book covers around 10 studios/production houses of India from 1930-1960. Those were the times when films were produced inside studios. These studios had most of the things required to make a film, starting from shooting sets, orchestra/music department, processing lab etc. Those were the times when people working in the studio starting from janitor to actor-director were on fix wages. Each studio had a great dependence on its founder’s philosophies which can be seen in types of films they make.

It was good to know that compare to today’s commercially successful movies directors/producers wanted to make more impactful movies. Many such movies got/won awards at international level. They created the stage & platform of today’s Bollywood & regional cinema. Bollywood Indian Cinema today makes more movies than another part of the world. It also generates an equally big number of job & respect. I liked the book.

Talking about rating

1. Cover – 3.5/5
2. Content – 3.5/5
3. Overall – 3.5/5

Book can be found at Amazon & Flipkart

Review from other readers can be found at GoodReads