Ajay Gehlawat
Professor of Interdisciplinary Studies, Theatre & Film
Contact
Office
Carson 33Education
Ph.D., Theatre and Film, City University of New York Graduate Center
M.A., Cinema Studies, New York University
B.A., English, UC Berkeley
Academic Interests
My research and teaching interests range from international cinema and film theory to transnational forms of popular culture and cultural identity. My primary areas of expertise include non-Western cinemas, particularly popular Hindi cinema, aka Bollywood; film and postcolonial theory; gender and sexuality; South Asian diasporic studies; and critical cultural studies. I am also interested in representations of race and ethnicity in American cinema; documentary cinema; film and politics; and, more broadly, the global circulation of popular cinemas and cultures.
Courses Taught
Ethnic Studies, Storytelling & Film (AMCS/LIBS 204)
Bollywood and Globalization (LIBS 209)
Contemporary Hindi Cinema (LIBS 320C)
Introduction to Film Studies (LIBS 320C)
Documentary Ethics & Aesthetics (LIBS 320D)
Selected Publications & Presentations
Books
Routledge Handbook of South Asian Cinemas (co-edited with Jayson Beaster-Jones). Routledge, 2026.
Bollypolitics: Popular Hindi Cinema and Hindutva. Bloomsbury, 2024.
https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/
The Evolution of Song and Dance in Hindi Cinema (co-edited with Rajinder Dudrah). Routledge, 2019.
Twenty-First Century Bollywood. Routledge, 2015.
https://www.routledge.com/
The Slumdog Phenomenon: A Critical Anthology (Editor). Anthem, 2013.
Reframing Bollywood: Theories of Popular Hindi Cinema. Sage, 2010.
Articles and Chapters
“Disco Nazia: disarticulating female playback and the heroine in early 80s Hindi cinema.” South Asian History and Culture 14:3 (2023): 285-297.
“Female Bonds in Bollywood.” International Journal of James Bond Studies 5:1 (2022): https://
“Hungama ho gaya? (An uproar has happened?): the erotic threat of female intoxication in Hindi film songs.” Feminist Media Studies 23:3 (2023): 852-873. https://www.
“Plus-Size Femininity: The Multiple Figurations of Bhumi Pednekar.” Bollywood’s New Woman: Liberalization, Liberation and Contested Bodies. Ed. Megha Anwer & Anupama Arora. Rutgers University Press, 2021. 107-117.
“From Indianization to Globalization: Tracking Bond in Bollywood.” The Cultural Life of James Bond: Specters of 007. Ed. Jaap Verheul. Amsterdam University Press, 2020. 61-79. https://www.jstor.org/
“Having It Both Ways: The Janus-Like Career of Kareena Kapoor.” Stardom in Contemporary Hindi Cinema: Celebrity and Fame in Globalized Times. Ed. Aysha Viswamohan & Clare Wilkinson. Springer, 2020. 89-104.
“Main Hoon Farah: The Choreographer as Auteur." Behind the Scenes: Contemporary Bollywood Directors and their Cinema. Ed. Aysha Viswamohan & Vimal John. Sage, 2017. 3-16.
“From Vamp to Queen: The Remixed Sound of the Bollywood Scene.” Music in Contemporary Indian Film: Memory, Voice, Identity. Ed. Jayson Beaster-Jones & Natalie Sarrazin. Routledge, 2016. 49-60.
"Why Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle: The Representation of Otherness in Mainstream Teen Cinema." Lost in Media: The Ethics of Everyday Life. Ed. Ben Frymer & Tony Kashani. Peter Lang, 2013. 163-175.
“The Strange Case of The Princess and the Frog: Passing and the Elision of Race.” Journal of African American Studies 14:4 (2010): 417-431. https://link.
Presentations
“The Modi-fication of Bollywood.” Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, WI, October 2023
“Soooooryavanshi! The Hindutva soundscape of contemporary Bollywood.” Annual Conference on South Asia, Madison, WI, October 2023
"Black Voice, Brown Skin: Auto-tuning Akon for Bollywood." Roundtable on Popular Hindi Cinema, UC Berkeley, October 2017
"Here Comes the Bollywood Bride: Rearranging Marriages in 21st century Indian cinema." Smithsonian Traveling Exhibition, Sonoma County Museum, Santa Rosa, December 2015
"Where is this story going? The paradiegetic pleasures of popular Hindi cinema." Arts of Asia Lecture Series, Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, September 2015