Shalom Bollywood

Shalom Bollywood is a song-and-dance-filled celebration of the world’s largest film industry revealing the unlikely story of the 2,000-year-old Indian Jewish community and its remarkable stars who shaped Bollywood cinema’s Golden Age. Much has been written about the Jewish immigrants to America who built Hollywood, but until now there has been little documentation of the equally impressive involvement of Jews in making Bollywood the huge phenomenon it is today. At the advent of the Indian film industry 100 years ago, it was taboo for Hindu and Muslim women to perform on screen, so Indian Jewish women took on female lead roles and dominated the industry for decades. With access to rare archival footage, this fascinating, one-of-a-kind documentary tells the extraordinary tale of Bollywood cinema through the lives of Jewish icons at the heart of it from the turn of the 20th century to the present day.

Featuring an extended conversation with Dr. Nathan Katz, a renowned pioneer in Indo-Judaic studies.