Behind the Curtain

Behind the Curtain examines the musicians who were composers, arrangers, assistants and studio performers in the Bollywood studios from the 1930s until the present. It offers a musical, technological, industrial, and social history of India's hegemonic popular music industry from the perspectives of the musicians and others who experienced it. is one of the few oral histories in ethnomusicology, and offers the first ground level view of this globally important music industry.

After early training in western classical music, Gregory D. Booth began the study of North Indian tabla drumming with Ustad Zakir Hussain in 1977. He has published widely on South Asian classical music pedagogy, processional music, and Hindi film music. He is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Auckland.

Introduction - Who is Anthony Gonsalves?
Part One - History, Technology, and a Determinist Milieu for Hindi Film Song
1: Popular Music as Film Music
Musicians and Technology in the Mumbai Film Music Industry
3: Changing Structures in the Mumbai Film Industry
Part Two - The Life of Music in the Mumbai Film Industry
4: Origins, Training, and "Joining the Line"
5: Roles, Relations, and the Creative Process
6: Rehearsals, Recordings, and Economics
Part Three - Music, Instruments, and Meaning from Musicians' Perspectives
7: Orchestras and Orchestral Procedures, Instrumental Change, Arranging, and Programming
8: Issues of Style, Genre, and Value in Mumbai Film Music
Conclusion - Oral History, Change, and Accounts of Human Agency