Fearless Nadia, the women with the whip: Stunt films and stars in pre-independence Bombay Cinema

I intend to complete a book on the stunt genre in pre-independence Indian cinema. Top box-office star of the 1930s and 1940s, stunt queen Fearless Nadia, provides the focus through which the book charts the rise and fall of the Bombay studios. Around her iconic figure are woven arguments about femininity, nationalism, hybridity and transnational popular cinema. Archival and library research in London and India, together with interviews and film analysis, are producing new knowledge on the basis of which I am proposing a re-evaluation of the significance of stunt, action and comedy genres within Indian cinema history.