From her relatively small-scale feature debut Luck By Chance (2009) to her recent premieres of Gully Boy (2019) and Made in Heaven (2019) to local and global audiences via the Berlin Film Festival and Amazon Prime Streaming services, Zoya Akhtar has become a prominent figure representing change in Bollywood. As the first collection on Akhtar, this book examines how she is contributing to a shift in one of the world's leading film industries, and through analysis of her work explores the contradictions and possibilities of the present moment in Bollywood.

Based on the life of Post-Impressionist painter Paul Gauguin, Jacques Jouet's "Savage" compels the reader to ask whether it is the primitive or the civilized man who is savage. At the height of the Belle ?poque, an eccentric young clothing designer searches for inspiration and identity as an artist among the "savage" peoples of France's colonies. Influenced by several exotic lovers, a quirky "vieille" dame, and ?douard Manet himself, Paul's increasingly unconventional designs parallel his increasingly unbalanced state of mind as he struggles to find a market for his work among the haute bourgeoisie. The failure of this venture, coupled with psychosis due to an untreated illness, ultimately leads to his demise.