Melbourne, AU - An international photographic exhibition on show for the first and only time in Australia at the Immigration Museum offers a sneak peek behind the scenes of the world’s largest film industry.  Bollywood Dreams, an exhibition by New York based photographer Jonathan Torgovnik, turns the camera on India’s massive film industry, giving exclusive insights into the culture and stories behind the clapper-board.

The exhibition pays tribute to the stars, filmmakers, technicians and movie-goers, and explores the power of cinema in India as both entertainment and social phenomenon.  On exhibition 29 June 2006 to 28 January 2007.

Bollywood Dreams includes 44 original color photographs and documentary film footage revealing:

- The making of Bollywood films and on-set action
- The Indian experience of going to the movies
- Actors and their characters
- India’s touring tent cinemas, where millions of the mostly young male audience see Bollywood movies every year

Around 900 films are now made each year in India, enjoying a worldwide audience of over one billion people.  Bollywood’s huge annual production of films is aimed primarily at the more than 500 million Indians under the age of 25 years of age

his career as a photographer in the Israeli Army, Jonathan Torgovnik has since had photographs published internationally in magazines including Newsweek, GEO, Marie Claire and the Sunday Times Magazine (London).  Jonathan’s award-winning photographs have been included in numerous exhibitions in the US and Europe, and also have been collected by institutions including the Bibliotheque Nationale de France in Paris.

A beautifully presented folio book including all the photographs, also entitled Bollywood Dreams, will be on sale during the exhibition’s showing at the Immigration Museum.

Visit : immigration.museum.vic.gov.au