The Female Playback in Bombay Cinema

Drawing on sound studies and performance theory, scholar Shikha Jhingan explores the discursive nature of the female playback voice in Bombay film songs. Mapping the production, circulation, and reception of the voices of singing stars--notably Lata Mangeshkar and Asha Bhosle--Jhingan situates the singing voice as a cinematic object with limitless possibilities of distribution and dispersal. She employs the perspectives of a diverse range of listeners across a vast media landscape to illustrate how the affective charge of the female playback voice, combined with developments in audio technology, has led to a gradual expansion of opportunities for women in film, popular music, and media and audio production.

Shikha Jhingan is associate professor of cinema studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi. Her research focuses on voice, music, and sound in cinema. Her work brings a sound studies perspective to Bollywood films and their intermedial footprints. She has published in journals such as BioScope: South Asian Screen Studies, Feminist Media Histories, South Asian History and Culture, and Studies in South Asian Film and Media and in several book anthologies.