Figure 1.1. Champa (Neena Gupta, with Ila Arun as her playback voice) dancing as a banjarin in “Choli Ke Peeche,” Khalnayak (dir. Subhash Ghai, 1993).

Figure 1.2. Neeti Mohan singing a version of her song “Nainowale Ne,” from Padmaavat (dir. Sanjay Leela Bhansali, 2018), on a music video for the album T-Series Acoustics.

Figure 2.1. Anarkali (Madhubala) singing the qawwali “Teri Mehfil Mein,” Mughal-e-Azam (dir. K. Asif, 1960).

Figure 2.2. View from the audience perspective of Akbar (Rishi Kapoor) and his qawwali party onstage singing “Parda Hai Parda,” Amar Akbar Anthony (dir. Manmohan Desai, 1977).

Figure 2.3. Momina Mustehsan looks on as Rahat Fateh Ali Khan sings in the Coke Studio version of “Afreen Afreen” (2016).

Figure 2.4. Jordan (Ranbir Kapoor) experiencing a spiritual moment during “Kun Faya Kun,” Rockstar (dir. Imtiaz Ali, 2011).

Figure 2.5. God’s-eye view of the dargah qawwali “Kun Faya Kun,” Rockstar (dir. Imtiaz Ali, 2011).

Figure 3.1. “Mumbai ka king kaun?” asks Bhiku Mhatre (Manoj Bajpayee) in Satya (dir. Ram Gopal Varma, 1998).

Figure 3.2. dhichkiaoon! “Goli Maar Bheje Mein,” Satya (dir. Ram Gopal Varma, 1998).

Figure 4.1. Ramchandra Siras (Manoj Bajpayee) enjoying whiskey and music in “Aapki Nazaron,” Aligarh (dir. Hansal Mehta, 2015).

Figure 4.2. Deepu Sebastian (Rajkummar Rao) reads Siras’s poem “O Beloved Moon” in Aligarh (dir. Hansal Mehta, 2015).