This book is the first ever systematic attempt to study film sound in the Indian subcontinent by artistic research. The book aims to fill the scholarly void on the issues of sound and listening in the Global Souths’ cultures. It develops a comprehensive understanding of the unique sound world of Indian film and audiovisual media through the examination of historical developments of sound from early optical recordings to contemporary digital audio technologies. The book is enriched with a practice-based methodology informed by the author’s own practice and based on extensive conversations with leading sound practitioners in the Indian subcontinent. The book locates an emerging social and spatial awareness in Indian film and media production aided by a creative practice of sound, occurring alongside the traditionally transcendental, oral, and pluriversal approach to listening. By tracing this confluence of tradition and modernity, the book makes valuable contributions to the fields of film history, sound, and media studies.

Budhaditya Chattopadhyay is an artist, researcher, and writer. He is the author of four books: The Nomadic Listener (2020), The Auditory Setting (2021), Between the Headphones (2021), and Sound Practices in the Global South (2022). Chattopadhyay is a Visiting Professor at the Critical Media Lab, Basel.

1 Introduction
2 The Technological Frameworks
2.1 Optical recording and direct sound
2.2 Magnetic recording and dubbing
2.3 Digital recording, sync sound, and surround design
3 Direct Sound and Early Talkies
4 Sound of the Golden Age
5 Tracing the Sound in Satyajit Ray’s Film-works
6 Popular Films from the Dubbing Era
7 Parallel Sounds, Radical Listening - Part I
8 Sholay, Stereo Sound and the Auditory Spectacle
9 The Advent of Digital Sync Sound
10 The Surround Revolution
11 Sound in the Audiovisual Media Arts
12 Parallel Sounds, Radical Listening - Part II
13 A Concluding Voiceover
Appendix: Bibliography and works cited