In January 2015, I was besotted by an ad in which Dream Girl Hema Malini promised a Bollywood lifestyle in a housing project called ‘Wollywood’. The exotic, jazzed up Wollywood flats—which fall on the road to my in-laws’ home in the Wada village—offered something special. It wasn’t just the promise of a luxurious integrated township—that’s what most upcoming distant suburban projects are about anyway. There was the distinct audacity of hope in the Wollywood realty. 

Hema Malini, the ambassador of this Gaates Budruk project, was offering the average Mumbaikar a chance to live like a Bollywood star in Palghar’s Wada taluka. This dream was being sold either as a second home for the city resident, or a new home for anyone living in the surrounding villages. The fantasy—conjured up for company brochures—was directly disproportionate to the realities of a taluka characterised by power cuts, water shortages, potholed roads, and, most importantly, the lack of medical support infrastructure. There was no room in the given context for the Wollywood aesthetic or any other style!