The Magic of Bollywood: At Home and Abroad

Abstract

Few would deny that the most significant weapon in India's cultural and artistic armory is its avowedly commercial cinema, now known as Bollywood. This anthology aims to portray the soft power of Bollywood, which makes it a unique and powerful disseminator of Indian culture and values abroad. The essays in the book examine Bollywoods popularity within and outside South Asia, focusing on its role in international relations and diplomacy.

Catastrophe and Conflict: Disaster Diplomacy and Its Foreign Policy Implications

“…Then, in 2005, both countries exercised caution by not linking disaster response and diplomacy for Kashmir. Conversely, film diplomacy through Bollywood has had substantive success in disseminating India's culture, political views, and values outside the country, creating a generally positive image (Roy, 2012). In sports diplomacy, the marriage in 2010 of India's tennis star Sania Mirza to Pakistan's former cricket captain Shoaib Malik was represented in the media as forging a link of India-Pakistan friendship.…”

“…The studies available are limited, but they do point to some level of achievement (Cooper, 2008;Roy, 2012), although it is hard to know how much might be wishful thinking or expectations of success-exactly as with much media coverage of disaster diplomacy. The media's, and even the populace's, objectives might not necessarily match with the objectives of the people and institutions with governing power, especially in terms of disaster-related activities, diplomacy, and their links.…”

Melodramatic South Asia: In Quest of Local Cinemas in the Region

“…But then, it is not to gloss over the translocalism that underpins the dynamics of the cinemas in the region. This is despite the fact that Bollywood is often perceived as a soft power in South Asia (Roy, 2012). This implies that the regional cinema exhibits perpetual tendency to borrow motives, styles, as well as contents, from various parts of the world.…”

The soft power of popular cinema – the case of India

“…The unprecedented expansion of televisionfrom a single state channel in 1991 to over 800 channels in 2015, was paralleled by the growth of a new middle-class audience. At the same time the expansion of global digital media industries and distribution technologies ensured that Indian entertainment channels and films are increasingly visible in the global media sphere (Kaur and Sinha, 2005;Iordanova et al, 2006;Kavoori and Punathambekar, 2008;Gera Roy, 2010;Gera Roy, 2012;Dudrah, 2012;Schaefer and Karan, 2013;Punathambekar, 2013;Gehlawat, 2015).…”