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Talking Back to ‘Bollywood’: Hindi Commercial Cinema in North-East India
Abstract
This chapter looks at the impact of the Hindi commercial film industry on 'peripheral' cultures in India. The Indian film industry - which comprises both 'Bollywood' (as the Hindi commercial film industry is becoming known) and regional film industries particularly in south India - is one of the largest film industries in the world. The industry puts out over a thousand films every year and a staggering audience of fourteen million people watch an Indian film every day (Bose 2006). Bollywood exerts considerable cultural influence in India as it often both mirrors and mocks Indian society. The reception of Bollywood (and of mainstream Indian popular culture which is dominated by the former) among peripheral and under represented cultures in North-East India, is the subject of this chapter. The chapter looks at the love-hate relationship towards Hindi popular and film culture that people in this region have. North-East India is home to diverse ethnic groups, who have historically never felt a part of mainstream India. The region is caught up in several political conflicts with the Indian state. Most of these movements claim political autonomy, arguing that the distinct identities of people in the region entitle them to self-government and cultural freedom. Today, as satellite channels have proliferated in the region, Hindi commercial cinema is becoming extremely popular despite the fact that several political groups have banned such films.
... Such infrastructures have various possibilities. Thus, Hasan's (2010) work illustrates how around 2007 art filmmakers in Manipur, North-East India, quickly deployed cheaply available digital technology, in a media context also throbbing with popular music videos. Hasan (2010) captures how the situation was defined by manifold tendencies, and that "contempo rary commercial entertainment in the North-East, then, appears to combine several cultural influences strategically" (p. ...
... Thus, Hasan's (2010) work illustrates how around 2007 art filmmakers in Manipur, North-East India, quickly deployed cheaply available digital technology, in a media context also throbbing with popular music videos. Hasan (2010) captures how the situation was defined by manifold tendencies, and that "contempo rary commercial entertainment in the North-East, then, appears to combine several cultural influences strategically" (p. 42). ...
... Schleiter's work highlights the contradictory nature of engagements with new media practices, which by now is more than a decade old. Furthermore, Hasan (2010) has also discussed how such "local" media products are not exempt from local cultural purism, and "were also banned for corrupting local culture" (Hasan, 2010, p. 33). She notes that film/media experience in Manipur ranges from nationally acclaimed films made by film institute graduates, and somewhat ineptly produced music videos. ...
This article focuses on the production and mass circulation of locally produced videos in and across socially marginalized areas of Bengal. It emerges from the research conducted on the video industry located in Purulia District, West Bengal. These videos, known as “Manbhum videos,” signifying both place and idiom, are connected to video cultures proliferating across the Global South since the last decade. While new media cultures have become a crucial part of contemporary cinema studies, production of Manbhum videos (and videos produced in other local languages) point toward a new understanding of both cinema in India and categories like regional films. It raises questions regarding the ways in which “regional cinema” has been described so far, and the manner in which it may be redefined in the new media context. Such small-scale and localized video production in West Bengal and its circulation across disparate districts of India and Bangladesh, inform us that frameworks like “Bengali cinema” are deeply fragmented. Therefore, by studying the videos and its growth, this article shows in what way alternative settings and landscapes, narratives tropes, styles of performance and speech become pertinent in these videos, which effectively address a longer history of marginalization and political tussle.
As a cultural text, films are recognized to have powerful influence in the construction of national identities. While debates regarding the scarce representation of Northeast India in the national media continue to become a constant source of deliberation, the paper seeks to look into the dominant Hindi film’s representation of the region and how this positions the Northeast in the national imagination of the audience. It discusses the idea of nationhood with the return to the popular concepts of self and the other. The findings are based on the reading of four popular films made on the region post 1990, specifically on Manipur and Assam, viz. Dil Se (1998), Tango Charlie (2005), Bumm Bumm Bole (2010) and Mary Kom (2014), selected purposively from the very few films depicting the region. These films facilitate the understanding of various scales of representation of Northeast India and its changing representations over more than a decade.
This article considers the role Santali movies play regarding the Santal indigenous group’s perceptions of their community as unified throughout India. Using participant observation I describe the differing ways people engage with these movies, which are prevalent in the Kolkata metropolis and in two villages in Assam and Odisha. I argue that the way people articulate their identity in the respective settings evolves from the specific everyday culture there, showing that this mediatized identity-building relates to the identity practice of a wider society and the political situation for Santal people. In a recent academic debate on indigeneity in South Asia, scholars discussed from a critical viewpoint the effects of calling communities “indigenous”; they see this as presupposing the conformity of their cultural identity. Based on my observations, I suggest focusing on the diversity of individuals’ understandings of their belonging as an assertive device.
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