For decades, the ‘make-believe’ world of Bollywood has created elaborate imaginaries of India. A sizable part of its audience consists of diasporic communities, who not only consume Bollywood movies for entertainment but also as a way to stay connected with their Indian heritage. This study closely looks at one such diasporic community, namely the Dutch Hindustanis, investigating how Bollywood cinema affects their image of India, and how influential Bollywood cinema is in influencing their travel decisions to India. In-depth interviews indicate that Bollywood is a dominant cultural source for defining the respondents’ relationship with India. Moreover, the repeated consumption of Bollywood cinema stirs the desire to actually travel to India, seldom in search of ‘home’, but to visit sites associated with multiple Bollywood movies. Bollywood cinema being from their ‘distant homeland’ also incentivizes their travels to India thereby making it a meaningful experience. This study contributes to film (and) tourism research by introducing the concept of ‘cinematic itinerary’ to refer to these comprehensive film tourism practices.
Around the world, cities and regions are welcoming tourists after being in the spotlight of popular movies, games, novels, TV series or other forms of popular media culture. Popular Hindi cinema (Bollywood) too has long impacted destination imaginaries and the ensuing travels. What remains scarce in existing research is how its crucial component – Filmi-songs impacts tourists’ imaginaries of a destination, and consequently how they perform their travels. This study investigates the role and significance of filmi-songs in tourism practices, by focussing on the case-study of ‘Gerua’ from the film ‘Dilwale’ (2015), post which Iceland experienced a rise in Indian tourism. Employing 18 in-depth interviews with tourists, but also various local stakeholders in the business of media-tourism, this study attempts to understand what impact Bollywood songs have on travel motivations of its audiences, how tourists experience the filmi-song location on-site, and finally how the phenomenon is perceived and evaluated by local stakeholders in Iceland. Results show that filmi-song tourists are actively engaged in reconstructing scenes from their beloved filmi-songs by indulging in shot re-creations and song re-enactments. By drawing links between Bollywoodized narratives and locations in Iceland, and by sharing these performances online, these tourist practices contribute to the imaginative heritage of Iceland in the global imagination.
The discourse surrounding the Indian foodscape has constantly evolved. In the recent past, the Indian foodscape has observably undergone a stark change, especially in the way people perceive and present food. The globalisation and proliferation of both traditional and social media have had a strong impact on the food fabric of India on the restaurant and household level. While shows like MasterChef Australia were instrumental in diffusing artistic food parlance, social media tools, such as Instagram, made mobile phones synonymous with cutlery on tables. The diverse offerings and food packaging in the Indian culinary landscape is slowly turning the food culture into an ‘experience culture’ and consequently, a ‘taste culture’. Also, table theatrics and fusionism have become rampant in the Indian foodscape often creating a hyperreal dining experience. Based on the in-depth interviews with food bloggers, food experts and food enthusiasts, this article argues that the contemporary Indian foodscape increasingly looks beyond just sustenance and attaches meanings of class and art to it. Therefore, this article problematises and assesses the emerging trends in the contemporary Indian food industry through a ‘social-mediatised gaze’, thereby making substantial contributions to the field of media studies and culture studies.
In recent years, Bollywood has expanded into a global, trans-textual phenomenon, consumed by a large audience-base worldwide. Existing research has shown how Bollywood offers Indiansboth home and abroada cinematic image of their homeland, fostering a sense of belonging. This paper focuses on the popularity of Bollywood's transmedia culture in an international setting. More, in particular, it offers an empirical exploration of the tourist experience of Bollywood Parks Dubaithe first and largest theme park dedicated to Bollywood. Based on a series of in-depth interviews with 18 participants and accompanied by participant observations, this paper shows how Indian tourists use this leisure zone far away from the Indian subcontinent as a platform to connect and celebrate larger notions of Indianness. In experiencing nation-pride in a playful manner beyond the national borders, ideas of contemporary Indianness are redefined in a cosmopolitan context. The paper concludes by critically examining these popular celebrations of nationalism.
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