Bollywood Cinema’s Global Reach

Abstract

Using the British Sikh community as its research context, this article explores the influence of the Bollywood film genre on what Vertovic refers to as the ''diasporic consciousness'' in relation to this community. Bollywood attempts to speak to the diaspora by conveying a new sense of ''Indian-ness,'' one that is less about citizenship and more about imagined identity and community. The authors investigate what they have termed the ''Indian imaginary'' and how the values embedded therein impact on the lives of young British Sikhs. The findings discuss three emergent core themes: (1) reaffirming pride in Indian heritage; (2) evoking romance and longing; and (3) reinforcing family values and a sense of kinship within the British Sikh diaspora. The overall contribution of the article is twofold. First, it illustrates how the globalization of Bollywood affects the Indian diaspora at a local level. Second, it shows how Bollywood provides an important space for negotiating and reconciling various tensions between family-based and more individualistic value systems. Ultimately, then, Bollywood offers young British Sikhs a particular, hybridized representation of courtship and marriage that is both romantic and familial, and that serves to reconcile Eastern and Western marital relationship ideals and oppositional cultural discourses.

Designing for identity: how and when brand visual aesthetics enable consumer diasporic identity

“…Firstly, this study contributes to the growing body of work on diasporic marketing and consumer research. While past research has focused on how the diaspora consume products and brands from their ancestral homeland culture (DeBerry-Spence and Izberk-Bilgin, 2019; Kumar and Steenkamp, 2013;Takhar et al, 2012), this paper demonstrates how brands influence diasporic consumption by using visual aesthetic referents that combine the diaspora's ancestral homeland culture and their culture of living simultaneously and to varying degrees. Secondly, this study extends understanding of the various visual aesthetic applications through which the use of design in branding work (Buschgens et al, 2019;Hatch, 2012) and engages the diaspora in various social situations.…”

“…Gilroy (1993) described a type of duality that characterises diasporic individuals as living with a sense of being "home away from home" simultaneously. In addition, Vertovic (2000) refers to this condition as the "diasporic consciousness", a consciousness that provides members of a diasporic community with a sense of relationship and multiple reference points where they can identify with both their place of origin and the place in which they currently reside (Takhar et al, 2012). However, this type of interconnectivity between ancestral homeland culture and culture of living representation is not always readily accessible to the diaspora due to their cultural displacement and residential geography.…”

“…Indeed, tensions associated with diasporic identity can be remedied through the consumption of media and objects from one's ancestral home culture (DeBerry-Spence and Izberk-Bilgin, 2019; Dey et al, 2017;Savas , 2014;Takhar et al, 2012). For example, diaspora literature has explored at length how the consumption of memorable objects and products (e.g.…”

“…tea cups and clothing) from their ancestral homeland (Savas 2014) allows the diaspora to combat feelings of loneliness, loss and isolation brought about by their displacement. Takhar et al (2012) observed that the diaspora could feel a sense of "Indianness" in the UK through continued consumption of imported Indian media. For example, consuming Bollywood films enabled British Sikhs to reaffirm a sense of pride in their Indian heritage and reinforce family values and kinship.…”

“…Brands become relevant to consumers when they address consumers' identity projects (Schroeder et al, 2015) or assist them with solving ideological conflicts in negotiating Designing for identity identity (Holt, 2004). Arguably, consumers are likely to resonate with brands that aid them in navigating tensions associated with their diasporic identity (Takhar et al, 2012;Cayla and Eckhardt, 2008). Recent research suggests that brand visual aesthetics (BVA) can assist with this task (Buschgens et al, 2020(Buschgens et al, , 2019Wu et al, 2013).…”