Bollywood’s soft power: Branding the nation, sustaining a meta-hegemony

Abstract

I present my theory of a ‘meta-hegemony’ to examine the hierarchy of dominance in Indian cinema. This concept asserts that Bollywood dominates Indian cinema and culture whilst being subservient to a larger global Hollywood hegemony. I will investigate the meta-hegemony’s three distinctive facets within the internal contours of Indian cinema. The first feature is Bollywood’s monopoly over the Indian film industry’s modes of production, distribution, exhibition and capital generation. The second is Bollywood’s ideological propagation of a post-globalization master narrative through its role as national cultural signifier of India’s neo-liberal turn. The third facet of the meta-hegemony is Bollywood’s validation by the state as an instrument of soft power signifying Bollywood’s branding as national and global commodity. In the process, I posit the emergence of a New Wave of independent Indian cinema as a counter-narrative to Bollywood’s articulation of consumer capitalism. Ultimately, I argue that Bollywood’s brand of soft power is indexical of India’s transition to neo-liberalism and indicative of the nation’s agonistic arbitration between the traditional and the material.

Satiric parody through Indian English tweets in Twitter

“…In addition to the protagonist, the director of the film, Sam Mendes is replaced by yoga guru Baba Ramdev; exotic locations are substituted for a Hindu temple; the trademark Bond musical riff is replaced by a song from an Indian epic Mahabhaarat ; and the plot is captured by a stereotypical Bollywood‐style storyline. The reconceptualization of the Bond movie is complete as it replicates a mainstream Bollywood movie that according to Devasundaram (2016, p. 58) functions as a custodian of ‘Indian traditions, family values, patriarchy, heteronormativity and Hindu religious sensibilities.’ This is in direct contrast to the so‐called Bond formula, with its ‘gadgets, glamorous locations, spectacular action sequences, and an array of fiendish villains and beautiful companions for Bond to showcase his sensual skills’ (Dodds & Funnell, 2018, p. 4).…”

“…In the examples above, reference is made to a well‐known character (Prem, played by Actor Salman Khan) (1), dialogue ( kitne aadme the ) (2) and director cum producer (Subhash Ghai) (3) of popular Bollywood box‐office hits such as Prem Ratan Dhan Payo , Sholay and Kisna . In (4), the movie Prem Ratan Dhan Payo (‘Receive the Jewel of Love’) is a good example of a stereotypical Bollywood movie that ‘conflates Hindu mythology with Indian “traditions and family values”, transmitting a ‘dominant ideology packaged in a formulaic template’ (Devasundaram, 2016, p. 59). In this movie, the characterization of the protagonist Prem is based on a religious archetype, that of Ram from the Hindu epic Ramayana .…”

Bollywood: Uma Ferramenta Pós-Colonial Indiana

“…Vajpayee era conhecido por amar os filmes de Bollywood e por ter relações estreitas com atores e atrizes --muitos deles, inclusive, prestaram-no homenagens na ocasião do seu falecimento em 2018. Segundo Devasundaram (2016), assim se consolidou a estratégia, respaldada pelo Estado, de investir e divulgar Bollywood, com o intuito de se projetar mundialmente, por meio do cinema, a imagem de um país globalizado e neoliberal. 6 Manmohan Singh, o PM que ficou no poder entre 2004 e 2014, também compreendeu que Bollywood é dotado de poder potencial para auxiliar a Índia a tornar-se poderosa e influente internacionalmente.…”

“…No entanto, Lahiri (2017) destaca que Modi, o atual PM, foi quem mais se esforçou para projetar a influência da Índia pelo mundo. Alguns exemplos incluem o envio do ator indiano Aamir Khan para divulgar seu novo filme na China, PK (de Rajkumar Hirani, 2014), pouco antes da visita política do PM aquele país, criando um clima mais caloroso e amistoso para a estadia de Modi; a assinatura de um Memorando de Entendimento (MoU) em Xangai para firmar uma produção cinematográfica conjunta entre o Grupo da Europa da Índia e o Grupo de Cinema da China; atores de Bollywood Aamir Khan e, depois, Amitabh Bachchan e Priyanka Chopra, como os embaixadores da campanha de turismo do governo chamada "Índia incrível"; e o uso oficial de atores de Bollywood durante a visita da coroa britânica à Índia em 2016 (LAHIRI, 2017;DEVASUNDARAM, 2016). Shahrukh Khan também é um ator bollywoodiano de destaque mundial e que trouxe popularidade para a Índia, a partir de um movimento do cinema hindi em tratar das experiências diaspóricas dos indianos 7 .…”