Bollywood Films as a Tool for Showcasing Indian Traditions and Culture - Assignment Example

A reflection of Indian cultural identity in Bollywood films Student’s Name Course Tutor Date Q. In what ways can a popular cultural genre (such as food, dress, music, sport, contemporary or folk art) reflect the lived experience of an Asian society? Introduction Indian cinema has over the years been one of the main distinguishing characteristics of the country’s culture. This culture is also witnessed amongst Indians who are travelling internationally to seek out educational and employment opportunities for they export with them the cultural artifacts. A lot of research studies have suggested that Indians both in the country and in the Diaspora are known to use Bollywood media products in the maintenance of culture. The discussion of this paper is therefore based on the exploration of the critical role being played by Bollywood movies in cultural identity among Indians. Specifically, it tries to explain how the practice of Bollywood movies viewing amongst Indians converges in the creation of a concept referred to as “Indianness. Bollywood films and Indian cultural identity Cultural identity can be defined as a person’s way of self identification with either home or the foreign culture. It encompasses social and historical results of self location in relation to day to day interaction with others as well as to culturally and socially directed communication in the society. Thus, there is continuous negotiation of cultures, and for example the Indian identity is subjected to the strong Western and other regional subcultures. As mentioned by Rajadhyaksha (2003, p 29-35), although social factors such as familial ties have played dominant roles in Indian identity construction, in the modern context, Bollywood films appears to have a domineering influence on the current generation of Indians in maintenance of the identities. Such movies are very important in the transmission of traditions and culture as well as acting as a link between native Indians and the ones living elsewhere in the world. In the modern world, movies are a fundamental source of entertainment, information, and education in almost all nations of the world. It has been observed that movies are nowadays among the most preferred common artifacts of modern popular culture that reflect and generate diverse traditional values and cultures of a society. Films have therefore become a major component of modern society, as they are a medium through which societies are gaining awareness of the world’s different cultures. Considering the concept of globalization in today’s world, movements have necessitated cultural hybridity thus personal identities are subjected to imminent change. Several questions have been asked by sociologists pertaining to what true identity entails. According to Beard (1994, p 79-100), due to the effects of globalization, preservation and maintenance of one’s own identity and culture has been facing a lot of serious challenges, but with the entry of advancements in technology, communities living in the Diaspora can have the ability to stay put their home nations and hence strive to cultivate and nurture their self-identity. As shown by the Bollywood movies, electronic media is a significant tool for Indians living in the Diaspora to re-define their cultural identitis. In consideration of the influence the electronic media has had on the Indians who have lived in non-Hindi communities, it is argued that because movies have sheer multiplicity of appearance such as in television, telephones and the internet as well as the pace at which they move in the daily life, electronic media is very beneficial in providing communities with ample resources to assist in self-imagining that culminates in cultural identity maintenance. Due to the increase in electronic media popularity, and more so the meteorical success of Hindi or Bollywood movies among Indian and non-Indians, it is vital to critically look at the role the Hindi film industry in contributing to cultural identity construction. Indian films have been one of the distinguishing and dominant features of the nation’s popular culture for over six decades. The Indian cinema industry is one of the largest film industries in the world when considered in terms of the volume of production as opposed to financial benefits. In order to satisfy the growing demand of movie enthusiasts that is estimated to be over 14 million Indians, Bollywood must keep up with the pace and as a result has been producing over 1000 movies on a yearly basis. This is far higher than the number produced by Hollywood which has been estimated to be about half of it. The Indian film industry is decentralised compared to Hollywood. Bollywood is mostly known for the production of Hindi-language movies, which are much adored throughout the subcontinent and among Indians living abroad. Apart from Bollywood, which is the popular Indian film industry, there are also films produced in regionally in places such as Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Karnataka and others. The Indian factor as a recipe for cultural identity The Indian factor commonly referred to as Indianness is basically a psychological and social result of colonialism. It is therefore an ideology of independent country that ensured people coming together in spite of their differences in many grounds. Jawaharlal Nehru (1946) described in his book, The Discovery of India about the unity in diversity. He defined Indianness as a unique thing that can be distinctly described, measured or experienced hence a quality thait is only essentially Indian. Borrowing from such a definition, many scholars have then defined Indianness in relation to whole acceptance of unity despite imminent differences as well as religious tolerance. On the other hand its definition has laid focus on the aspects of traditions, systems of value and family togetherness. In relation to the observations and definitions, it can be summed up that Indianness is a phenomenon that is arguably considered to be inseperable and inherent from all Indians. Some of the significant characteristics of Indianness are found in religions, language, sects, castes traditions and customs. As discussed by Nehru in 1946, he predicted that even the the predominant religious faiths like Islam and Christianity will one day have a unique Indian blend in order to have Indian Muslims and Indian Christians. However, the significance of Hinduism as a religion cannot be underestimated from the Indianness concept of as it plays a noble role in the unification of various tribes and castes. The most compelling reason behind according Hinduism such greatness is due to the fact that many Indian scholars strongly believe that it is an ethnic religion with very strong foundation in India. Thus apart from region and language, religion forms one of the basis of the concept of “Indianness”. Scholars have therefore consented to the fact that the mentioned elements define the true identity of Indian life and this is what the Bollywood films is strongly perpetuating. Many research scholars have also noted with a lot of interest the increasing effort among Indians to maintain their cultural identity wherever they are hence in their bid to take part in the construction of their cultural identity, the role of Bollywood in overseeing this process is very fundamental. Cultural identity is also considered as a vital contributor to the well being of people. People usually get a feeling of belonging and sense of security when they correctly identify with a certain culture. Most significantly, the identity of an individual is preserved through social interactions with both the people and media. Moorti (2003, p 355- 376) argued that such social interactions play a very fundamental role in maintaining and constructing an individual’s identity, which holds a huge degree of truth when considered in terms of Indians in the Diaspora. It is also argued that when people with minority status such as Indian Americans experience diversity of cultures, with time they get influenced by the dynamics of such cultures that results in conflict of ideas, attitudes and beliefs toward a given cultural group. These predisposing factors therefore bear a lot of influence in the determination of the cultural identity in the minorities. This may culminate in such individuals identifying themselves with certain foreign culture. For example second generation Indians mostly fall victims under this circumstances as they are exposed to the dynamics of both the Western and the Indian cultures. It is in this aspect that the role of Bollywood films in influencing the identity building among second generation Indians gains prominence. The development of Indian Bollywood The 1930s and 1940s were mostly recognised as the period of tremendous social protests in the history of Indian film industry. There were three major cinema studios that made very serious but also entertaining movies for all Indian social classes. The period also goes down in history as a landmark moment when the subcontinent received a rare unification by Mahatma Gandhi’s activities of non-violence and civil disobedience movement against the colonial power, the British as he demanded for independence. In this period, films greatly assisted the cause by mentally uniting Indians and calling up on them to essentially think and subsequently behave as a people of a sovereign country. As the Indian film industry was making beneficial inroads in liberation of the Indians from the colonial vice of servitude, the colonial masters were sharp enough and counteracted the native activities by putting certain benchmarks on the country’s supreme law. However, with the eventual withdrawal of the colonial power from the country in 1947, Bollywood cinema eventually emerged from the doldrums to an undisputed machine for national identity and unity with the principal focus on reality as well as aesthetics (Kalkar 1980,p 11-21.). According to Rao (2007), the period was a great test for the Indian nation as clear tension between tradition and modernity, indigeneity and westernization gradually evolved in the cinematic arena of imagination (58). The tension gave birth to a special ideology referred to as Indian identity, and as already mentioned, it is a special identity that is closely associated with religion, moral and family values, which all forms the significant characteristics that is the focus of the Bollywood films. Indian film industry got a boost from the very first International film festival (IFF) held in the country in early 1952 at Bombay as it provided a lot of inspiration to filmmakers to produce art films. The most remarkable time in Bollywood was experienced in 1955 with the thunderous introduction of Pather Panchali done by Satyajit Ray which ensured that India’s movie industry caused ripples in the international platform. According to Iordanova (2006, p113-140), in the 1950s, Indian cinema moguls like Bimal Roy, Raj Kapoor, Mehboob Khan and Guru Dutt made movies packed with lots of social messages notably Do Bigha Zamin in 1953, followed by Pyaasa in 1957, and Mother India produced in 1957. Their principal focus and thematic concern was on the inequities and underprivileged populations in Indian society. Mother India by Mehnoob Khan became the first Indian movie to get nominated for an Oscar award. In the period of 1960s, Indian cinema witnessed a shift in its communication of cultural identity and other social concerns towards the genres of romance, thus ushering into the limelight new movie stars like Rajesh Khanna and Shammi Kapoor. However, economic and political upheavals experienced during 1970s as well as early 1980s witnessed Indian cinema shifting its focus again to the concept of social concerns that greatly appealed to the sections of the society that are underprivileged. The primary audience of the movies was the economically deprived person. The remarkable success of a film known as Zanjeer produced in 1973 depicted an angry young man as being rebellious and cynical employee who was constantly fighting corrupt politicians and rich businesses. Most of the Indian movies employed a strategy that would embed viewers of both genders by identifying with the Indian culture, the working and the lower class citizens. The late 1980s up to early 1990s witnessed again the revival of the love genres in Indian cinema. Due to the fundamental changes brought about by Indian economy and liberalisation in the 1990s propelled further the growing globalisation of the production and marketing of Hindi films. Culture perpetuation in Bollywood Culture basically represents some vital values and meanings of a society. Many scholars have given varied definitions of culture but conclusively all converges at the reasoning that it is the entire complex that includes morals, belief systems, knowledge and other habits and capabilities that are acquired by human beings in the society. Globalisation has heightened the use of mass media as it play a crucial role in projecting and representing culture of the society. He observed that the values and images of a particular community would then be vividly presented by the electronic media hence the niche occupied by the media in modern world is described as functional. No matter the perception of the audience in regard to the electronic media content, In one way or the other, there is presence of social ideology in culture. What the electronic media such as the Bollywood movies does is not to create a relatively new social phenomenon but it just reforms and repackages societal cultural practices. It is hence suggested that other cultural values could be learned by the audience through watching films which might arouse their curiosity about the alien culture. The audience also gets other aspects of culture that has not been laid bare to them in their daily activities thus has a critical appreciation of the cultural aspects of their communities. Moreover, as witnessed in the Bollywood films, electronic media play a vital role in the construction of things that they perpetually reflect. The movies therefore lay great attention on how Indians should appreciate and identify with their culture through mass media. For the Indian diaspora in the United States, Bollywood movies therefore provide the otherwise missing or fading links to the Hindu culture. Based on the theory of culture repackaging, it may therefore be greatly assumed that Indian film industry more often than not manipulates the audience to have a desire for what it produces as opposed to producing films that the general public would show interest in watching. Though the Indian movie industry has excellent understanding of the taste of its audience, many a time it goes down its knees to the thoughts and interests of the elite to influence the viewers to develop appetite for what it churns out. Bollywood as a representative of cultural industry injects a lot of influence on mannerism depicted on actors’ dress codes and social set up of the movie scenes. (Srinivas, 2002, p 155-173) observed that Indian moviegoers normally take pride in identifying with star actors and actresses as they diligently and keenly follow their mannerisms. Owing to the widespread popularity of the Bollywood movies both in India and the Diaspora, it is not strange to see many fans trying to understand and follow the way of life as depicted by the actors. Rajadhyaksha (2003, p.27) argued that Indian film industry is not only about entertainment and profitability but it may essentially be seen as a cultural conglomeration that involves numerous consumption and distribution activities. The argument forwarded by Rajadhyaksha (2003) concurs with commodification concept of culture. Previous studies have shown that the construction of cultural identity among the current generation depends on various negotiation processes that journeys through a combination of inter personal and mediated communicative interactions. Movies are known to play an unrivaled role in the transmission of traditions, ideas and culture among the numerous entertainment media. This is effected through diversity of the characters and plots. As shown by Bhatia (2002, p 55-77), Bollywood films are a major contributor to the formation of cultural identity amongst Indians both in the country and Diaspora. Great significance has been accorded to Hindu celebrations, social and religious life in the film narratives. Although Westernisation is quickly catching up with Indian culture, a big tussle is wedged in the Bollywood movies to ensure cultural identity preservation so as not to loose unique traditions and culture. Bollywood therefore still remains one of the surest ways in the height of globalisation and modernity to learn Indian culture and its practice in the society and that is the reason why Indians in the Diaspora stock as many Bollywood movies as they could in order to make their families learn and get in touch with the Indian culture. It has been suggested that Bollywood films has the strongest influence on the young Indian generation in terms of maintenance and learning the Indian tradition and culture. The current breed of Indians expresses and exhibits hybridisation in their social and economic life as Indians. However, as this may be the case, the idea of living between two cultures of Western and Indian influence is in greater opposition to the logic of loyalty to the Indian culture. The current generation of Indians are locked up in identity crisis as the general experience of seeking identification with the Indian culture and at the same time emulate Western lifestyles leaves them with feelings of ambiguity as they are not able to rightly position themselves in the community. As is the case, Bollywood movie makers have tried to plant past narratives of nationality and community to rival the Western ideology of individuality and freedom to choose. The current generation of Indians is experiencing radical disjuncture in relation to different views of culture flows. The Bollywood approach to acculturation is an emphasis of power imbalance relations between the Western world and the developing world as far as self identity is concerned (Appadurai 1990, p 295-310). Conclusion Bollywood films appear to be the most influential and significant communication medium in the maintenance and construction of cultural identity for the Indian society. Many Indians both internally and globally are purposefully watching Bollywood films as a tool for showcasing Indian traditions and culture. By consuming Indian made movies, Indians are continuously learning about their customs and traditions thus a sure way of maintaining cultural identity. Through Bollywood movies, Indian communities are able to identify Indian culture as illustrated through religion, family togetherness, festivities, and most discerningly Indian attitudes as well as behaviors. References Appadurai, A. (1990). Disjuncture and difference in the global cultural economy. Theory, Culture, and Society, Vol. 7(2), 295-310. Beard, V. (1994). Popular culture and professional identity: Accountants in the movies. Accounting, Organizations and Society, Vol. 19(3), 303-318. Bhatia, S.(2002): Acculturation, dialogical voices and the construction of the diasporic self. Theory and Psychology, 12(1): 55–77 (2002). Iordanova, D. (2006). Indian cinema’s global reach: Historiography through testimonies. South Asian Popular Culture, Vol. 4(2), 113-140. Kalkar, S. (1980). The ties that bind: Family relationships in the mythology of hindi cinema. India International Centre Quarterly, Vol. 8(1), 11-21. Moorti, S. (2003). Desperately seeking an identity: Diasporic cinema and the articulation of transnational kinship. International Journal of Cultural Studies.Vol. 6(3), 355- 376. Nehru, J. (1946). Discovery of India. Calcutta: Signet Press. Rajadhyaksha, A. (2003). The Bollywoodization of the Indian cinema: Cultural nationalism in a global arena. Inter-Asian Cultural Studies, Vol. 4(1), 25-39. Rao, S. (2007). The globalization of Bollywood: An ethnography of non-elite audiences in India. The Communication Review, Vol. 10, 57-76. Srinivas, L. (2002). The active audience: Spectatorship, social relations and the experience of cinema in India. Media, Culture & Society, Vol. 24, 155-173. Read More

As shown by the Bollywood movies, electronic media is a significant tool for Indians living in the Diaspora to re-define their cultural identitis. In consideration of the influence the electronic media has had on the Indians who have lived in non-Hindi communities, it is argued that because movies have sheer multiplicity of appearance such as in television, telephones and the internet as well as the pace at which they move in the daily life, electronic media is very beneficial in providing communities with ample resources to assist in self-imagining that culminates in cultural identity maintenance.

Due to the increase in electronic media popularity, and more so the meteorical success of Hindi or Bollywood movies among Indian and non-Indians, it is vital to critically look at the role the Hindi film industry in contributing to cultural identity construction. Indian films have been one of the distinguishing and dominant features of the nation’s popular culture for over six decades. The Indian cinema industry is one of the largest film industries in the world when considered in terms of the volume of production as opposed to financial benefits.

In order to satisfy the growing demand of movie enthusiasts that is estimated to be over 14 million Indians, Bollywood must keep up with the pace and as a result has been producing over 1000 movies on a yearly basis. This is far higher than the number produced by Hollywood which has been estimated to be about half of it. The Indian film industry is decentralised compared to Hollywood. Bollywood is mostly known for the production of Hindi-language movies, which are much adored throughout the subcontinent and among Indians living abroad.

Apart from Bollywood, which is the popular Indian film industry, there are also films produced in regionally in places such as Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Karnataka and others. The Indian factor as a recipe for cultural identity The Indian factor commonly referred to as Indianness is basically a psychological and social result of colonialism. It is therefore an ideology of independent country that ensured people coming together in spite of their differences in many grounds. Jawaharlal Nehru (1946) described in his book, The Discovery of India about the unity in diversity.

He defined Indianness as a unique thing that can be distinctly described, measured or experienced hence a quality thait is only essentially Indian. Borrowing from such a definition, many scholars have then defined Indianness in relation to whole acceptance of unity despite imminent differences as well as religious tolerance. On the other hand its definition has laid focus on the aspects of traditions, systems of value and family togetherness. In relation to the observations and definitions, it can be summed up that Indianness is a phenomenon that is arguably considered to be inseperable and inherent from all Indians.

Some of the significant characteristics of Indianness are found in religions, language, sects, castes traditions and customs. As discussed by Nehru in 1946, he predicted that even the the predominant religious faiths like Islam and Christianity will one day have a unique Indian blend in order to have Indian Muslims and Indian Christians. However, the significance of Hinduism as a religion cannot be underestimated from the Indianness concept of as it plays a noble role in the unification of various tribes and castes.

The most compelling reason behind according Hinduism such greatness is due to the fact that many Indian scholars strongly believe that it is an ethnic religion with very strong foundation in India. Thus apart from region and language, religion forms one of the basis of the concept of “Indianness”. Scholars have therefore consented to the fact that the mentioned elements define the true identity of Indian life and this is what the Bollywood films is strongly perpetuating. Many research scholars have also noted with a lot of interest the increasing effort among Indians to maintain their cultural identity wherever they are hence in their bid to take part in the construction of their cultural identity, the role of Bollywood in overseeing this process is very fundamental.

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