Why India needs to cash in on Bollywood's soft power
In a day and age when the application of armed forces to resolve disputes between countries becomes less probable, the concept of "soft power" takes on a life of its own. Amongst the tools of political influence, the role of cinema as a soft power cannot be undermined.
Bollywood’s ability to shape narratives in the course of diplomacy gives soft power a whole new connotation and also redefines "the best propaganda is not propaganda" dictum.
Examples
One of the best examples of this is the fashion in which Hindi cinema has endeared itself to nations as varied as Russia, Israel or Afghanistan where even a Taliban-imposed ban couldn’t separate Hindi films from the local consciousness. But the true test of any soft power lies when it can change the behaviour of others to get the outcome a nation wants, and although Bollywood has been seducing the world, it has never really channelised itself.
With the Indian government’s official acknowledgment of Balochistan’s struggle against the atrocities committed by Pakistan, perhaps, it’s time for Hindi cinema to truly unleash itself.
First coined by Joseph Nye in his 1990 book, Bound to Lead: The Changing Nature of American Power, soft power can be seen at play in films as recent as the Iron Man series or way back in the 1980s with films such as Top Gun (1986). While the former displayed support to the cultural, military, as well as economic power of the US in a post-9/11 with the character of Tony Stark/Iron Man furthering the Department of Defence public relations' goals, the latter was instrumental in an entire generation of young Americans enlisting in the US Air Force.
But film being an exemplar for influencing minds is an idea as old as cinema itself. Gillo Pontecorvo’s The Battle of Algiers (1966) vividly recreated a brief period of the Algerian struggle for freedom from France in the 1950s and is considered one of the most influential films ever for its depiction of armed resistance by guerillas against the French army. Hailed as a masterpiece, the film has been used by the Black Panthers, IRA, and other terrorist groups as a training manual.
Even after five decades, it remains a masterclass in understanding how the French won a tactical battle but lost a war of ideas and watching it today can show just how effective cinema as a soft power can be.
Today, Pakistan as the enemy of the Indian State or its vested interest in eroding the social fabric of India through both direct and indirect means is an accepted idea in terms of cinema. Yet even after having fought three wars, popular narrative in Hindi cinema wasn’t particular about calling Pakistan by name even in films where the story clearly demanded it.
The only reference made to Pakistan was in historical or war films or subjects like Henna (1991) that had it as a part of the storyline.
Even overtly rabble-rouser films of the 1990s such as Krantiveer (1994), the film that introduced a new facet of the angry young man template in popular Hindi films, referred to Pakistan as the "padosi desh" or neighbouring country.
The first time when popular Hindi cinema directly referred to Pakistan for its nefarious activities was perhaps in John Matthew Matthan’s Sarfarosh (1999), where elements such as the ISI were called out.
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| The first time when popular Hindi cinema directly referred to Pakistan for its nefarious activities was perhaps in John Matthew Matthan’s Sarfarosh (1999). |
The film released just around the same time as Pakistan’s infiltration in Kargil was metamorphosing into a full-blown war and as a result, Sarfarosh’s contribution in telling the average Indian viewer, and by extension the world, about the new kind of war that the Indian state was fighting against external threats remains unparalleled.
Momentum
But the momentum that geopolitics in Hindi cinema could have enjoyed after Sarfarosh was barely exploited.
This is probably also the reason why popular Hindi films were not as effective in attaching the thought of a political identity to their aesthetics in a manner that could transcend national boundaries.
It’s not like Bollywood has not attempted to go beyond political cinema and explore geopolitics.
In the 2000s Kabir Khan’s Kabul Express (2006) where Pakistani soldiers take hostage two Indian journalists, an American reporter and an Afghan guide in the present day Afghanistan-Pakistan region tried to show an Indian presence in a geopolitical conundrum. Later, his New York (2009) had at its core three students of Indian origin whose lives are changed in the aftermath of 9/11 attacks.
Similarly, Rensil D’Silva’s Kurbaan (2009) showed an Indian professor in the US, Avantika (Kareena Kapoor), finding out that her charming professor husband Khalid (Saif Ali Khan) is actually a member of an underground terror outfit that is committed to instilling fear in the US.
These three films might have fallen short in their execution but there was no doubt that within the realm of popular Hindi cinema, read "escapist" or "entertaining", they did succeed in deviating from the popular notion by placing the contemporary Indian in a global setting.
Situation
The situation for Bollywood to break the mould and seek a new narrative in geopolitical cinema is rife.
Following PM Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech where for the first time an Indian Prime Minister openly mentioned Balochistan, All India Radio has announced the start of a WhatsApp-based service for the region.
Juxtapose this with the fact that Pakistan had banned Phantom (2016) following the plea of Hafiz Saeed, a known global terrorist and the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba.
The film was based on crime author Hussain Zaidi’s book Mumbai Avengers, where an elite Indian crack team goes into Pakistan to punish the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
If Saeed, a terrorist with $10 million bounty imposed by the US State Department’s Rewards for Justice Program, could call the film "filthy propaganda" against Pakistan and yet be worried about Bollywood’s popularity in Pakistan to sway impressionable minds there, then you know how influential Bollywood could be if it really came down to it.
(Courtesy of Mail Today.)