Indian cinema’s potential as soft power is still largely untapped. (Express photo/File)
With the rise of internet-based content, we need to go beyond cinema. The world is changing rapidly and if culture is going to be a valued commodity, it is important to begin investing it constructively in nation-building through various channels of its export.
Written by Vinay Sahasrabuddhe , Yugank Goyal
November 16, 2022 6:55:20 am
Days after India’s filmdom celebrated the 80th birthday of its current uncrowned king, Amitabh Bachchan, it would be pertinent to understand the soft power potential of Indian cinema.
The comparison, very understandably, starts with Hollywood. Top Gun: Maverick is the highest-grossing film this year so far. Its prequel, Top Gun was released in 1986, and even though it was a major success too, there’s another reason it became famous. It helped elevate the reputation of American armed forces from the nadir it reached during the Vietnam War, and increased recruitment to the US Navy by five times.
Cinema influences. For a long time, as the only source of information about other cultures, it acted as a powerful device to build a perception about “others” in the increasingly anxious globalising world. From the treatment at the hands of an immigration officer in a foreign airport to making friends at a university abroad, cinema has often unknowingly influenced how foreigners are treated in a host country. If every comet hurtling towards the earth has to fall on New York or superheroes are English-speaking white Americans, surely children growing up watching Hollywood anywhere will begin fancying those people and that country.
Joseph Nye, the noted political scientist, introduced the concept of “soft power” in his book Bound to Lead: the Changing Nature of American Power. The idea is not to force someone to do something you want him to do, but to make him want what you want him to do. In international relations, this is moving from coercion to co-option (or seduction). Countries can’t advertise and so branding has to happen differently, by creating an aspirational perception. Nye’s proposed soft power comes from culture, political values and foreign policies. If a country or its people are regarded or admired more than others, it carries a greater soft power.
Over time, the concept has become richer. Foreigners learning your language, Olympic medals the country is winning, businesses becoming global, the quality of universities, the architecture or natural beauty of the country and its ancient culture and customs are all tools for enhancing soft power. If culture is a crucial ingredient, and cinema a powerful vehicle for spreading awareness about a country’s culture, it in turn becomes a crucial tool for a country’s soft power. In judging others, our minds will inadvertently rely on their portrayals in their movies if we have seen them.
Scholars have noted the significant role Hollywood has played in helping the US win the ideological battle against communism during the Cold War, spreading American values like liberalism and free market. But America is not alone. Korean leaders in the 1990s decided to use their music to build cultural influence after the Asian financial crisis and poured millions of dollars into creating a Ministry of Culture. The result is today’s K-Pop.
India produces the largest number of movies in the world annually. And Indian movies make a lot of money. Records suggest that the year before the pandemic, the Indian film industry pocketed $2.7 billion. In fact, other than the US, India is the only country where a vast majority of cinema is for domestic viewership. In other words, most of the world watches non-native cinema. There is no reason why Indian cinema can’t have a more significant influence.
Despite being an interdisciplinary field of inquiry at the intersection of international affairs and culture, there is little research on Indian cinema’s potential as India’s soft power. Recently, the Indian Council for Cultural Relations and FLAME University, Pune jointly organised a seminar on this subject with several scholars and practitioners sharing their assessment of this very important, but often ignored theme. Several ideas emerged.
First, it is important to go beyond Bollywood (even the word). This year, regional cinema has grossed more than pan-Indian Hindi cinema. This very fact punctures the Mumbai-centric imagination of Indian cinema. Second, OTT platforms have shown that subtitling works. Indian cinema producers need to tap newer markets by providing subtitled versions in all neighbourhood languages including Uzbek, Kazakh, Burmese, Thai, Sinhala and even Bahasa Indonesia and Malaysia. Passionate lovers of Indian movies and movie stars in former Soviet Union areas want Indian movies and TV serials but understandably subtitled in their mother tongues. AI-assisted technologies could be leveraged for this. Third, Indian film music should find its way into ordinary streets, restaurants and public spaces abroad. Airlines and hotels in India can promote Indian music as formally suggested by a group of Indian music maestros recently to the Civil Aviation Minister. Fourth, Indian cinema has to go beyond the large diaspora. This means engaging, evolving strategies, events and partnerships that expand viewership. Fifth, technology in cinema is changing the way movies are made and distributed. Indian cinema can take the lead thanks to a skilled workforce and significant advances on the technological front visible in various global movies made with Indian collaborations. Sixth, portrayals of the country need to be balanced where deprivation is not exploited for business. There is a need to challenge the deep-rooted colonial consciousness that often surfaces on movie screens, giving rise to what one may call “cinematic colonialism”. In glorifying poverty and disregarding the ongoing efforts to overcome it, we show the India that the West wants to see. Seventh, the role of the government and official bodies in the film industry is important. It would be a good idea to incentivise the production of a special category of movies, say, movies promoting an understanding of Indian culture (MPUIC). The Model Film Policy must focus on creating a framework for “ease of filming” in India.
With the rise of internet-based content, we need to go beyond cinema. The world is changing rapidly and if culture is going to be a valued commodity, it is important to begin investing it constructively in nation-building through various channels of its export.
Sahasrabuddhe is President, Indian Council for Cultural Relations and Goyal is Associate Professor and Director, Centre for Knowledge Alternatives, FLAME University
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