Imagining global India: Bollywood's transnational appeal

Abstract

Indian commercial cinema, often referred to as Bollywood, may be considered more than a national cinema because its transnational appeal encompasses a large and diverse audience. Bollywood's affective aesthetics and narratives also differ significantly from the presumed ‘universal’ techniques and narratives of Hollywood. In recent years, films like ‘Dil Se’, ‘Kal Ho Naa Ho’ and ‘Guru’ export an image of Indianness that negotiates tensions between homeland and diaspora and underscores India's cultural authority for its imagined community of viewers. By challenging the conventions of Hollywood, creating a sense of solidarity among diverse ethnic Indians and showing Indians as exemplary and superior to nationals from other developing nations, Bollywood demonstrates Appadurai's point that there is something ‘critical and new in global cultural processes’. By imagining a global India, Bollywood appeals to the imaginations of its transnational audiences and challenges us to rethink our approaches to cinema and the world that global media is constantly reinventing.