Sites of the past: The historical film and Bollywood’s encounter with Europe

Abstract

The genres of historical films have gained ascendance in the Bollywood industry in recent years. I examine four Bollywood films that narrativize biographies of unusual figures located in Europe in the past. Gold and Sardar Udham stage Europe of the 1930s and the 1940s, a period marked by the Second World War and anti-colonial movements. The flow of production practices reveals the layers of ‘artifice’ involved in producing locations during the inter-war years. The narratives of Bell Bottom and 83, on the other hand are located in Britain of the 1980s. Here, strategies like play with colour tones, differential use of focus, and accented use of old cars, infrastructures, costumes and props help in creating a stylized retro look. I will argue that the material and the immaterial get intertwined with each other through the mobilization of archival photographs, infrastructure, radio broadcasts, newsreel footage and sound media.