Indian Filmmakers Research Articles

European screen locations in the Indian film industry: evolutionary, spatial, and collaborative perspectives

India has long been known for its film industry and remains by far the largest film producer in the world, surpassing other film-producing superpowers like the US and China. A major factor in India’s dominance in the global media landscape is the outsourcing of film production, especially within Europe. Although there are studies trying to explain the context and mechanisms of foreign settings being incorporated into Indian filmmaking, this knowledge remains scattered and unsystematic. The objective of this paper is to comprehensively examine the evolutionary, spatial, and collaborative dynamics of Indian filmmaking in Europe by analysing statistical data from IMDb as the world’s largest film database. Our findings show that Indian filmmakers appeared relatively infrequently in Europe until the mid-1990s. The British Isles and Western Europe, with London and the Swiss Alps as the main centres, became the first and most popular destinations for outsourcing Indian films. However, this trend has changed in the last two decades, with the focus shifting to other areas in Southern, Central, Eastern, and Northern Europe as well in recent decades. The initial wave of Bollywood productions has gradually been followed by other regional cinematographies. The increasing presence of Indian film shooting in Europe has also led to growing co-production between filmmakers on both (sub)continents. The paper provides a solid basis for further exploration of socio-economic linkages between India and Europe, especially in terms of job creation, local economic development, tourism, and cultural exchange.

The Days of Bowing are Gone: Adivasis in South Indian Movies 2022

Our nation needs an environment where everyone takes pride in becoming a stakeholder in nation-building and chalking out the future course of our national history. However, the irony is that the real stakeholders and the key figures of our nation-building are still at their tapestry end. People accepted the normalization of Dalit or Tribal discrimination based on various grounds. The influence of the media can have a significant role in this process. In recent decades, movies have showcased a stereotypical representation of tribes and Dalits. However, a whole new group of South Indian film-makers is now trying to alter the way movies are made and seen in India. Their movies showcase diverse voices, experiences, and perspectives, influencing how we perceive and engage with our popular culture. When most film-makers are fascinated by the commercial viability of a film, for them the film makes matters more. Their works are not only for art's sake but also for life's sake. Because movies have the power to normalize certain behaviours, attitudes, or beliefs, making them seem more acceptable to the mainstream of society. South Indian movies like Kantara, Jigarthanda DoubleX, and Jai Bheem come in touch with the social reality of discrimination faced by the people who belong to the lower sections of society. This paper entitled ‘The Days of Bowing Are Gone: Adivasis in South Indian Movies 2022’, tries to explore changing views and perspectives of tribal characters in popular South Indian Cinema in 2022 with special reference to the movies Sembi (Tamil) and Pada (Malayalam).

“Reel”ing it in: The Indian film industry's survival and growth in the post-pandemic era

Business-to-business (B2B) firms are expected to work collectively to overcome the sector's challenges. The COVID-19 pandemic was a ‘rare’ event that triggered failures across many business sectors. With limited financial resources, governments in emerging economies could not assist businesses and the B2B firms relied on their networks for survival. In this study, we explored the B2B firms' response to the pandemic and whether their long-established networks and relationships with each other aided or hindered their ability to operate through the disruption and rebound in the post-pandemic recovery period. We studied the operations of the Indian film industry through the pandemic and collected interview data from key informants from the sector. Using stakeholder and institutional theory lenses, we highlighted the changes in the sector, including the weakening of B2B firm networks and firms moving away from organizational collaboration to prioritizing individual interests. The nature of the business model has changed, with increased use of digital platforms for movie releases. These findings have implications for theory and practice as international government agencies were providing incentives for Indian filmmakers to produce movies in their country, which needed to be countered by the Indian government.

ANTHROPOMORPHIC OF GODS WITH ALLAH ALMIGHTY AND FILMOGRAPHY ON ISLAMOPHOBIA IN THE CINEMATIC WAY OF AMERICA AND INDIA: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS

It is alleged that after the Islamic world froze its influence in this universe, the Jews and Christians started a conspiracy against Islam. Later, the same thinking affected the people of the West and India. So, they also provided hateful material against Muslims through books, articles, and Cinematic Films. In Berlin, 1895 Skladanowsky brothers made their first debut film, and in 1905 Lumiere brothers did not get a good response; they started the parables of prophets and got salutations from the audience. Occasionally, Western and Indian filmmakers moved on to offensive pictorial scenarios of God and anti-Muslims. In this regard, they are producing God in the form of Male/Female in the different aspects of the cinema. Moreover, later Hollywood introduced the Anthropomorphic of Ancient Greek gods, Like Zeus, Thor, and Loki in Cinema. In the era of 1917, Dada sahib Phalke through the Lanka Dahan portrayal, and in the 80s, Ramanand Saghar provided the pictorial series Ramayana and later B.R Chopra Mahabharata. Those who watch these theological movies as entertainment are prohibited (×arÉm) in Islam, while these films violate beliefs. These Cinematic Portraits are shown in every Muslim State on Ram, Hanuman, anti-Muslimism data, etc. This stereotypical behaviour is the major cause of the Muslims as terrorist in the West and being patronizing in Indian society. This research aims to identify the theological effects of religious films on Muslim society. Furthermore, the negative myths created by these films are to be revealed to Muslim civilization. This Research will set out both film industries with the methodology of descriptive cum-critical and analysis of Christian Hindu Thinking and particularly figures out its Prohibitions and suspensions through the Islamic Sharī‘ah.

Media wars: Remaking the logics of propaganda in India’s wartime cine-ecologies

AbstractRecent Second World War historiography has rightly highlighted the forgotten contributions of South Asia in the Allied war effort, and the everyday meanings of the war in South Asia. The role of cinema here, however, remains largely overlooked. This article focuses on British efforts to produce war propaganda in India with the help of Indian filmmakers, through varying tactics of incentivization and coercion. Between 1940 and 1945, the British colonial administration attempted several strategies to build a local film propaganda apparatus in India but, as I demonstrate, each stage was met with differentiated forms of cooperation, reluctance, and outright refusal, finally leading to the adoption of the unlikely genre of the full-length fiction film as the main mode of war propaganda in India. Derided as frivolous and half-hearted by critics at the time, the Indian-language ‘war effort’ film is more generatively framed as a form of ‘useless cinema’ that defied the logics of propaganda and privileged ideological ambivalence. This article brings together media history, film analysis, industrial debates about supply chains and licence regimes, aesthetic concerns about subtlety, and political differences about the ideological meanings of the war to situate the Second World War within the complex cine-ecologies of India. I read films and film industrial negotiations together to add to the multi-sited story of India’s experience of the Second World War that this special issue develops.

Debate on Women's Reservation in Politics and Contemporary Indian Cinema: a Feminist Overview

Gender discrimination is an important cause that relegates the position of women in Indian Pol- itics. It is a ground for denying rights and is not an argument posited in opposition to the notion of universal rights of women. In India except for the ballot machine, women's participation as contest- ants, elected representatives, members of the Government, and so on was negligible. The nature of the problem is varied such as lack of time due to domestic responsibilities, socio-cultural norms lim- iting mobility, and patriarchal control discouraging women from coming into conflict with men. Pa- triarchy always indicates the ramparts between public and private for women. The inner-outer dis- tinction specified that the world is external, the domain of material, and the home represents the inner spiritual self. The world is typically treacherous terrain a pursuit of material interests where practical consideration reigns supreme. It is also eventually the domain of the male. In the home, its essence remains unaffected by the profane activities of the material world. And the woman is its representa- tion (though indirectly it is controlled by men). It has been observed that the identification of social roles by gender corresponds with the separation of the social space into ‘Ghar and Bahir. There are so many factors that in turn merely reiterate the real problems women have faced. Film and sociology are interlinked. Four interrelated themes, i.e., i) identity, ii) interaction, iii) inequality and iv) institutions, help sociologists to analyze society in detail. Sociologists can use films as social texts to explore these core themes. Here in the context of post-nineties Indian Cinema or series, I would like to explain how did Indian filmmakers visualize the political subjugation of women through their cinematic gaze. Did they focus on the long battle of women to achieve political empow- erment? Research questions have carried following objectives :-1) No interaction with the Woman Pradhan or other officials with relevant officers. 2) Inactive or proxy members 3) internationalization of socially defined gender roles and an inherent acceptance of patriarchy, caste, and class barriers. 4) Non-articulation and inability to identify obstacles. 5) Patriarchal values have combined with political intimidation from opposing parties and vested groups and the system itself has hampered the func- tioning of Elected Women Representatives. Films like Samsodhan (1996) God Mother (1999), Bandit Queen (1994), Satta (2002), Deoal’ (2004), Gulaab Gang (documentary) (2012), Thalaivii (2021), Panchayat (2021) will be discussed from a particular sense of representation, where the term ‘representation’ will be used from two dis- courses i) Representation as ‘Speaking of’ as in terms of politics and ii) ‘Representation’ as in the art or the philosophy of filmmaking. Literature, articles, autobiographies, interviews, memoirs, docu- mentaries etc will be used as secondary sources.

Towards a Decolonial Cinematic Imagination: A Posthumanist Intervention

Abstract When it comes to cinema, posthumanism has tended to focus explicitly on technology, machines, cyborgs, hybrids, and monsters. An alternative approach is sought in this article. First, the relationship between posthumanism and what is here called the “decolonial imagination” is elaborated upon. The two are then further related to a recent curatorial intervention in India called “Cinema of Prayōga,” which seeks to situate certain Indian filmmakers (and films) within a heterogeneous premodern tradition of philosophy and the arts. Also included is a brief discussion of colonial responses to Indian iconography, as well as evidence for a posthumanist strain in both Indian art and philosophy. The intention is to wrest cinema and posthumanist thought away from their exclusive reliance on Eurocentric frameworks, and thus pave the way for multiple and diverse imaginaries of thought. Such a questioning—of cinema’s very ontology and methodology—is bound to make for more fruitful connections between posthumanism, decolonialism, and cinema.

Study of Social realism in the cinema of Shyam Benegal, Satyajeet Ray, Deepa Mehta, Anubhav Sinha

This paper delves into the cinematic works of renowned Indian filmmakers Shyam Benegal, Satyajit Ray, Deepa Mehta, and Anubhav Sinha, with a specific focus on their use of social realism as a narrative and aesthetic tool. Social realism, as a genre, seeks to portray the realities of society, addressing social issues and reflecting the lives of ordinary individuals. These filmmakers have made significant contributions to Indian cinema by highlighting pertinent socio-political themes, questioning prevailing societal norms, and shedding light on marginalized communities. By examining their notable films, such as Shyam Benegal's "Ankur" and "Mandi," Satyajit Ray's "Pather Panchali" and "Aparajito," Deepa Mehta's "Fire" and "Water," and Anubhav Sinha's "Article 15" and "Thappad," this paper aims to analyze their unique approaches to social realism, their impact on Indian cinema, and their collective contribution to addressing social issues through the medium of film. The study draws on critical analysis, theoretical frameworks, and relevant scholarly works to provide a comprehensive understanding of the filmmakers' narratives, techniques, and thematic concerns within the context of social realism.

Artificial intelligence in Indian films: Anukul and AI ethics

In recent years, artificial intelligence (AI) has emerged as an important theme in Indian cinema. Taking note of Indian filmmakers’ interest in AI, this article examines the Hindi-language short film Anukul directed by Sujoy Ghosh. Based on a short story by the legendary auteur Satyajit Ray, the film draws us to a posthuman world order in which machines have assumed rights and threaten to push humans out of the loop. The AI–human interface in Anukul provokes a number of ethical questions and this article aims to think through some of the ethical and legal concerns raised in the film.

Transcreating the Bard: A Case Study of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in Hindi Celluloid

William Shakespeare’s drama has been the staple for many Indian filmmakers who have ‘transcreated’ his plays to suit the Indian regional context and still managed to retain the plot frame, essence and themes of this brilliant Bard. This article will begin with understanding and defining the term ‘transcreation’, a popular term used in inter-semiotic translation studies and then argue to show how the varied adaptations of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in Hindi celluloid are not mere adaptions but rather transcreations by creative minds. The article will offer a case study of a few transcreations of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet in Hindi cinema. Bobby (1973), Ek Duuje Ke Liye (1981), Sanam Teri Kasam (1982), Qayamat se Qayamat Tak (1988), Saudagar (1991), Ishaqzaade (2010), and the most recent Sanjay Leela Bansali’s Goliyon Ki Rasleela’ Ram-Leela (2013). These films will be re-looked from the lens of ‘transcreation’ to assess their adaptability to the Indian region-specific milieu. These Hindi films made over the last five decades will be seen as creative renditions which harmoniously blend music, characters, tragic elements, camera techniques, local metaphors, and rustic locales and culturally amalgamate these myriad elements while still managing to balance the essence of Shakespeare’s source play to appeal to the target audience. The paper will present a literature review of various articles previously published on the topic. It will further discuss how the play allows itself to be transcreated in the regional target space it occupies. The transition from stage to screen will be critiqued to see if justice has been done to the original text. The paper will appreciate the efforts and creativity of filmmakers who ‘transcreate’ to make the sixteenth-century tragedy of ‘star-crossed lovers’, relevant and loved by Hindi film audiences, from the seventies till present times.

At Home in the World: Co-productions and Indian Alternative Cinema

Several Indian filmmakers and production houses making ‘alternative’ and ‘independent films’ have sought to develop co-production deals with European film funds, international film festivals, film markets and sales agents. Their bid is to build a profile with art house and ‘specialty cinema’ audiences in Europe, Asia and the USA, while also seeking to impact the Indian domestic market. This article analyses the assembling of such productions, and their aesthetic form, including a reflection on charges that their adaptation to international distribution requires a conformity to what is acceptable and intelligible to ‘international audiences’. It also explores how alternative films oriented to international art cinema affect the understanding of what constitutes ‘national cinemas’. The article explores these themes through two films, Qissa (2013) and The Lunchbox (2012).

The World Within the Home

This article examines the aesthetic use of sound in Satyajit Ray’s films to retrace his position in Indian cinema as a reference point in the practices of synchronised monaural sound. Ray is traditionally considered to be an auteur and a cultural icon – his legacy being on the fringes of popular mainstream Indian cinema. The specifics of sound practice and the nature of sonic experience in his films, however, remain largely under-explored. In this context, I argue that Ray’s treatment of sound in his films highlights a recognition of listening to place by means of a keen observation and recording of the site in monaural synchronised sound practice, which has created a precedence for realistic auditory settings later championed by Indian filmmakers in the contemporary digital era. Investigating how Ray’s use of ambient sounds contributes to establishing an auditory setting and to constructing a sense of reality in his films, this article suggests that Ray initiated a tradition of audiographic realism in In...

India and England in the Mirror of Screen

The article analyzes the films by British and Indian filmmakers centered on problematic relationship between the Western and the Eastern cultures. The filmmakers of both countries are perfectly aware of the fact that the shortest way to the spectators heart is appealing to emotions that touch people of any nationality which is reflected in the analyzed screen works.

“Selling movies to the common man-A case analysis on marketing strategies adopted in the Indian film industry”

The Indian film industry has been going through a sea change in its attitude. Multiplexes are fast dotting up the metros and are slowly realizing the potential of even the smaller areas. Today, there are far more avenues to make money out of a movie than just its box office earnings. DVD releases, music launch, merchandise, overseas distribution rights etc., all form a part of the earnings. This has been a slow process which has taken off only recently. For a long time, film producers had been inconsequential in the marketing of films to consumers, which often resulted in many good films failing to do well. But with the entry of satellite TV and foreign films into the domestic Indian entertainment market, it is becoming increasingly difficult for Indian films to earn the numbers it used to. A well developed research, marketing and feedback system can be beneficial to a film throughout the entire process-from generation of ideas to post release period of the movie. The concept of movie marketing may not be new but it is definitely making its present felt with a lot of force lately. This paper aims at focusing on the emerging trend of movie marketing that is adopted by Indian film makers.

Coyote's Way: Missy Whiteman's Indigenous New Media

Coyote’s WayMissy Whiteman’s Indigenous New Media Angelica Lawson (bio) Shortly after accepting a position as an assistant professor of American Indian studies at the University of Minnesota, I was invited to meet with a dozen international professors as part of a panel on Indigenous film. I was happy to be a part of this panel of Indigenous filmmakers, since I had just moved to the Twin Cities and was looking forward to meeting other Native Americans involved in film. We met with the international professors for over two hours, and what struck me most about this exchange was the assumption on the part of the professors that the young up-and-coming American Indian filmmakers would want to eventually work in Hollywood or in mainstream film. There was a lot of murmuring at the table as the women were shaking their heads. Finally, Arapaho-Kickapoo media artist Missy Whiteman spoke up and explained that this was generally not a goal. No one at the table wanted to work in Hollywood, and in fact they saw themselves as working against the decades of stereotypical Native American representation Hollywood had produced. The women filmmakers’ main point of resistance was feeling they would have to give up their autonomy to work in Hollywood. As Joanna Hearne points out in the introduction to this special issue, “The structures of traditional film production are notoriously discriminatory, overwhelmingly organizing men into positions of creative control . . . [whereas] digital platforms for aesthetic production and activism . . . are far more open to Indigenous women.” All present at this meeting claimed to prefer to work in new media in order to reach larger audiences and in Whiteman’s case specifically to reach Native youth through this medium. The Indigenous women’s articulation of the importance of media sovereignty became the topic of conversation. Included in this discussion was an emphasis on the importance of giving back to their [End Page 100] communities, educating and positively influencing Native youth, and expressing the values and ethics of Indigenous peoples through new media. The women highlighted the significance of new media in being able to achieve these goals, since new media is primarily digital and often made accessible online. Digital media is a much more affordable medium to work with, compared to traditional film, and can be made available through the Internet, circumventing the often prohibitive costs of traditional distribution, especially for independent artists. Affordability and accessibility are part of the appeal for Indigenous media makers like Missy Whiteman who in particular want to reach Native youth. Working in new media allows Indigenous media makers to be in complete control of their artistic productions. This control is the very definition of media sovereignty. According to Elise Marubbio and Eric Buffalohead in Native Americans on Film: Conversations, Teaching and Theory, “Both cinema of sovereignty and visual sovereignty are aspects of media sovereignty: the act of controlling the camera and refocusing the lens to promote indigenous agency in the media process and in their own image construction” (10). Indeed, definitions of media sovereignty began to form with Jolene Rickard’s essay on sovereignty and visual arts and has been expanded on by numerous scholars over the years to encompass “cultural sovereignty” as applied to Native filmmaking (Singer), representational cinema of sovereignty in documentary filmmaking (Lewis), and visual sovereignty (Raheja, Reservation Reelism). Self-representation in the media by Indigenous people the world over has been an exciting movement, empowering the people who have historically been rendered savage or invisible in most films and documentaries. With the surge in new media creation by Indigenous people we see not only more accurate historical and contemporary representation of the people but also counternarratives that intervene in colonial oppressive histories and serve as activist documents to be shared with audiences worldwide. New media provides an affordable and creative outlet for Indigenous artists to intervene in dominant national narratives and to exert visual sovereignty. As Michelle Raheja states, “The visual, particularly film, video, and new media, is a germinal and exciting site for exploring how sovereignty is a creative act of self-representation that has the potential to both undermine stereotypes of Indigenous peoples and to strengthen the ‘intellectual...

‘A rather tedious and unfortunate affair’: the Rahi saga and the troubled origins of Indo–Soviet cinematic exchange

This article breaks new ground by reframing the context in which the governments of India and the Soviet Union arrived at an understanding that determined the course of cinematic exchange between the two countries during the cold war. It suggests that official Indian attitudes to the export of commercial films to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics were not formulated on the basis of carefully calibrated political considerations, but rather on an ad hoc footing, and in response to a combination of unwelcome Soviet pressure and commercial concerns voiced by Indian film-makers. To fully understand the origins of Indian cinema’s emergence as a prominent feature of cultural life behind the Iron Curtain, it is necessary to travel back to the early 1950s, when an unlikely alliance was forged between K.A. Abbas, a flamboyant and politically well-connected Indian film-maker, and N.P. Koulebiakin, a dour communist apparatchik in charge of the Indian arm of Sovexportfilm, the Soviet agency responsible for the import and export of feature films. Specifically, this article recovers the hitherto elided role played by Indian film-makers, such as Abbas, and lesser known Indian films, such as Rahi, in establishing the political ground rules that governed bi-lateral Indo–Soviet cinematic interchange.

Touching Hearts: The Uncertain but Strategic Politics of KASHISH 2015

Ani Maitra reviews the fifth edition of the Mumbai International Queer Film Festival, focusing on the crucial role that the festival plays in bringing together Indian activists and filmmakers, while also combining collective action and aesthetic self-expression. Maitra examines the festival's rather difficult self-stated goal of “touching hearts” locally and globally, as shaped by the often-conflicting ideologies espoused by local politics, global and corporatized LGBT rights discourses, and Euro-American queer theory.

“Sober encounters”: the neoliberal logics of human rights documentary and Indian feminist documentary filmmakers

“Sober encounters” examines the market-defined encounters between Indian feminist documentary filmmakers and global humanitarian and media commissioning and funding agencies. Drawing from interviews conducted with Indian filmmakers, the essay looks closely at the seemingly sober aesthetic and ethical imperatives of these agencies and their impact on the production and distribution of rights-based feminist documentary film in India. Further, I present the figure of the “transient subject” and posit that it is one apprehended by market-friendly representational regimes to legitimate a neoliberal rights discourse. I argue for a deeper examination of these representational regimes and their attempts to de-radicalize the visual cultures of women’s rights.

International terrorism? Indian popular cinema and the politics of terror

The first decade of the twenty-first century has been marked by the decisive entry into our media landscape of the so-called global war on terror, with countless films and TV series from all over the world addressing the issue of international terrorism. Even Indian popular cinema, which has been addressing the issue of domestic terrorism since the late 1980s with films such as Roja (Ratnam, 1992), Drohkaal (Nihalani, 1994), Maachis (Gulzar, 1996), has, since the new millennium, begun to tackle the topic of international terrorism. In this article, I will analyse the shift in the construction of the terrorist discourse in Indian popular cinema from a domestic to an international perspective in order to highlight the close proximity between the two, as in fact, the “global war on terror” narrative seems to offer Indian filmmakers the possibility to simultaneously address international and domestic terrorism. In particular, I will refer to Karan Johar’s film My Name Is Khan as a text which, while discussing the consequences of the American war on terror on its minorities, problematises the official discourse on terrorism and its neo-Orientalist character. It also draws a parallel between the situation of minorities in the United States and India. In so doing, the film triggers a reflection on the state of the Indian nation and questions the state of the secularist values of newly independent India after decades of communal violence.

Language, region and cinema: Translation as politics in Ek Duuje Ke Liye

Abstract Language articulates cultural distinction and difference in a variety of ways in India’s diverse cinematic traditions. In mainstream Bombay cinema, language has been deployed to assert the hegemony of Hindi and to cast Hindi-speaking North Indian subjects as quintessential national subjects. This assertion of linguistic and cultural privilege runs counter to the fact that film-making in India has always entailed a host of multilingual and cross-regional exchanges, from producing remakes and double versions to dubbing film dialogues. This article uses G. N. Devy’s concept of ‘translation consciousness’ to demonstrate how Ek Duuje Ke Liye/For Each Other, a Hindi film produced by South Indian film-makers, challenges the hegemony of both Hindi and Bombay cinema as an industry. In moving deftly across multiple tongues and cultural forms – from various iterations of Hindi to Bharatanatyam to classic film titles – EDKL urges us to embrace a more playful attitude towards linguistic and regional identity. Attending to the politics of language and sound in this particular film, and in Indian film history more broadly, also allows us to rethink the relationship between the ‘national’ and the ‘regional’ in film studies as a discipline.