Indian Cinema For The Global Audience

WHAT IS INDIAN FILM INDUSTRY ALL ABOUT?

In the last few years, Indian Film Industry has grown considerably in popularity. Many western and other nationals who otherwise never watched Indian movies are suddenly taking an interest in Indian cinema. This is particularly evident in the number of channels on YouTube from such aficionados. However, given their low level of familiarity with Indian cinema and its evolution, reviews are very often with a reference to Hollywood movies. This in my opinion does not do justice to the intrinsic value of Indian cinema. I therefore felt the need to write this blog on Indian Cinema for such aficionados, so that they can better appreciate Indian cinema. Firstly, a few facts about India, its culture and traditions … many of these realities have strong reflections in Indian movies. 

1.     INTRODUCTION TO CINEMA IN INDIA

Cinema in India originated in the year 1913 with a silent movie called Raja Harishchandra. The movie was directed by one of the most famous names in Indian cinema i.e. Dadasaheb Phalke. Watching moving images on a big screen had a novelty factor and hence, the movie received a positive response. Interestingly, silent movies had peculiar traits – conveying dialogues through text frames, absence of female artists (men played the role of female artists as well) and shorter length of movies. 1931 was a defining moment for Indian cinema, as the first talkie movie Alam Ara released. This movie got a lot of attention from viewers as they started waking upto to the potential of a movie.

Most of the initial day developments in this industry were happening in Mumbai itself. Hence, an entire ecosystem of studios, labs, sets started coming up in Mumbai. The city therefore had a head start with respect to movies in India. However, Telugu and Tamil industries were not far behind. In 1932, the first Telugu movie, Bhakta Prahlada was released and in 1931, the first Tamil movie, Kalidasa released. By the 40s and 50s, a similar ecosystem of studios etc. started coming up in Chennai, the second biggest movie hub of India. With development of such ecosystems and growing popularity of movies, there was a surge in the number of movies made. In the initial days, Telugu film industry was centred in Chennai (called Madras in those days) and there was a fair degree of overlap in movies between both languages, which included stars, stories, locations, technicians, musicians and other artists. In other parts of the country, movies in other languages like Kannada, Malayalam etc. started being made in this period. However, the biggest jump in the popularity of Indian movies happened in the 1960’s, with advent of color cinema. This changed the movie viewing experience for the viewer in a major way. It is also at this time that many new cinema halls were built in the country. In addition to regular cinema halls, there were portable movie halls wherein a large tent would be constructed, and movies shown with very basic equipment. In villages and small towns, this was the only way one could catch up on a movie. Since then, the movie industry in India went on an overdrive and started making a growing number of movies with each passing year. However, for a very long time, movies in India were either historicals, mythologicals, romance or social dramas. There was usually nothing beyond this.

At this stage, it is also important to know another basic reality about India. After independence from the British in 1947, India was in an economically miserable state. Food, employment and basically everything else was a problem. Movies offered the Indian viewer time off from his difficult life and transported him to a different, fantasy world. Moreover, as there was no other entertainment avenue within the reach of viewers, cinema filled a major gap in the otherwise drudgery filled lives. So, watching movies became one of the most popular leisure options for the common man on the road. That has not changed even today, and you will be surprised to know that there are still people in India who watch the same movie in cinemas several times in case they like it. In fact, the most successful movies in India have been those that are considered to have repeat value. However, with alternate home entertainment options, repeat viewing in cinemas has come down than what it was in the 70s and 80s. In many smaller towns even today, there is no alternative to television, with cinemas being available in nearby small towns only. This audience is hungry for movies and the experience of watching movies in cinema halls but given availability issues, the only alternative for them is local cable TV or pirated discs available at fraction of prices. So, if the number of movies being made every year is increasing, it is because of this hunger for entertainment. But, with paucity of cinema halls, movie makers are indeed finding it difficult to meet this need. The real revolution for India for the industry will happen when movies reach the last mile at the same time as larger cities. While online streaming may be an alternative for this audience, poor internet connectivity in rural areas and huge presence of older, non WiFi televisions make that task impossible. Even the largest movie chain in India, INOX Cinemas, reaches a maximum of top 60 cities and towns in India, while still leaving out the huge rural population. It is true that economics plays a big role in such decisions but at the same time, it is indeed a fact that rural India suffers a paucity of entertainment options.

2.     EVOLUTION OF CINEMA AS AN INDUSTRY

Cinema industry in India is a multi-billion dollar business and contributes sizably to our economy. More importantly, it enhances India’s soft power across the globe. But, at a local level, it provides employment to millions of people across various activities in the value chain. However, you will be surprised to know that till a little over a decade back, the government did not recognize cinema / movies as an industry type. Hence, raising funds from banks, getting insurance from banks etc. was impossible. Movies were therefore being financed by private individuals who invested millions under huge risk. While many prospered from this industry, many producers faded into oblivion and misery as well. With lack of government recognition, support and organized funding, the industry naturally turned to nefarious sources for funding purposes. The involvement of mafia in industry funding in the 70s and 80s itself makes for a gripping story. Movie stars were in cahoots with the mafia or were bullied to sign certain projects or complete certain projects within a certain time as a result of this nefarious association. The government was least bothered about this association and did not enough to check the impact of mafia, especially on the Hindi film industry. Much of this interest of mafia in movies stemmed from the fact that with changing tax structures of India, smuggling of imported goods (the first and most popular activity among mafia) was no longer a lucrative business. The mafia therefore turned to the movie industry, an easy picking, given the fact that it was starved for financing. The involvement of mafia at a time when Indian movies were making a bigger impact across the globe led to the use of terror threats against producers in parting with lucrative overseas and local distribution rights. Producers who did not toe the line were threatened and sometimes even killed. Rajiv Rai, owner of Trimurti films, the banner behind Bollywood classics such as Deewar, Trishul etc. left the country when he miraculously survived a sniper attack. Rakesh Roshan, the father of Hrithik Roshan was shot at as well as he did not part with overseas distribution rights for one of his movies.

For a long time, the government did not pay any attention to this level of interference in mafia, as that was not a priority for them. It all changed in 1992 when the mafia connived with Pakistan based groups to carry out a series of bomb blasts in India’s commercial capital. Suddenly, authorities woke up to the fact that the mafia had to be reigned in some way to stop its spread. Stricter laws were formulated, and police were given extra judicial powers to stem this rot, any which way they deemed fit. This led to formation of shooter squads in police, especially in Mumbai to eliminate mafia rather than arrest and produce in court. This too has been a subject of many movies in India. The unprecedented level of action eliminated much of the mafia or forced them to seek refuge overseas. This was the time that many mafia gangs landed in places like Dubai, Hong Kong, Malaysia and other overseas destinations. They began remote controlling the business through trusted sources, but it was never the same for mafia again. The police too played its cards smartly, as they pitted one gang against another, thereby initiating a slow and steady decay process.

The long pending cleanup in the movie industry also brought in a lot of benefits for the movie industry. The government finally recognized the potential of this business and gave it the recognition it deserved. Policies were put in place to help producers avail legal funds from the market, including insurance for movies. This also brought in the much needed transparency in the industry which till then was quite opaque in nature. Rather than individuals funding the industry, organized private sector companies started getting into the trade. As these companies had access to stock markets, raising revenue became easier for people with reputed backgrounds. Moreover, with increased attention of government to this industry, nefarious elements started exiting the industry for good. Not just that, it gave a stronger reason for many international companies like Disney, Warner etc. to invest in the local markets. The reverse too has happened as some Indian firms are investing in overseas entertainment markets:

1)     Disney bought the Indian entertainment giant UTV Movies and has started making content for the Indian market. One of the most popular movies from their stable in recent times is the box office blockbuster Dangal

2)     20^th Century Fox too has an Indian arm that distributes and makes content for the local market.

3)     Netflix has made significant investments in developing content for the local market. In fact, their Indian content is expanding exponentially. They have signed exclusive deals with Shah Rukh Khan and his company for web releases, engaging local stars in content e.g. Sacred Games etc.

4)     Yash Raj Films, one of the biggest Indian entertainment companies now produces and distributes local content. Their international arm has now got into movie production in Hollywood as well.

5)     Reliance Entertainment of India has a stake in Dreamworks Pictures. Steven Spielberg is contracted to make five movies himself for this company. He has made 1 or 2 from this list already.

6)     Amazon Prime has taken the approach of signing in with leading producers and production houses for exclusive online streaming rights for Indian movies across languages. This approach has brought them rich dividends as for Indian language movies, Amazon Prime enjoys a big lead over its rival Netflix. 

A big positive of these developments is increase in movie making budgets. Indian cinema has begun to effectively challenge the global might of Hollywood in its own way, not just in India but in overseas markets as well. For e.g.

• In China, the Indian movie Dangal beat Hollywood blockbusters like Guardians of Galaxy 2 hands down
• Baahubali 2 in UK was in top 10 list for many weeks, beating even latest Hollywood blockbusters

These may be small achievements and aberrations, but points to the potential for Indian movies, if cards were played right. Moreover, with the associations and exposure as stated above, Hollywood also started realizing the potential of India as a shooting destination. In India, we have everything … deserts, mountains, temples, beaches, snow clad peaks, dense forests, skyscraper based cities etc. Many mainstream Hollywood movies have been shot in India in recent times e.g. The Dark Knight, Mission Impossible Ghost Protocol, Eat Pray Love, Bourne Identity, Kung Fu Yoga, Slumdog Millionaire, Hotel Mumbai, Zero Dark Thirty etc. Moreover, as most of the infrastructure required for shooting movies exists in India, I expect many more Hollywood movies to be shot in India in the future.

At this stage, it may be relevant for me to talk about cinema halls in India and the display mechanism. Till about 15 years back, Indian cinema was largely operating on the film based model. From the negatives, cinema reel copies were prepared and dispatched to the hundreds of cinema halls within and outside India. As preparing these reels were very expensive, producers released a limited number of prints at first. If the movie got positive reactions, they would release an increased number of prints. In  case of movies of popular stars, in the absence of enough reels, two cinema halls would share the same reel by timing shows appropriately. With advent of digital cinema, many of these challenges were effectively addressed. Smaller towns in India and in many overseas locations which had to wait for atleast a month for the reels of the latest movies, were now having access to movies on the same day of release in India. In earlier days, even within India, if a movie got a release of 500 screens, it would be considered mammoth, but these days, it is common to find a movie releasing in 5,000 – 8,000 screens. The two biggest reasons for this include the availability of more screens across movie multiplexes and secondly, the bigger reach of digital cinema. The movie industry in India is capable of an exponential increase in business, if simply more screens were available. To give you a sense, India today has somewhere around 9000 screens in multiplexes and about 2200 traditional single screen cinemas. Most of these screens are available in the top 50-60 cities. The rural areas which have the biggest chunk of population does not have good access to cinema screens. On the other hand, China with a comparable population has more than 50,000 screens across the country. This has made China the biggest market for movies in the world, even more than the United States. Hence, Chinese artists, production houses and Chinese locations are being more commonly used by Hollywood to appeal to that market. India’s movement in this direction has been slow. While the number of screens has increased considerably in India, revenues from the movie industry are not growing as expected. There are many factors – 1) Huge piracy factor and availability of pirated versions at negligible costs 2) Huge number of television channels regularly screening movies from across decades 3) Pay per view cinema across DTH or Direct to Home networks 4) Local cable television movie channels and above all 5) online streaming portals like Netflix, Hotstar and Prime Video.

As a way to counter piracy, producers have made significant changes to their business model. They now release the movie in the maximum number of screens possible, so that they can make the maximum box office revenue within the first weekend itself. The effect of piracy starts kicking in after this period by affecting footfalls. Hence, if movies have good footfalls even after completion of the first week, it is considered a commercial success. However, for movies that do not meet viewer expectations, revenues usually start falling within the first weekend itself, as word of mouth with respect to movies is very strong in India. This has given the industry the realization that there needs to be better focus on content, reach and cinema quality, so as to get viewers back to cinema in bigger numbers. This is also the reason why there is risk sharing between exhibitors, distributors and producers, as compared to earlier when distributors and exhibitors took the maximum risk. They simply bought the movie from the producer by paying a lump sum and gains / losses would then be the territory of exhibitors and distributors.

Another reason for lower than expected footfalls at cinemas is the huge increase in ticket prices in multiplexes. In multiplexes in most Indian cities, a movie ticket would vary from a low of 150 to about 500 rupees depending on the size of the city and the local tax structure. Except in Southern states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu, taxes on multiplex tickets are abnormally high. Hence, outside these states, movie going is an expensive proposition for the average Indian. To give you an example, if a multiplex ticket costs 400 rupees in Mumbai, around 175-180 rupees would go into all kinds of local and federal taxes. Single screen cinemas on the other hand are comparatively cheaper, have lower taxes and are usually in the range of 75 to 150 rupees, depending on the city (1 US Dollar is about 70 Indian rupees). Earlier, multiplexes were rigid about pricing, but as occupancies on weekdays were suffering, they started having special pricing for mornings and afternoon shows on weekdays when occupancies would be at their lowest.

In states like Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu where the movie industry is a powerful lobby and because it gives employment to thousands of artists, production studio workers etc., movies are treated somewhat differently than in rest of India. In these states, ticket prices are considerably lower than rest of India. Moreover, as a culture, people in these states do not mind visiting the cinema multiple times for the same movie, if content is good. Hence, Tamil and Telugu movies have been investing more in developing content, as good content can give windfall profits to producers. Further, shooting in these languages is cheaper as the entire ecosystem for making a movie is available in close vicinity. For e.g. in Ramoji Film City on the outskirts of Hyderabad, one can walk in with the stars and walk out with a full movie. The film city has pre-designed sets, which can be customized, has post-production facilities etc.

3.     LANGUAGES OF MOVIES AND DIFFERENCES ACROSS INDIVIDUAL INDUSTRIES

As far as I can remember, movies have been made in the following languages in India … Hindi, English, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Marathi, Konkani, Tulu, Gujarati, Punjabi, Bhojpuri, Bangla, Oriya, Assamese, Khasi, Sanskrit and Kashmiri. I think I have covered most of the languages and apologize if I have missed any language in which movies have been made in India. As far as my information goes, India makes more than 1100 movies in various languages every year, which actually beats the number of movies that Hollywood makes by a big number. Telugu, Hindi and Tamil would be possibly making around 750-800 movies, with the rest coming from other languages. However, the journey to this position has been quite long. In the past, a filmmaker would rarely attempt to say a story that caters to multiple sensibilities within and outside India. Most individual film industries in India were happy operating in a silo:

·       Tamil movies targeted Tamil speaking people in Tamil Nadu and in other states like Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh that had sizeable Tamil speaking population. In addition, in other Asian countries like Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Middle East, Singapore and United States where a huge Tamil speaking Indian diaspora exists.

·       Telugu movies targeted Telugu speaking population in Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and in other states like Karnataka, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu that had sizeable Telugu population. In addition, in overseas markets like Australia, United Kingdom, Singapore and United States, wherein the Telugu speaking Indian diaspora exists.

·       Malayalam movies targeted Malayalam speaking people in Kerala and in other states like Karnataka that had sizeable Malayalam speaking population. In addition, in Middle East wherein people speaking Malayalam clearly dominate the Indian diaspora.

On the other hand, Hindi cinema has been adventurous for long. Hindi movies have been getting releases in overseas markets from the 50s and 60s itself, though not on the scale as of today. Raj Kapoor’s Awara and Shree 420, movies from the 60s, have had successful releases in all the communist markets such as China and Russia. In the 70s and 80s, the entry of Amitabh Bachchan and his style of acting gave a further fillip to the industry. Moreover, this was also the time when Hindi movies started getting shot in overseas markets. For e.g. The Great Gambler was shot extensively in Europe and Egypt, Naseeb was shot extensively in UK, Yash Chopra movies had UK and Switzerland as regular shooting locations. Even if not for the movie, song and dance sequences were regularly shot in picturesque locations in Europe. Amitabh Bachchan’s popularity was particularly high in the Middle East and African markets. His popularity in these places was so immense that once when Amitabh Bachchan flew to Cairo to shoot his movie The Great Gambler, there were uncontrollable fans everywhere he shot in Cairo.

The 90’s was the defining moment for Indian cinema in overseas markets as movies started being distributed in an organized manner which till then was largely through Television Channels or Home Video format. Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan whose popularity took Hindi Film Industry to a different level were particularly popular in this period (and even now). In markets like UK and US, Hindi films started getting bigger releases. 

The advent of 21^st century took things even forward as other new stars from India became known to the outside world like Hrithik Roshan and Aamir Khan. Lagaan was a turning point in the global popularity of Aamir Khan as it was the closest that an Indian movie ever came to winning an Oscar for the best overseas movie.

Today, Hindi movies are released formally in many overseas markets, even in countries where the Indian diaspora is not particularly strong in terms of population. Countries like Austria, Italy, Trinidad, Mexico, Fiji, Korea, China are some of the interesting examples. This indicates the length and breadth of the globe penetrated by Hindi cinema in particular. Regional cinema has piggybacked on this association and like Hindi, has expanded its wings to many global markets. Hence, it does not come as a surprise to note that even amongst stars from other industries, there is a drive to work in Hindi cinema, as it gives them exposure which the regional industry may never be able to provide.

4.     DIFFERENCES BETWEEN HINDI FILM INDUSTRY AND INDUSTRY FROM THE SOUTH OF INDIA

Even though the Southern film industry is not as prominent as the Hindi Film Industry globally, it has been regularly providing technical talent to Hindi film industry and to Southern film industry itself.

·       Santosh Sivan … known to be the best cinematographer in India comes from Malayalam Film Industry

·       Senthil Kumar … another popular cinematographer comes from Telugu film industry. He is the man who helmed the camera for movies such as Eega, Magadheera and Baahubali series.

·       Sabu Cyril … the best set designer in India who has helmed some of the biggest period and historical films made in India in the last two decades

·       Sandeep Chowta … the best background music designer in India comes from the Telugu film industry

·       Rasool Pookutty … Oscar winner and the most famous sound designer in India comes from the Malayalam film industry

·       Santosh Thundiyil … Ace cinematographer and the man behind many mainstream films in Hindi cinema comes from Malayalam cinema

·       AR Rehman… Top music composer behind big Indian releases and movies like Slumdog Millionaire comes from Tamil cinema

·       Peter Hein … Top fight composer for mainstream Indian movies has roots in Tamil Cinema. He has composed fights for movies such as Baahubali series, Magadheera, Puli Murugan, 7 Aum Arivu and Enthiran.

·       SP Balasubramaniam … The singer with the maximum number of songs and who has a Guinness Book mention comes from the Southern state of Andhra Pradesh. He has sung in Telugu, Tamil, Hindi, Malayalam and Kannada as well. Even today, when he has crossed 70 years, his baritone voice still retains the melody. I would urge everyone to log on to YouTube and hear some of his good compositions

In addition, many of the mainstream actors, actresses, directors and character artists have origins in South India.

• The late actress Sridevi, Jaya Prada, Vyjayantimala, Hema Malini are from the Southern states
• Even other Hindi actors and actresses such as Prakash Raj, Kajal Agarwal, Rakul Preet Singh, Sonu Sood, Mukesh Rishi etc. made their mark in Southern cinema before starting to work in the Hindi Film Industry
• Directors such as B Gopal, Bapu, AR Murugadoss, Priyadarshan were reputed directors in the South but who have made the reverse transition to Hindi Film Industry quite successfully

There is a colossal difference in the cinema from all these states. Malayalam and Kannada typically have low budgets whereas budgets of Tamil and Telugu are considerably higher. But, in terms of quality of content, Malayalam cinema ranks the best in my opinion.

	Tamil	Telugu	Kannada	Malayalam
Visual Grandeur	Very high	Very high	Moderate to Low	Moderate
Variety In Content	High	Moderate to High	Moderate to Low	Very High
Quality of Stories	High	Moderate to High	Moderate	Very High
Access to Movies	Very High	Very High	Low	Moderate
Budgets	High to Very High	High to Very High	Moderate to Low	Moderate to Low
Technology / VFX	High to Very High	High to Very High	Moderate	Moderate

However, limited budgets have been a constant limiting factor. If producers invest more, Malayalam cinema would have a bigger impact than Telugu or Tamil cinema by a clear margin. I am actually waiting as to what Malayalam technicians and directors could do with better budgets. To elaborate my claim on quality, I would like to place examples of a few Malayalam movies on record:

1.     Manichithrathazhu is a 1993 film, which was a comedy as well as a thriller. The movie was a big success in Malayalam. The story was very gripping and was remade in around four Indian languages i.e. Hindi, Kannada, Tamil and even Bangla. It enjoyed box office success in all the four languages that it was made in. In fact, in Kannada, even a sequel was made.

2.     Ezra is a 2017 horror movie. While many horror movies have been made, this movie was special in the sense that without the typical horror movie scares, through mere use of certain props and basic narration, it created an eerie feeling very successfully. I would highly recommend it to all horror fans.

3.     9 is 2019 Malayalam thriller which starred one of my favorite actors, Prithviraj Sukumaran. This movie combined a number of elements such as science, psychology and supernatural to create a riveting thriller that was very unique to Indian cinema. This is one of my favorite Malayalam movies.

4.     Take Off, a 2017 movie, which is based on the real-life story of Indian Nurses who were kidnapped by ISIS from a government hospital in Tikrit, Iraq. Indian government and people on the ground smartly worked together to get the Nurses released and safely transported back to India. While the Malayalam movie, without being over dramatic focused on the story and the incidents around it, the Hindi version of Tiger Zinda Hai completely transformed it as a Rambo style movie with typical gun fights and blasts etc. The focus simply shifted from the plot to the heroism of Salman Khan, the lead actor. Also, to appeal to Pakistani fans of Salman Khan, the storyline had an unconvincing addition of Pakistani army team as one of the parties working with India to get the Nurses released. This kind of brute commercialization of a real-life incident is something that Malayalam cinema would never do. That’s why in terms of content, Malayalam cinema ranks far ahead of other industries in India.

Kannada films on the other hand have been pretty much remaking movies made in other languages to a great extent. So, they have had nothing unique to show for, in terms of content. Any unique content is more of an aberration than the order of the day. One thing unique about Kannada cinema however is that Karnataka is the only state that legally prohibits other language movies to be dubbed in Kannada. Hence, if there are good movies from other states, they are just remade than being dubbed. This in a way has limited the expansion of cinema in Karnataka unlike other states. Also, in Karnataka, it is mandatory in a multiplex to reserve atleast one screen for Kannada cinema. So, there are some restrictive practices in place. However, Kannada cinemas get special tax exemption from the state and hence tickets to Kannada movies are comparatively cheaper than movies in other languages. Having said this, it must be mentioned that the new generation of directors have been quite experimentative and adventurous. They are slowly and steadily working to enhancing the level of cinema. I genuinely hope that they focus on better content and provide more variety for the Indian viewer. Some movies that I would want to talk about at this stage are:

1)     Lucia is one of the best psychological thrillers ever made in India. It was made on small budget but was very innovative and striking in its narration. Saying anything more about the movie would spoil the fun. It was successfully remade in Tamil.

2)     KGF – Chapter 1 was Kannada cinema’s first attempt at moving into the big budget league in Indian cinema. This movie was dubbed in five languages and was a roaring box office success. It has successfully brought Kannada cinema to the limelight.

3)     U Turn was another gem from Kannada cinema. It was a supernatural based story, had simple narration but had great impact. It was remade in Tamil and Telugu as well

4)     Another recent movie includes Kavuladari, which is another example of a great story assisted by superb acting and narration. Must watch movie indeed.

Now coming to Tamil movies … Tamil offers an interesting mix of movies. Like Malayalam in many ways, there tends to be a good number of experimentative movies in addition to regular commercial blockbusters. It is this variety that appeals to me the most about Tamil cinema. There are certain characteristics of Tamil Movies that make it unique. Firstly, like in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, movie making is an affordable leisure activity as taxes are one of the lowest in India. Secondly, movies enjoy a kind of financial subsidy from the government merely for having a Tamil title. Hence, if you are surprised that why do most Tamil movies have only Tamil titles, this is the reason. Thirdly, most movie icons are aligned politically to either one of the two major political parties in the state. Hence, movie industry enjoys political patronage that has no parallel within India currently. Also, many movie artists have been Chief Ministers or enjoyed strong political positions. For e.g. M Karunanidhi, the late Chief Minister was a prominent screenplay writer, the late J Jayalalitha was a prominent actress, the late MGR too was the doyen of Tamil Cinema and the most popular Chief Minister that Tamil Nadu had in recent times.

Specifically, coming back to Tamil Movies, the array of movies made is pretty wide … from low budget family dramas to big budget action and Sci Fi flicks. There is not one genre that Tamil does not make movies in. To quote a few examples here:

1)     Kalyana Samayal Saadham was a revolutionary movie, as it focused on the common male problem of premature ejaculation. Without being titillating or crass, the movie dwelt on the problem using humor as a tool. It was successfully remade in Hindi as Shubh Mangal Saavdhan

2)     Vettayadu Velliyadu, the Kamal Hassan starrer was one of the best murder mysteries of recent times dealing with a gay psychopath couple. It was dark, raw and brutal in execution and that’s what heightened its impact

3)     Boys is a 2003 movie that focused on a group of sex starved teenagers and their travails in life. This movie was a landmark in the sense that it was one of the first sex comedy dramas made in India. Most importantly, the movie did not make any attempt to be politically correct and showed things in a brutally honest manner. It met with tremendous opposition, as many called it like a porn movie for the big screen, cultural attack etc.

4)     Tik Tik Tik was one of the first mainstream Sci Fi movies in India. While the movie was badly made, it opened up India’s eyes to the Sci Fi genre and its possibilities. Other Sci Fi movies made in India had little of Sci Fi and more of romance, comedy, drama etc. etc.

5)     In India, political thrillers are a rarity, as movies generally stay away from making political statements, lest they get into trouble. However, Tamil Cinema has regularly ventured into this area … movies like Katthi, Sarkar, Ko are good examples in this direction

Despite such movies, within India, Tamil cinema in non-Tamil speaking markets is known by the big commercial movies, especially from Rajinikanth. His movies are like a festival and even though it is not a holiday, people skip work en-masse to catch his movie on the first day itself, preferably the first show. Even daily wage workers who depend on that day’s income for a meal too make an exception for a Rajinikanth movie. The kind of adulation and fan following that he enjoys has no parallel within India. The only person who possibly comes close to that kind of adulation is Amitabh Bachchan. No wonder, he is the highest paid star in Indian cinema. In fact, if anyone gets a chance to visit India, I would advise visit on the first day of any Rajinikanth movie to personally witness the craze. His movie budgets are usually higher than the budgets of mainstream Bollywood movies as well. His recent movie 2.0 had a massive budget of almost 300 crores, which was a new high by even Rajinikanth standards. At this stage, it is important to talk about the movie Enthiran, which was the prequel to 2.0.

Movies like Enthiran made a big difference to Southern cinema, as they demonstrated to Hindi cinema and the outside world that given flexible budgets, Southern films could surpass Hindi films in not just storytelling but even audio-visual grandeur. The success of Enthiran in Hindi speaking markets was evidence of the fact that good content will never have roadblock in traditional Hindi markets. This in a big way gave confidence to producers in Southern cinema that with higher budgets, regional cinema could challenge the dominance of Hindi cinema. Hence, when producers of Enthiran 2 and Baahubali revealed plans to make super huge budget movies, industry experts genuinely believed that investments could be recovered, and profits made. True to that, these movies were huge successes across India and the world and brought windfall profits to producers.

Now coming to my native language Telugu. Like Tamil, it is one of the oldest movie industries in India. Unlike other languages, Telugu specializes in commercial potboilers or Masala films, something that would just be entertaining and not be a sermon or social message of some kind. In this genre, Telugu movies is far ahead of most other genres. Innovative themes are rare and very often fail commercially even if they garner critical acclaim. Some examples of commercial disasters which were liked by the niche audience and critics but disliked by masses:

1)     1 Nenokkadine was a 2014 movie which was a psychological thriller about the protagonist who has lost his memory of the past. He merely gets flashes of certain individuals who he wants to kill because they murdered his parents. He has no clue whether these are mere random memories or something to do with his past. How he goes about finding the truth forms the crux of the movie. Lavishly shot in several overseas locations, even today, IMDB rates it at 8.3 but it was a big commercial disaster, as the esoteric nature of storytelling did not appeal to the masses.

2)     Spyder, a 2017 movie suffered a similar fate, even though it was a very interesting movie on the tussle between a secret agent and a psychopath. The brutal nature of the psychopath and the mind games with the protagonist was excellent but was possibly too much for the masses to absorb.

3)     Nannaku Prematho, another 2017 movie was a revenge drama of a different kind about the mind games between the protagonist and the villain. While in many ways like a commercial Masala film, it had a strong undercurrent of subtle, mind game elements in the storyline, something that the Telugu audience possibly has no appreciation for. This movie was not a disaster but possibly just crossed the line.

With such examples, it is not surprising to note that Telugu cinema restricts itself to typical commercial / masala movies. What it possibly lacks in terms of content is made up by big budgets and audio-visual grandeur. It has its loyal following but content wise, Telugu cinema needs to do a lot more. They need to combine commercial elements with innovative storyline. Having said this, even today, there are some film makers in Telugu who do not mind trying out innovative content but honestly, that is not a regular thing.

1)     Goodachari a 2018 movie is said to be one of the best spy thrillers ever made in India. Without being jingoistic and xenophobic, it had a riveting storyline, slick action and some amazing acting. Made on a shoestring budget of 5 crores, it ended up making almost 75 crores at the box office.

2)     Eega a 2014 movie by SS Rajamouli too was an exception, as it used a fly as the protagonist of the movie. Made on a small budget, it was extremely creative and whacky in its rendition. It was a big risk in an industry that typically wants the hero to have a larger than life character. However, it was immensely successful and cemented SS Rajamouli’s stature as a bankable director.

3)     Kanche, a 2015 movie of a love story in the backdrop of the second world war was a critically acclaimed movie. The shots of second world war at a miniscule budget were excellently handled. It was a first for Telugu cinema, as the concept of second world war is quite alien to the Telugu audience wherein Indian soldiers were fighting alongside soldiers of other nations. It failed miserably at the box office even though it continues to be rated at 8.1 after almost four years.

Hopefully, the new generation of directors would break this mould and let Telugu cinema get into multiple genres successfully. Overall, the nature of movies made in South Indian languages are quite different and very often, tailored to meet local sensibilities or the sensibilities of people watching those movies across the world. They are even dubbed into other languages and since the explosion of YouTube, dubbed South Indian movies in Hindi have proved to be a big rage among the Hindi speaking audience across the country and even in other neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Nepal and other South Asian countries. There are many loyal followers of such movies and today, they have as much information about South Indian cinema as Hindi cinema. Allu Arjun, Mahesh Babu, Ajeeth, Ram and Vijay are extremely popular with this group of viewers. It is not surprising for such movies to have million + hits within a day of release on YouTube. This has opened up another new channel of earning for producers who otherwise may not be able to release such movies on the big screen.

However, it is important to note that dubbing of movies have to be carefully done, as the cultural construct of states is very different from each other. Hence, for a mainstream release, movies are many times rewritten in a fresh manner before being made in another language. Without this, movies from one state may end up as cultural shocks in another state. For e.g. in Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, marriages between maternal cousins are acceptable and very common. So, in movies from these states, the hero and heroine may be maternal cousins on screen. However, in Northern and other regions of India, the same relationship would be treated as incestuous. Interestingly, southern states have much higher levels of education, more so Kerala, which has 100% literacy in India. So, the way an educated audience receives a movie is very different. This makes Kerala a unique market with respect to preferences in terms of content. Incredulous and over-the-top content while liked at times is not a common trait of Malayalam cinema.

Even the comic culture is different, and the same jokes and gags could fall flat in another language. Hence, even within India, simple copying of movies between languages can have disastrous results. In Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, it may be possible to remake a movie scene by scene, as there is considerable comparability in culture and traditions. But, in most other languages, it may not be possible. Another example to elucidate my argument is the visualization and acceptability of characters in the movie. The beauty, fairness and physique are overriding characteristics of movies in Hindi but the same cannot be said for the Southern film industry. In South, heroines may be chubby, dusky and would still be accepted to the audience. However, in the Hindi movie industry, that would be simply unacceptable. That is one of the biggest differences that you would notice between film industries of South and Hindi film industry.

There is a lot of remaking of Indian movies in other languages. For e.g. Telugu and Tamil movies are remade a lot in Hindi, Bangla, Kannada and other languages. Several Malayalam movies too are remade in other languages for their original content. Many of the Malayalam comedies have been remade fairly successfully in Hindi.

5.     OTHER INDUSTRIES IN INDIA

In addition to Hindi and Southern Indian Film industry, there is also a reasonably sized market for movies in other languages such as Punjabi, Bangla, Marathi and Guajarati. They are significantly smaller but still have local fan following. My personal observation is that Bangla cinema has been quite bold in the movies it makes. While it makes regular masala films, usually remade from Telugu or Tamil movies, it also makes a lot of serious movies as well. Boldness of content has been one of the strengths of Bangla cinema as compared to other film industries in India. In recent times, movies on homosexuality, adultery, promiscuity etc. have been made quite well. The best part is those movies have been made in a classy manner without assuming titillating overtones. Unlike many other states, Bengal had a strong and rich literary history that was way ahead of its times. It was said that what Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow. So, even on the movies front, Bengal never hesitated in breaking boundaries.

In recent times, Punjabi movies too are making a mark. With better funding, better storylines, Punjabi movies are not just being better made but better distributed as well. In addition to Punjab, Delhi and other Punjabi speaking pockets, there is a huge Punjabi diaspora in countries like UK, Canada and the US. These places are lapping up native Punjabi movies, as it connects the resident Indian population to their roots in India. However, the size of this industry is relatively small and not enough movies are being made in Punjabi to effectively challenge other languages. So, it will be a while before it makes its presence felt in India.

Gujarati movies have been made for several decades now but with relatively high understanding of Hindi amongst Gujaratis, there is a significant preference for Hindi movies. Hence, this industry has remained small except for the occasional spark.

6.     RATING AND CENSORSHIP OF MOVIES IN INDIA

Before I go any further, let me explain the movie rating system in India. The government appointed Central Board Of Film Certification has members from within and outside the film industry as part of the panel. They review all the movies made in India and certify it as below:

1.     U – means fit for general viewing and without any restrictions.

2.     UA – means fit for general viewing in the company of adults (in case of people below 18 yrs)

3.     A – means restricted for adult viewing (i.e. people above 18 yrs of age)

Technically, this board only has the responsibility of certifying movies and not censoring them. But, when certifying movies, they have the authority to ask the movie maker to initiate cuts that contravenes the law of the country. There are many funny as well as genuine aspects to the law and much of it is left to the interpretation of the panel member. This is the reason why certification tends to be whimsical in nature. Movies with similar levels of violence, nudity etc. can very often get certified differently. There are codes on several things. Some of the ones I remember:

a)     Use of cuss words … usage of cuss words even if relevant to the character are not allowed. If the movie maker insists on the need for a cuss word for the movie, then depending on the discretion of the panel members, it may be certified as A. If he needs to be certified U/A or U, then that cuss word has to be beeped out. For e.g. the Telugu movie Arjun Reddy had severe usage of cuss words, but rather than beeping them out, they preferred working with an A certificate, as use of cuss words was integral to character building in the movie

b)     Extent of skin show … frontal and rear nudity is completely disallowed. In very rare cases, some amount of nudity may be allowed but that is purely at the discretion of panel members. It is pretty rare though. The Hindi movie Kamasutra when released in India after a lot of controversy had to go through more than 50-60 cuts before being permitted for release with a strict A. However, even then, flashes of front and rear nudity were momentary. It disturbed the process of storytelling because of which it was a big commercial disaster.

c)     Question religious practices or traits … this is a very tricky and discretionary thing. In the process of storytelling, the director may question certain religious practices or traits or use visuals to make a point. But, even if it is harmless and logical, the director may be forced to edit content.

d)     Political references … this is again a discretionary code as any reference to politics, political decisions can have severe impact on the movie’s release. Fearing rebuke or violence from supporters of a political party, censors tend to play safe by asking the director to eliminate certain sequences.

However, directors with a strong pedigree may escape such censures. Raj Kapoor, the legendary film maker was known to escape with liberal skin show in his movies. His pedigree and his ability to create erotic, sensual visuals without crass titillation was the primary reason. His movie Ram Teri Ganga Maili had liberal skin show but still got released with an A as far as I remember. But, as cinema halls did not take certification seriously in those days, almost everyone who watched movies ended up watching it.

Now coming back to what gets classified as U, UA or A in India. Movies which have strong dose of sexual or mature content like homosexual relationships usually gets classified as A. However, even then, censors very often ask for restrictions or cuts in whatever shown. As A classification limits the audience that can see your movie, film makers very often voluntarily accept such restrictions as an A certificate means financial viability issues. Regular violent scenes like the hero fighting villains or typical fist fights etc. are considered harmless and most often, given a U rating, which would not necessarily be the case in Hollywood. In this regard, the Southern censor offices in big cities such as Chennai, Hyderabad etc. are slightly liberal when it comes to matter of sex, nudity or violence. While similar subject Hindi movies might get an A rating in Mumbai, they might just escape with a UA rating in Chennai or Hyderabad. So, consistency too is an issue in the censorship mechanism in India.     

7.     SONG AND DANCE SEQUENCES IN INDIAN CINEMA

Music and dance are inherent to India’s religions, culture and traditions. Hence, their manifestation in the form of song and dance sequences in Indian movies is a natural extension of prevailing culture and traditions. Moreover, they mean much more than just being an entertainment option. It has religious and divine connotations as well. For example, many temples in South India regularly use dance and vocal music as a part of the prayer ritual itself. In states like Gujarat, Garba and Dandia dance forms are a part of the prayer ritual to seek blessings from the Goddess Amba during the Navratri (9 nights) festival

Even at a traditional and socio-cultural practices level, music has strong roots in India. For example, Punjabi weddings (weddings in families with roots in the state of Punjab) are not considered complete without a continuous sprinkling of dance and music. DJs and dance floors are therefore quite common in Punjabi weddings. This practice has now found its way into weddings across other states as well. Even the southern Indian state of Andhra Pradesh that I belong to, sangeet (music) functions prior to the actual wedding are becoming a common occurrence.

Classical music also enjoys strong roots in India. In southern Indian states especially, expertise in music, dance and other fine arts is considered a status symbol. It is indeed a common phenomenon for parents to send children for training in classical music and arts. This kind of endorsement for classical music is not as common in other parts of India … but is still there. Further, in many universities, music is taught formally as an educational course. Some famous international musicians from India include Pandit Ravi Shankar, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan, Pandit Hari Prasad Chaurasia, Ustad Bismillah Khan etc.

India has a strong and potent folk music scene. They have not just been a tool for entertainment but have also been a vehicle for change in society. In India’s freedom struggle against the British, folk music was used quite often to stoke the feeling of patriotism in residents. Even today, folk music is used as a tool to highlight social issues that affect India viz. alcohol abuse, tobacco abuse, female empowerment, religious harmony etc. 

Further, on the dance front, India is a rich country that has many different dance forms across Indian states.  has its own traditional dance forms which are quite diverse in nature. The nature of moves, the role of eyes, hands and legs in each of the dance forms make them different. Each of the Indian states has its own dance form, which is considerably different from others. For e.g. Bharatanatyam from Tamil Nadu, Kuchipudi from Andhra Pradesh, Mohini Attam from Kerala, Kathak from UP, Bhangra from Punjab, Lavni from Maharashtra etc. 

Finally, what many westerners don’t know is that India has a strong western classical, pop, rock and jazz music culture. In addition to western celebrities, India has its own share of celebrities in this area. Louis Banks, Hariharan etc. The movie industry was not aloof from these realities. In fact, it used these realities to their advantage. They used the power of dance and music to elevate the experience of watching a movie, something that continues till this date. Over the years, Indian movie industry has developed its own effective mechanism of integrating song and dance sequences into the storyline. So, it appears rather seamless in nature in most cases. Very often, they support the storyline effectively. Even at the box office, good music has a positive impact on the fortunes of the movie. Sometimes a single good music number has successfully elevated the fortunes of a movie. Hence, movie makers and musicians spend a lot of time in getting the music right for a movie.

8.     HEROES AND LARGER THAN LIFE ROLES IN INDIAN CINEMA

In India, the concept of a hero is someone who can do extraordinary things … something that the average individual can just not do. So, he must be bigger and better and should be able to realistically portray doing incredulous stuff. He should be able to bash ten muscled men, even though he may be frail and skinny in nature. People like that kind of stuff because our definition of a hero is different from that of the western world. However, as time changes and people’s sensibilities change, the hero of today can no longer convincingly portray a fight with ten people without being athletic or muscled himself. Hence, most Indian male movie stars have to have a good physique to be able to portray the hero in a compelling manner.

In addition to physique, moral values and ethics of the character on screen are equally important for the viewer. Hence, heroes with flawed characters or shades of grey are not accepted easily by the audience unless and until it is accompanied by flawless acting. The more prominent heroes therefore very rarely play roles with shades of grey due to this inherent contradiction in the way our society views our movie stars. Another interesting fact about how our society views movie stars is evident in the actions of followers, especially in Southern Indian states of Telangana, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu:

Big movie stars have temples erected in their names by fans, on the lines of regular Hindu temples. When movie of a popular star releases, it is nothing less than a celebration for the loyal fans. Bathing the posters in milk (like a typical process in an actual temple), conducting blood donation campaigns, undertaking other charity exercises are quite common. Some even more fanatic loyalists take even more extreme steps. This is more predominant among followers of Southern Super Star, Rajinikanth. Fans postpone or bring forward delivery dates to coincide the release date with the birth of the baby and offices declare holidays on movie release dates, as most fans would report sick on the release day otherwise.

9.     FAMILIES AND INDIAN STORIES

The family is at the core of every Indian’s life. Parents occupy the highest position in the family and the children in many cases are under the influence of the parent. This extends to many different areas i.e. the career you choose, the person you marry, the way you lead your life etc. However, as a sign of changing times, children are exerting their will and refusing to toe traditional lines. This has had positive as well as negative repercussions in society. Parents cutting their contact with kids, if the son or daughter does not marry as per parental wishes is quite common. In certain sub-cultures, this also receives violent reactions in the form of murders to protect family honor. However, at a broader level, there is an implicit understanding that parents chose the person that is right for you and not whom you are enamored with. Hence, it is not uncommon amongst today’s youth to have acceptance of parent arranged marriages.

Because of parental influence on marriages, they go out of their way to make marriages work in case of unpleasant situations. This would include coaching, guiding and tutoring couples on the adjustments needed to make for marriages or even supporting them in other ways. Hence, in most movies where the two protagonists are in love, very often the theme focuses on how the protagonists try to convince parents rather than eloping and getting married by force. Further, within the Indian culture, marriages are supposed to be for a lifetime. Hence, divorces are frowned upon, even though they are increasing in India. Especially when the couple has kids, they are willing to put up with an unhealthy relationship for years for the sake of their kids. Also, social acceptance of divorces is still very low and hence, it is not as common as one thinks it is.

There is also a legal side to divorces. In Hinduism, there is no religious process for undoing a marriage as it exists in other religions. In Hinduism, marriage is supposed to last for generations, as gods wish. Hence, ending a relationship is only possible with the death of the person. So, a couple that gets married as per Hindu rituals has the only option of knocking at the courts door for ending a marriage. Within the religion itself, there is no ritual to undo a marriage. Even in case of other religions like Christianity and Islam, the religious community and clergy have tremendous influence on ending relationships. They go out of their way to convince a couple on the perils of ending a relationship and simply do not endorse a divorce even if it has mutual acceptance. Hence, divorce as a subject is treated accordingly in our movies.

10.  INDIAN WEDDINGS AND THEIR DEPICTION IN MOVIES

While the scale might be slightly elevated in movies, weddings are very elaborate and rich in the Indian context. It is not uncommon among families to save for a lifetime to spend on a wedding, especially on the wedding of the daughter in the family. Elaborate rituals, extensive shopping, huge guest list, prominence of jewelry, elaborate costumes are all a standard part of an average Indian wedding. 

Moreover, unlike western weddings, the Indian wedding process takes over a period of atleast 3-4 days which includes the marriage and pre and post festivities. Presence of friends and close family members is an imperative for weddings and non-attendance at wedding of a close family member is socially unacceptable. Hence, irrespective of work pressures and distance, people do make it a point to attend weddings of close family members. A crowd of 300+ is quite common even in minimalist weddings and for affluent families, it could extend to several thousands. Richer the individual, bigger is the scale of Indian weddings, something that the western world is just not used to. For e.g. when one of the Indian business tycoons celebrated the wedding of his daughter in France, he hired a castle and flew over all his guests from India to a lavish multi-day ritual in Paris. An estimated 400mn pounds was spent on the wedding which included the who’s who from across the globe. That wedding was around 10 years back. 

Very recently, India’s richest man celebrated the wedding of his only daughter across multiple ceremonies in Europe and across various cities in India. The guest list included people like CEO of Google, Tony Blair, Hillary Clinton etc. The estimated cost of the wedding was 800mn dollars.

11.  RELIGION AND ITS DEPICTION IN INDIAN MOVIES

In India, Hinduism is the dominant religion and hence, most movie characters typically have Hindu names.  Obviously, there are exceptions, but Hinduism is generally the norm. Hence, mainstream movies which show Hinduism in a positive light get positively impacted. At the same time, movies which are even remotely critical of Hinduism or any religion or religious traits or practices meet with violent reactions even when the censor board has cleared the movie. This is largely because movies are integral to Indian society and any content within movies is taken absolutely seriously by the Indian population. This very often limits the creativity or boundaries for film making. Even mainstream Hindi movies like Oh My God, PK faced many problems before they released in India. So, producers play safe and resist any temptation of making movies on this subject. 

The right-wing community takes comments on Hinduism very seriously, especially when we have a right-wing government in place in India. Efforts are going on to censor or weed out any content showing Hinduism in negative light or critiquing it. We just need to see how this pans out in the near future.

12.  SPORTS IN INDIAN MOVIES

Unlike in US, India is not a sports fanatic country. If there is any fanaticism, it is only with respect to cricket. Also, most sports movies made in India are biopics of famous sports personalities and not general movies with sports as a theme

1)     Wrestling – Dangal

2)     Hockey – Soorma, Chak De India
3)     Football – Hip Hip Hooray
4)     Athletics – Bhaag Milkha Bhaag
5)     Rugby – Sye (Telugu)
6)     Cricket – Sachin A Billion Dreams & MS Dhoni

I am sure there are movies in other languages on other sports but honestly, have not seen enough of it. Even in the near future, we would be seeing many sports movies … but even here, it is all about biopics of famous sports personalities.

·       Biopic of Kapil Dev in the context of India’s 1983 cricket world cup victory
·       Biopic of ace badminton player Saina Nehwal
·       Biopic of ace tennis player Sania Mirza

Much of this has to do with the importance assigned to sports at the school and college levels. Indian educational institutions excessively focus on academics and academic achievements. Most parents appear to believe that sports is an unstable career option and hence are quite wary of children taking up professional sports. Hence, the sportsman who come out through this system have to be incredibly motivated and importantly, have supportive parents to let them pursue their dreams. Most of the successful people in Indian sports have confessed to having extremely supportive parents and family members. However, this may change in future with introduction of professional leagues in cricket, football and hockey. Entry of private sponsors in a big way has given sportsman an opportunity to make respectable incomes in an otherwise uncertain area. Cricket however remains an exception as India’s national players and even professional league players (IPL or Indian Premier League) make considerable and in some cases, obscene amount of money. Endorsements, live appearances and other commercial engagements add on to that. Most players tend to make as much money as possible in their playing time (usually not more than 10-15 years at best), as the system is not very supportive of sportsmen once they leave the sport.

13.  SEXUAL CONTENT AND NUDITY IN INDIAN MOVIES

I have a friend from Australia who asked me that he has not seen any movies with sexual content / nudity in Indian cinema. I told him that despite being the land of Kamasutra, there are some inherent dichotomies in the way we view sex. Firstly, India is a very private country especially where matters regarding sex are concerned. From a social and religious perspective, sex is a highly personal activity, to be indulged in by partners married to each other. This is true for most religions that exist in India. Hence, subjects like pre-marital sex, living-in etc. are frowned upon by all. Strangely, these very things abhorred by religion are a reality in India. Adultery, Live In relationships and Pre-Marital sex are very much a reality in modern, urban India, even though it does not have social sanction.

Much of this can be attributed to the absence of any kind of discussion or sex education at the school level. Even parents desist from any kind of open discussion with kids on the subject. Hence, given the lack of any concrete discussion on the subject, kids seek information on their own through internet and friends. Usually, such a search, rather than providing a practical perspective of sex assumes a titillating form. This very often leads to wayward sexual behavior. India lives in a constant state of denial on the issue, even though there is increasing evidence of unsafe sexual practices such as non-usage of contraception, visiting sex workers etc.

Given these views towards sex, producers are wary of making movies on the subject, as there is no certainty on how the audience will view the movie. Moreover, with the risk of censorship, producers have to be careful in what they do. Surprisingly. some producers revel in making such movies by working in the grey area with regards to sexual content / erotica. For e.g. Vishesh Films from the Bhatt banner. This banner has made movies on serious subjects such as prostitution, pre-marital sex, live-in relationships, promiscuous behavior, adultery etc. However, they are able to package it in a manner that meets the rules of the country while being titillating in nature. Even in their case, box office success has not been regular in nature.

14.  MATURE CONTENT IN INDIAN MOVIES VIZ. DRUGS, HOMOSEXUALITY ETC.

A part of this question has already been answered earlier. In case of movies with subjects such as homosexual behavior, gay and lesbian relationships etc., one must understand the way India reacts to such subjects. Till recently, homosexual behavior of any kind was illegal in India, even if it was in a private confine. So, the police had the authority to break into someone’s house and arrest people, even if there was consensual gay sex in private. So, given legal ramifications, most people never came out of the closet, resulting in serious personal and emotive issues. Now, even after homosexual behavior in private has been legalized, there is no social sanction for such relationships. The LGBTQ community is looked down in a condescending manner and hence, fearing public reaction, film makers rarely venture into this area. Even when attempts have been made, they have had to face release bans, irrational censor cuts etc. Some examples of movies that I can remember include Fire, Aligarh & Gandu.

Sadly, even when there is reference to such behavior in mainstream Indian movies, it presents a rather skewed, stereotypical and condescending view of LGBTQ community. Movies like Dostana starring John Abraham and Abhishek Bachchan need to be singled out for this purpose. However, emergence of online streaming portals like Netflix and Prime have given a new lease of life to producers who want to make movies on such sensitive subjects. Currently, online streaming portals are not legally required to censor content for India but very soon, the government is planning to bring a legislation on the same.

15.  REFERENCES TO PAKISTAN IN INDIAN MOVIES

Before we get into the depth of this issue, it is important to spend some time understanding the history of India and Pakistan. Prior to 1947, India was a very different country than what it is now. It was not even a single country but an amalgamation of more than 200 small and large kingdoms. The British ruled over these kingdoms with an iron hand and in connivance with rulers or through pressure, plundered the country of its wealth. From one of the richest countries in 1757 when British first entered India through East India Company, it became one of the poorest countries in the world when it finally left in 1947. For the purpose of administration, Britain treated the current day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh as one single administration unit.

The second world war had left British finances in precarious conditions. The government had to cut down severely on social spending leading to law and order issues within the country. Moreover, in colonies like India, there was nothing much of interest left for them as they had already plundered whatever they could plunder. So, they decided to exit India in 1947. Also, as the freedom movement in India was growing stronger by the day, exiting India seemed like a logical step. However, even though they decided to exit India, they wanted presence in the region to preserve their geo-political interests. It was this silent need that made them do things which created deep fissures within the region.

At the time of independence, India had two major political parties Muslim League and Indian National Congress. The Indian National Congress started in 1885 and the Muslim League around two decades after that. The Muslim League was primarily formed to protect the interests of the sizeable Muslim community in India. However, as the time for British exit from India came close, Muslim League started demanding a separate country for Muslims. This was largely due to the fear that in an independent India, Muslims would be underrepresented in every walk of life due to dominance of Hindu population. There was some truth to this fear as the business community and bureaucracy was dominated by Hindus. However, it was overplayed in a big way to suit the narrow, political interests of Muslim League leaders and a few Muslim kings across India. In fact, the Muslim League was majorly funded by Muslim kings of India, who were apprehensive about their political status and stature in a Hindu dominated India. Many of these kings and their family members later on moved to Pakistan.

So, Muslim League and its supporters started an aggressive campaign across the country with specific emphasis on Muslim dominated areas to demand a separate country. This kind of subtle support to mobs resulted in a multitude of Hindu-Muslim riots across the country. Moreover, there was severe loss of life and property at this stage, as the British Police and Armed Forces were in a process of withdrawal from the country. So, the lack of policing coupled with a violent mob mentality resulted in many deaths across India. The Congress party was not in a favor of partition initially but as the violence was continuing unchecked, they too relented and agreed to the partition of India. So, while the current day India sees partition as a painful incident, the Pakistanis celebrate it as an achievement.

Bigger trouble awaited the country when the actual process of division of the country started. The British government appointed a cartographer to physically draw the boundaries for an independent India and Pakistan. This cartographer had very little understanding of the realities of India and made several mistakes in his assumptions. The bordering areas of India had a sprinkling of Hindu, Muslim & Sikh population. In villages and areas around the major Pakistani city of Lahore, there was a huge Muslim & Sikh population whereas in many villages around the Indian city of Amritsar, there was a sizeable Muslim population. When the borders were drawn, many Hindu and Sikh areas were in Pakistan and Muslim areas in India. Due to the mob frenzy prevalent in the country at that time, Hindu and Sikh population was driven forcefully out of their ancestral homes and properties and many were killed, women raped and bodies mutilated. So, trains full of bodies started arriving in India, which led to a counter reaction among Muslims in bordering areas while they were trying to flee India. This action and counter reaction led to loss of more than a million lives across the borders. The scars of this violence exist even today as many individuals had to leave their riches, wealth and businesses behind and get into a life of penury in India. While many of them rebuilt their lives and businesses successfully, some just faded into oblivion.

16.  REPEATED REFERENCES TO KASHMIR IN INDIAN MOVIES

The state of Jammu and Kashmir (Kashmir as it is known by) has three regions – Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh. Jammu has a sizeable Hindu population whereas Kashmir has a dominating Muslim population and Ladakh is basically a sparsely populated area on the areas bordering China. The ruler of Jammu & Kashmir was a Hindu king who chose to remain independent unlike many other kingdoms who either decided to go with India or Pakistan after independence (as per the agreement between all concerned parties, kingdoms could choose the country they belonged to. While most chose India, some Muslim rulers chose to go with Pakistan). The Pakistani side always had their eye on Kashmir, as it was a critical location but also because they believed they owned it because of Muslim population in Kashmir. It was this feeling of entitlement that has been the driver of all the tension with Pakistan till date.

Another important fact to be noted at this stage is that at the time of independence, of the total strength of British armed forces that existed in India, 60% came from the current day Pakistan and 40% from the current day India. So, Pakistan had a bigger military strength than what it needed and India had lesser strength. Pakistan therefore believed that they could use this strength to annex Kashmir and strip them of its independent status. With this belief in mind, in 1947, they tied up with militant tribal groups and entered Kashmir. When the king got to know of it, he was worried that he will lose control soon, as the troops were coming close to the capital Srinagar. He then made an SOS to the then Indian leader Nehru and the future PM, asking for military support. Nehru refused saying that J&K is an independent country and as India has problems of its own, they just cannot afford a war at this stage. But, the king somehow convinced Nehru and after discussions, the king decided to sign a treaty accepting to be a part of Indian Union with certain privileges not available to other kingdoms of India.

On the day this treaty was signed, Pakistan lost all claims and legal rights (which it never had) over Kashmir region. The Indian Army finally stepped into the scene after this and stopped the military advances of Pakistani forces and tribal groups. But, the point they reached within the Kashmir region continued to be in their control while the remaining region was always in India’s control. Pakistan has not vacated the area it forcefully occupied till today. So, one part of the Kashmir region continues to be in control of Pakistan which they funnily call as Azad Kashmir or Free Kashmir … however, we call them as PoK or Pakistan occupied Kashmir. The map of India is therefore a sensitive issue for India. Most western brands such as BBC, CNN, Google etc. either show this region as part of Pakistan or color them separately as an independent / disputed region. India has now rightfully begun a process to make these brands correct their stance for operating in India. Some brands have relented but some continue to behave so. It will be interesting to see how this pans out in the future.

Another global perspective on the status of Kashmir is clearer from what happened in 1950 when India went to the UN to complain about numerous Pakistani incursions in Kashmir. After a number of discussions, the UN put forward three resolutions as a peaceful way of settling the problem. Both parties accepted these resolutions at the time of signing. Importantly, these resolutions were based on achievement of the previous resolution:

Step 1 – Pakistan would withdraw all its forces from the disputed region including the part of Kashmir that they were illegally holding

Step 2 – Upon achievement of the above, India would also withdraw its forces from the region with a presence allowed for safety and protection purposes

Step 3 – Upon achievement of the above two in that order, a plebiscite would be held in the Kashmir region to let people choose their future i.e. remaining independent, going with India or going with Pakistan.

Pakistan never even made an attempt to fulfil the first step and so that resolution never got implemented. This is a truth that even most Pakistanis and Pakistani leaders have no clue of. They have been blaming India (without any evidence) of not respecting Kashmiri sentiments but it is them who have actually been guilty of it.

In sum, the reality of India’s control over Kashmir region was never accepted by Pakistan. However, they continue to harbor dreams of annexing this part of India through bloodbath or whatever means. This dream has been the single biggest driver to Pakistani incursions and terrorist acts till today. Hence, as a subject, it has occupied prominence in Indian movies in many different forms – as how terrorism has affected life in Kashmir, how the Indian army has been bravely fighting the terrorists in adverse conditions, how they face death every single day because anyone can be a potential terrorist in Kashmir. You will be surprised how many women and teenagers or young kids have been used as human bombs by jihadi groups in Kashmir. While these are sad incidents in themselves, they make for riveting movies and pander to jingoistic feelings within Indian population.

17.  WARS AND SKIRMISHES BETWEEN INDIA AND PAKISTAN

Most parts of the world got aware of the terrorism problem only after 9/11, but India has been the victim of terrorism since its inception. While terrorist acts were localized in the past in the Kashmir region or in the bordering areas, over the years, Pakistan through its forces or sponsored Jihadi groups have managed to successfully strike at many other places. They have even gone to war with India several times to achieve their unrealistic dream of taking over Kashmir. The first war as I indicated previously happened in 1948 when Pakistani army regulars and militant tribal groups entered Kashmir. The next war happened in 1965. This was a defining war in many different ways.

At this stage, it is relevant to understand about a war that India and China actually had in 1962 and how it affected India. By 1962, India realized that its interests lied in building a strong economic country than becoming a military dominated country like Pakistan. So, it invested its resources and energies on nation building rather than military building. It did not focus enough on resources or strengthening the military. So, in a sense, we were unprepared to handle any military aggression from another country. This was used effectively by China when its forces entered India from the North Eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh, which strangely claims the whole of this state as its own territory, even though it never had direct or indirect control over it. As they had the military high ground, they were able to inflict significant casualties on an unprepared military. We not just lot a lot of soldiers in that war to China but also a lot of ground which China continues to illegally occupy even today.

The defeat of India in this war emboldened Pakistan, as they thought they could do something similar in the Kashmir region. So, the first organized attempt at annexing Kashmir happened in 1962 wherein Pakistani military regulars entered India through the long and porous border of Kashmir. While India had its forces stationed in Kashmir, they were just not adequate to handle the extent of aggression. Shifting forces to Kashmir would have taken time as there was only one road link to the mainland Indian region from Kashmir. Air transport would not have been adequate given the situation on hand. So, India had to make a quick decision on how to handle the situation. The then Indian PM took a very bold decision at this time. He asked the forces to enter Pakistan from the Punjab region and do the same that Pakistan was doing in Kashmir. The Pakistani forces were caught unaware as they did not think that India would take the step of entering Pakistan. They underestimated the resolve of India severely. The worry for Pakistan was that in their quest to annex Kashmir, they would have had to give up Punjab area of Pakistan which was the hub of all power and wealth in Pakistan. Indian forces rapidly moved inside Kashmir and had reached Lahore, the biggest city in Pakistan at that time. Pakistan then realized its folly and hastily retreated from the Kashmir region to prevent further damage to the country. So, while it started the war, India ended with a military victory in 1962 within a couple of weeks.

At this time, it is important to throw some light on the structure of Pakistan after independence. There were two regions within Pakistan … West Pakistan that basically is the current day Pakistan and East Pakistan, the current day Bangladesh. East Pakistan had a higher population than West Pakistan but the ruling community and military leadership was always from West Pakistan. So, West Pakistan region had tight control over this part of Pakistan. In 1971 again, Pakistani military started its aggression into India through Kashmir and Rajasthan region this time. The Pakistani side was better prepared at multiple fronts at this time. But, India too was prepared to handle potential aggression from any side even though it lacked the resources that Pakistan had. Pakistan invests a very big portion of their GDP on military and hence, it always had access to resources. This war had numerous stories of bravery from the Indian side holding Pakistani forces in adverse conditions. The movie Border was based on one such incident wherein a small Indian force of around 100 odd soldiers successfully defended a key border post in Rajasthan from a Pakistani team of 2000+ soldiers armed with tanks and powerful weapons. The Indian team had to defend the post for the whole night so that air support could be provided by the Air Force fighter planes (which incidentally did not have night flying capabilities in those days).

Important to note something that happened immediately before this war in Pakistan at this stage. The national elections of Pakistan were conducted in 1970. In those elections, the Awami League party which represented the residents of East Pakistan (current day Bangladesh) won the elections with a majority. As per the agreement, the PM of Pakistan had to be the representative of Awami League. The West Pakistani establishment which had military dominance could not digest losing control to Awami League and hence commenced a reign of terror in East Pakistan to subdue the Awami League and retain control of East Pakistan. It is said that almost 3 mn people were massacred and several hundred thousand women were raped by Pakistani forces. The General Tikka Khan who was heading the military is on record saying “We will rape the Pakistani women so badly that their native genes will be replaced by the genes of West Pakistanis”. In such a reign of terror, refugees from East Pakistan started entering India through its porous borders. The number of refugees were increasing day by day and reached massive proportions, way beyond India’s capability to manage. India petitioned the UN and US to interfere and stop refugee inflow. However, neither of them did anything except advising India to maintain calm.

Moreover, at the same time, the Awami League and its supporters started requesting India for military support to handle the oppression of Pakistani forces. It was a difficult decision for India, as any military support would mean a bigger, larger war. Moreover, the Pakistani military was stronger in numerical terms at that time and Indian army was not prepared for it. But, within a week, they prepared themselves and entered Bangladesh. This incursion from the Indian side was unprecedented but had a strong rationale behind it. While one of the objectives was to definitely weaken Pakistan by creating a separate country, it also had the noble objective of protecting East Pakistan from the reign of terror in the wake of popular support. The western world never took note of this massacre of 3mn + people by Pakistani forces and the rape of women on such a large scale. They never did anything of consequence to reign the terror unleashed by Pakistani forces. India could not remain a mute spectator to millions of deaths and millions of refugees on its soil. Once Indian forces entered East Pakistan, they quickly brought the situation under control. In the wake of deteriorating supplies situation, Pakistani forces were not able to stand the might of Indian army. Around 90,000 Pakistani soldiers officially surrendered to India and Pakistan accepted military defeat. India could have done whatever it wanted with these 90,000 soldiers but, gracefully India released all these soldiers rather than using them as a bargaining chip.

The creation of a separate country angered the Pakistani establishment even more and strengthened their resolve against India. India anticipated that this could have long term ramifications and slowly started strengthening its military and protecting its borders after this war. This process did take long as it required huge resources to fortify borders of India’s size. So, incursions like in the past were not as easy after this war of 1971. For almost 10 years after this war, there were regular cross border fights but no major war as such. Pakistan too realized that India had become stronger financially and militarily and that defeating them in a conventional war was close to impossible. So, it started creating, funding, supporting and training Jihadi groups or anti India forces to create trouble in India. The first thing that they did was in the Indian state of Punjab which had a group of people from the Sikh community wanting to create a separate country called Khalistan from the Indian state of Punjab. By providing military and logistics support to terrorist groups, they create a long cycle of violence in the state which also led to the brutal assassination of one of the strongest Indian Prime Ministers, Indira Gandhi. They also started supporting other groups across India who had some grudge against the Indian state.

But, the shift in their policy came in 1992 when they used the services of one of the biggest mafia groups in India headed by Dawood Ibrahim (most wanted man in India … please read more about him on Google) to carry out a series of bomb blasts in the Indian commercial capital of Mumbai. Mumbai is to India as New York is to United States. It led to loss of thousands of lives and billions worth of property. Their targets included public locations as well as the Mumbai Stock Exchange, the hub of India’s capital markets and the headquarters of Air India, India’s national airline. I was in Mumbai at this time and perfectly remember the terror that was unleashed. This also led to a cycle of counter violence against Muslims in general in India. Sadly, the ordinary Muslim has been the recipient of violence whenever such terror incidents happen in India. This has only led to some misguided Indian Muslims turning sympathizers and sleeper cell members for Pakistan based terror groups. However, as the bulk of the Muslim population have stood rock solid behind the Indian nation, the consequences have never gotten out of hand. If you want to understand this incident in greater detail, please watch the movie “Black Friday”

In 1999, Pakistan carried out another misadventure through an unprovoked attack on India through an incursion in the Kargil region of Kashmir. This area is mountainous in nature and stealthily, Pakistani forces climbed up the peaks and started shelling the Indian region. Their primary target was the Srinagar highway which connects Kashmir to rest of India. Destroying that highway would have seriously impeded India’s military strength in Kashmir. As they were at commanding heights, they were able to inflict serious casualties before India militarily defeated them. The movie “Lakshya” was centred around this war. It is a good watch movie.

There have been many other terror incidents after this in Mumbai, with support of local mafia, sleeper cell members and other disgruntled elements in society. The other big terror incident happened in 2008 when a group of Pakistani mercenaries trained by Pakistani army entered Mumbai via the sea route, after hijacking an Indian fishing boat. These mercenaries were armed to the teeth and caused havoc in the Southern part of Mumbai. Their main targets were the local railway hub and the two most famous luxury hotels in Mumbai i.e. The Oberoi and the iconic Taj Mahal hotel. As these hotels are very popular with Western Tourists, they were attacked to gain maximum mileage. They were quite successful in that as many westerners were killed. It took our elitist commando forces to bring the situation under control as there were hundreds of customers already there in the hotel, either in restaurants, public areas or locked up in their rooms. This incident was a defining moment as India started rapidly modernizing its policing, intelligence and military apparatus after this incident. Since then, there have been a few local incidents but nothing of this scale.

This is exactly the set of regions that make Pakistan, a hostile enemy of India. The ordinary Indian on the road too is apprised of these incidents. Even Indian film industry has not been able to remain aloof and hence, Pakistan has regularly featured in many different ways as an inimical force. It also makes for good business, as there are number of stories that have been told and many which have not even been told. I hope that the hostility of India Pakistan is well understood after this explanation as India has lost countless soldiers in the war since independence. This is exactly the reason why India has had to invest so much of its scarce resources on military building which could have otherwise been spent on more important things like food, education, employment etc.

18.  IMAGES WITH REFERENCE TO INDIAN MOVIE INDUSTRY

Single screen cinemas in India

 One of the rare modern single screen cinemas

 Typical Indian Multiplexes

 Luxury Cinema Option

Residence of movie stars

Shah Rukh Khan

Rajnikanth

Amitabh Bachchan

Rajnikanth Fans

Film Studios in India

Ramoji Film City

Mumbai Film City With Pre-Designed & Customized Sets