Bollywood in the neoliberal era: changing discourses on multiculturalism, terrorism, and nationalism in ‘Dil Se … ’ (1998) and ‘Fanaa’ (2006)

ABSTRACT

Indian nationalism has remained, for long, an important subtext to Bollywood cinema. However, whether Bollywood cinematic output could be considered as Indian national cinema has encouraged very divisive academic discourses. When Bollywood received the status of an Industry in 1998 in keeping with the promise made in the BJP 1998 electoral manifesto (Bharatiya Janata Party, 2016, p. 232–233), it appeared that the benefits of Economic Liberalisation could finally be enjoyed by the Bombay film establishment. By focusing on Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se  …  (1998) and Kunal Kohli’s ‘Fanaa’ (2006) this paper shall explore in detail how the nascent neoliberalism affected the discourse of Indian nationalism on the Bollywood screen through binary formation, and Othering of minorities; and how such strategies were incorporated within Hindutva style of communal identity formation in the wake of the political discourses engendered by the 2001 Parliament Attack.

KEYWORDS:

• Nationalism
• economic Liberalisation
• Dil Se … 
• Fanaa
• Bollywood

Acknowledgements

The authors are strongly indebted to the editors of this special issue for their guidance, support, and assistance throughout.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Rajarshi Roy

Rajarshi Roy is an Assistant Professor of English (WBCSC) at Vivekananda Satavarshiki Mahavidyalaya, Jhargram, West Bengal. He is pursuing doctoral research at the Department of English, Jadavpur University. He has in the past, been a recipient of the UGC-RUSA 2.0 fellowship to translate Prasanta Kumar Paul's ‘Rabijibani’ to English from Bangla.

Manojit Mandal

Prof. Manojit Mandal is a Professor and the present head, of the Department of English, Jadavpur University. He is the joint-coordinator of the Centre for Studies in Cultural Diversity and Wellbeing (Formerly, Centre for Disability Studies), Jadavpur University. He supervised the UGC-UPE projects on ‘Special Education & Rehabilitation of the Disabled Students' (2014–2019). Dr. Mandal has co-authored a book with Dr. Sujitkumar Mondal titled ‘Education & Awareness among persons with Disability in the Sunderban Areas: A Survey of Four elected blocks' (Jadavpur University Press, 2017). He has also published an edited volume titled ‘Higher Education, Universities and Excellence: The Bengal Narrative' from Jadavpur University in 2017. His book ‘Shakespeare and Indian Nationalism The Bard and the Raj’ has recently been published by Routledge.