Mumbai, India – A grimacing police official looked into the camera and publicly declared his intention to shoot down “leftists” while attacking “left-liberal pseudo-intellectuals” and students of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU). Targeted by the Modi government.
In visuals intercut with bloody violence, men in skullcaps fight these men while proclaiming that Rohingya Muslims will soon replace Hindus as half of India's population. A miserable Hindu woman wants to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
A biopic on early 20th century Hindu nationalist ideologue Vinayak Damodar Savarkar claims that without Mahatma Gandhi, India would have been freed from British colonial rule more than 30 years ago. Contains narration.
These are the scenes from the upcoming Hindi movie that will be released in the coming weeks.
As India's nearly 1 billion voters prepare to choose a government in a general election from March to May, Prime Minister Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are seeking an unusual ally in the form of films to help them campaign. I am receiving support.
In the run-up to the election, a slew of new films from major production companies rely on storylines that overtly promote Modi and his government's policies or target rival politicians. Even national symbols like Gandhi and top universities like JNU are not immune. The university has long been a leftist bastion of liberal education, often at odds with the Hindu majoritarianism of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Many of these articles propagate Islamophobic conspiracies commonly circulated among Hindu right-wing networks aligned with the political agenda of the Bharatiya Janata Party.At least 10 such films have recently been released or are scheduled to be shown in theaters or on TV this election season.
“This is part of a larger attempt to 'take over' the Hindi film industry in the same way that other forms of popular culture have penetrated,” says JNU's former professor of film studies and director of film said Ira Bhaskar, who was also a member of the study. Bhaskar was referring to the growing number of Hindu nationalist narratives in popular culture forms such as music, poetry and books.
The latest films include biopics celebrating the controversial legacies of Hindu majority heroes and Bharatiya Janata Party leaders. Savarkar, a controversial anti-colonial Hindu nationalist, advocated rape of Muslim women as a form of retribution for historical wrongs.
Two of the upcoming films, “Accident or Conspiracy: Godhra'' and “The Sabarmati Report,'' are based on the 2002 Godhra disaster, where 59 Hindu pilgrims were killed in a fire that sparked anti-Muslim protests. It claims to “expose'' the “true story'' behind the train blaze. The riots, orchestrated by right-wing Hindu groups, claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims. The riots occurred when Mr. Modi was the state's chief minister.
Another film, Aakhir Palaayan Kab Tak? (How long must we flee?), shows an alleged “exodus” of Hinduism by Muslims. And then there's Razakars, a multilingual film about the so-called “silent massacre” of Hindus in Hyderabad by the Razakars, a volunteer paramilitary force that committed large-scale violence before and after India's independence in 1947. The film was produced by a BJP leader.
In late February, Prime Minister Modi himself criticized the government's controversial decision to strip Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir of its special status and statehood, place hundreds of people under house arrest in the region and impose a lockdown. He praised the newly released movie “Article 370.'' Film critics have called the film a “pretentious piece” and “a flimsy propaganda film” defending the Modi government, and “mocking” critics and opposition leaders.
Bhaskar said the new film is “clear propaganda, there is no doubt about it”.
growth trend
This surge in films follows a pattern seen before the 2019 elections, when Mr. Modi returned to power for the second time. On the eve of the vote, a number of films were shown that sought to boost the popularity of the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Some, like the caretaker prime minister (PM) who strongly emulated Mr. Modi's predecessor Manmohan Singh, sought to bring down the ruling party's critics. “Uri: The Surgical Strike'' is a reenactment of the military attack carried out by the Indian army in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir in retaliation for the September 2016 terrorist attack on an Indian army camp in the Uri region of Kashmir. There were also movies that encouraged jingoism. The movie ended with one scene. Someone who looks like a happy Prime Minister Modi. Both films were released in the same week, just days before the election.
However, Bhaskar said this trend is not new, but has grown since the Modi government came to power in 2014, starting with a change in the way the Indian film industry deals with historical representation.
“In recent years, we have seen a change in the representation of Muslim rulers, and now they are all portrayed as barbarians and temple destroyers,” Bhaskar said. “This too was propaganda. It was less direct, but the message was that Muslims did not belong to India, they were invaders.”
These positions are consistent with the publicly stated aim of the Hindu right-wing ecosystem to purge Mughal history from the public consciousness.
Such films have faced allegations in the past of amplifying social division and hate speech. Screenings of films such as The Kashmir Files, which depicts the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s, have often seen audience members rise to their feet at the end of the film, calling for violence against Muslims and advocating boycotts.
Another film, “Kerala Stories,'' was widely criticized for its inaccurate portrayal of an alleged ISIL/ISIS plot to recruit Christian and Hindu girls into the group, and sparked social tensions between communities. , leading to violence in the Akola region of western India. In Maharashtra.
fear and opportunism
Film industry insiders believe this new genre of film is a mix of insecurity, opportunism and beneficial lobbying from the establishment.
Many industry officials contacted by this author declined to speak on the record for fear of retaliation.
In recent years, Bollywood has been the victim of a high-decibel movement that has been supported by BJP leaders, ranging from boycotts to calls for movie bans. Hindu right-wing groups often target movies and shows for broadcasting “anti-Hindu” content.
In 2021, Bharatiya Janata Party leaders accused the director and officials of the streaming service Amazon Prime of showing a scene on the web show Tandav in which protesters said it was a slur against Hindu gods. He was demanding his arrest. Police complaints seeking their arrest were filed in six different cities, after which the country's highest court blocked their arrest.
Many insiders said these cases had a “chilling effect” on other creators. “Ideas are often rejected or changed during the pre-production stage, as producers are constantly censoring themselves and anticipating the trouble their content might get into litigation in the current political climate.” “Because we do,” said a film producer on condition of anonymity.
However, some believe that these films are not only the result of such fears, but also contain shades of opportunism. A Mumbai-based director was approached to make a film with pro-Hindu majoritarian politics, but producers are often tempted to 'cash in' on the current political atmosphere. he said. “Given the success of several such films in the past, many filmmakers are now tempted to appease dominant ideologies in the hope of commercial success.” the director said.
Others echoed this sentiment. A popular Hindi film actor told Al Jazeera that a streaming service drastically changed a show he was starring in based on the life of a historical figure, portraying the character as a Muslim invader. He revealed that he was portraying him as a fighting Hindu legendary figure. “The streaming services thought that kind of 'repositioning' of the character would sell,” the actor said. According to the actor, the show “did reasonably well” among rural viewers.
And when films pander to the ruling party's ideology, they often receive preferential treatment from the government. In the past, controversial films like “The Kashmir Files'' and “Kerala Stories'' have received incentives and tax exemptions from the Bharatiya Janata Party government. BJP units also organized free screenings of these films, which helped them reach a larger audience. Prime Minister Modi publicly praised both of these films, thereby giving them further legitimacy, not only during the Partition of India but also during the Emergency imposed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi in 1975, during which several fundamental rights were denied. He also insisted that a film should be made about the same issue (which had been suspended). In 1947.
Al Jazeera has reached out to Sudipto Sen, director of 'Kerala Story', for comment. Sen said he would respond, but he had not yet responded as of press time.
However, people like National Award-winning filmmaker R Balakrishnan believe that the rise of such films is a reflection of audience demand for such content. “People suddenly become interested in events that they don't know about. There's a lot of interest in political and historical films that are based on events,” he said.
The danger, he added, is that this curiosity is “subverted” by filmmakers not researching the subject properly. “When making a political film about an event or incident, the onus is on the filmmaker to do the research and make sure it is accurate. Use the film to subvert the truth or use it for any other purpose. Then you're depriving people of knowledge about what actually happened there,” he said.
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Director Balakrishnan said such “weak films” would be limited to a few filmmakers. “Some people are trying to ride the wave, but this will never become a mainstream phenomenon. At the end of the day, audiences don't want to watch political movies every day.”
But others point to a newer trend. The idea is that mainstream movies starring big stars also serve a propaganda purpose. In The Fighter, a movie starring A-list actors Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone that was released in January, PM Modi's character utters exaggerated lines to show Pakistan who is the “boss”. He insisted that the time had come and then decided to air it. Strikes against neighboring countries in 2019.
Former JNU professor Bhaskar said this is a sign that the trend will deepen. “This is no longer a one-off or tied to events like polls,” Bhaskar said. In fact, she added, the scale of such films will only grow in the future. “You're going to see a lot of hyped, big budget movies being made for propaganda purposes.”
