Bollywood in the Hollywood Era: Narratives of Ultra-nationalism, Terrorism and Violence

• Main Author: Iqbal Shailo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of Pittsburgh 2019-09-01
• Series: CINEJ Cinema Journal
• Subjects: Hollywood; Bollywood; Soviet movies; Ultra-nationalism; Masculinity; Violence; Identity
• Online Access: http://cinej.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/cinej/article/view/178

The study examines how some renowned Hollywood and Bollywood movies deal with geopolitical representations of empire and regional politics through the construction of discourses centered on the building of “empire” and “nation”. These movies reflect how government machineries evaluate the political situation and strategic policies of the country in managing geopolitical environments through the construction of security narratives, political rhetoric and geopolitical discourses.  The narratives of specific Hollywood movies tend to explain contemporary geopolitics with an emphasis on America’s military power, strategy and world leadership while the genre of Bollywood movies reconnects the ideology of division through the establishment of geographies of ‘us’ and ‘them’ setting aside the so-called “secular face” of the state.