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From Madhuri Dixit’s Ek Do Teen acting as Hindi language (and counting) tutorials to Shah Rukh Khan setting very high and unachievable romancing goals, watching DDLJ on Sunday afternoons to mummy humming Bollywood soundtracks in the background— South Asians across the globe have a special connection to Bollywood.
We spoke to young diaspora Indians to better understand the relationship they have with Hindi cinema. Something to remember their grandparents by, an encyclopedia about Indian culture, a window into an intrinsic part of their identity, and sometimes just plain old family rituals — Homegrown has compiled stories of Indians around the world and the role Bollywood has played in shaping their identities, its representation of India for others to view in ‘foreign’ societies, and their understanding of and connection to the Motherland.
I. Shiromi Bedessee | London, UK
“I just assumed I wasn’t valid as an Indian to really love Bollywood!”
From trying to master Indian cooking (that is at this point “still pretty bland” according to her father) to falling head over heels for Shah Rukh Khan, Shiromi Bedessee’s relationship with Bollywood and India is an interesting one. Bedessee is an Indo Caribbean, who was born and brought up in the UK. Bedessee’s father was born in London while her maternal grandparents were among the indentured labourers from India, who moved to Guyana, South America, following the abolishment of slavery in the country. “We aren’t entirely sure of our Indian history’s roots, but we think we originated from Punjab and Varanasi,” says Bedessee. Despite her racially diverse background, Bedessee identifies herself as being British.
As a young girl Bedessee would be driven around by her mother with songs from Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jaayenge as background score. Bollywood has featured in one way or another throughout Bedessee’s life. “This is probably my first memory [of Bollywood]! My grandad was a musician and sung and played Hindi songs, so naturally they were often from movies. My grandad had a song for each grandkid, mine was Zindagi Ek Safar Hai Suhana by Kishore Kumar,” reminisces Bedessee.
Bollywood also played a role in shaping Bedessee’s identity with respect to being Indian. Even if indirectly, Bollywood prompted a then-young Bedessee to question her roots and acknowledge her racially diverse background. “I was always embarrassed at school and home to dance to Bollywood as my primary school was heavily Gujarati Indian, and they would tell me I wasn’t a ‘proper Indian’ like them. So I would always want to dance with the girls at school if they sang Bollywood songs at recess, but they wouldn’t let me. So I just assumed I wasn’t valid as an Indian to really love Bollywood!” she recollects.
Bedessee believes that even though Bollywood paints a “happy, welcoming, and joyous” portrait of India, there is a lot that is problematic about these depictions. “I think it’s (representation of India) glamourised for sure. It shows the India that has first world problems. The day to day representations of India are missing,” said Bedessee. She goes on to draw parallels between Hollywood and Bollywood when she says “I guess Bollywood is universal like Hollywood in showing tropes of love, grief, determination. They just don’t choose methods which have a more gritty representation though.” She expresses her concern with the notion of “ideal” beauty that is perpetuated through Bollywood — “While I was growing up, Bollywood also showed light-skinned Indians. This is 100 percent bad because (in Bollywood films) India doesn’t have an olive-skinned population as the majority! I think identity-wise, it’s been contradictory.”
Despite her strong views with respect to Bollywood and its representation of India, Bedessee recognises the positive effect of Bollywood and believes that the thriving industry does have massive potential to bring about change — “Bollywood has been good for people to embrace or consider Indians and India though, despite the considerations still being stereotypical and naive. I hope there’s room for more education and growth!”
II. Neha Kapil | Minneapolis, USA
“For us, Bollywood was more than just entertainment, it was a powerful form of education.”
With recurring South Asian influences in her art to her new collection titled Revolt that’s sprinkled with nuggets of inspiration from the Hindi film industry, Neha Kapil, who is a visual artist, fashion designer, and beauty vlogger, shared with Homegrown the special bond that a diaspora kid has with all-things-Bollywood. Kapil uses her multimodal artistic abilities to celebrate South Asian culture but in her own quirky and playfully eccentric manner. “From paintings and illustrations to clothing and makeup, my work centres around culture, feminism, history, and storytelling,” says Kapil.
Kapil believes that for those growing up in other countries, it is very difficult to experience the culturally diverse sensory overload that is India. It is in times like these that parents use Bollywood to not just expose their children to Indian culture, but in some cases to get acquainted with the language and workings of the country. “For us, Bollywood was more than just entertainment, it was a powerful form of education,” said Kapil while talking about the intrinsic role Bollywood has played in her life, with respect to being in touch with her roots as an Indian.
Despite Bollywood being central to Kapil’s link to India, the industry’s role in her life does not cloud her opinion of the problematic portrayals that it has to offer. “Bollywood often gets too caught up in seducing the audience with the fantasy of exotic travel locations and Western lifestyle, when in actuality there’s so much beauty in India that doesn’t always get the spotlight it deserves. As someone who is always looking for opportunities to learn more about my culture, I don’t necessarily want to see an ‘Indianised’ version of American culture all the time, which is why I don’t think Bollywood always represents India well,” said Kapil who believes that Bollywood caters to the “illusion” that has been created based on the expectations of the West as opposed to being realistic and accurate.
However, at the same time, Kapil admits that when dealt with correctly and sensitively Bollywood’s representation of India isn’t all that bad. “The good thing is when it’s done right, it’s really rewarding to see Indian people curate our own culture in the way it’s meant to be seen — diverse, colourful, beautiful, and full of vast tradition. Indian culture is one of the most appropriated cultures in the world, so Bollywood helps represent our people untainted by ignorance or the western gaze,” says Kapil.
“However, on the flip side, Bollywood’s constant problematic portrayal of women, societal double standards, blatant colourism and nepotism deeply concerns me. This ugly side of Bollywood that still clings to stereotypes, patriarchy, and a narrow-minded view of beauty is not the India I want people to see. We’re progressing but i’d like to think we can do a lot better than what i’ve seen in the past,” she signs off.
III. Alia Khan | Phuket, Thailand
“I was about 3 years old when the hit song ‘Ek do teen’ came out and that’s forever how I will always remember to count to 13.”
Born and raised in a “small white Christian town in the middle of nowhere” while having roots in India and Pakistan, Alia Khan at present, lives in Phuket, Thailand, where she is training in martial arts, at the end of which she aims to train women and children from India and Pakistan in self-defence. “I mostly identified with my American culture during my early childhood up until 9/11. Post 9/11 was not fun, being called a terrorist every day was part of my daily routine. I was forced to identify with my brown heritage because that was the prejudice I would be faced with everyday, everywhere. I no longer had a choice in the matter and was responsible for representing my heritage. I have 2 older sisters that were born in the 80’s that completely dissociated with their south Asian heritage, adopting American names, Ruby and Sophie. I kept my name but would have it painfully mispronounced by every teacher, every doctor appointment, every time I had to introduce myself,” said Khan when asked about what it was like growing up as a South Asian in a foreign country.
Khan has had an interesting relationship with Bollywood — from boycotting Bollywood for close to five years because Devdas’ last scene left her emotionally disturbed to being one of the few who is unimpressed by Bollywood’s idea of a long-drawn romance. “ When I went to college in Chicago, ironically my hometown in the middle of nowhere started to show the latest released Bollywood movies and my mom would often frequent these showings with her Pakistani group of friends, they call themselves the golden girls because they’re in their 60’s and all of their kids are grown. Sometimes on the weekends I’d go watch a movie with them, and that was fun,” says Khan recalling one of her fond experiences with Bollywood.
Khan believes that Bollywood’s representation of India is “disillusioned” and far from reality, but at the same time, she believes that the positives supersede the negatives. “It’s actually more positive than negative. People appreciate the choreographed dances and praise the industry for producing the most amount of films. I wish they would be more realistic,” concludes Khan.
IV. Anaika Ajay | Dubai
“Bollywood prepared me for all the different relatives I had to deal with.”
Born and raised in Dubai, this fashion designer and creative director prides herself for being fluent in her mother tongue (Malayalam), which she claims comes in handy when she needs to occasionally gossip with her family. “We have hours of footage of my five-year-old self dancing to Hindi songs in full Indian attire on old cassette tapes. My mom and I used to watch Bollywood movies all the time, it was our way of connecting with India and the culture,” said Anika Ajay of her relationship with Bollywood.
“Bollywood made it easier to communicate with people because I learned Hindi through movies and it prepared me for all the different relatives I had to deal with since I moved here,” adds Ajay.
She believes that like everywhere else in the world, India presents a glorified image of itself but at the same time the representation of the country is pretty close to reality. “They show how societal pressures dictate people’s lives, how lavish our weddings are, and our rich culture. It’s such a normal thing to discuss Bollywood movies in Dubai, I had a Russian friend sing “I am a Disco Dancer” one day, it’s hard to escape the Bollywood fever. The flamboyance is a given in the more commercial movies, but the offbeat movies show that realistic view of India everyone needs once in a while,” said Ajay.
Ajay also believes that Bollywood has played a role in doing away with the stereotypical myths that bracketed India as being a fantastical country. “I think Bollywood’s done a great job of showing India in a shiny, colourful, glamorous light. The way India is shown, I’m sure people have stopped asking Indians whether they travel by flying carpets or elephants now,” said Ajay.
V. Vishal Atri | New York City, USA
“Hollywood’s realism could not satisfy the helpless romantic in me.”
Vishal Atri is a first generation South Asian American born and raised in Massachusetts. Atri’s introduction to Bollywood was facilitated by the pirated DVDs that were sold at the local Indian grocery store. “Bollywood was the platform where I shaped my ideas of love, relationships and romance. The type of love, love language and expression presented in Bollywood was familiar and what I consider to be uniquely ‘Indian’. Hollywood’s realism could not satisfy the helpless romantic in me. This juxtaposition allowed me to create an idea of India as a land that was in-tune with a different kind of romance,” said Atri of his relationship with Bollywood.
“India is, after all, a melting pot of global civilisation more so than any other nation on the planet. In that regard, Bollywood’s representation of India’s cultural diversity is spot on. We can also see that there is a continued focus on the modern social identity of India’s urban classes,” he adds.
Atri uses Bollywood as a source of inspiration for his creative ventures in which he aims to “shed light on the undertones of South Asian culture that are just beginning to define a transcendent millennial identity for others like him.”
“The history of the Indian identity, the people who represented the emotion behind it, it’s transformation and globalisation can be written through Bollywood narratives - it goes much, much deeper than what we’ve gotten through childhood experiences. The problem for the diaspora is that it is tough to find those experiences. It’s tough to be Indian when your not in India. It’s tough to feel those emotions and have those fantastical thoughts when your feet are grounded in some other culture’s realism. A realism that is now even pervading the modern Indian psychology. The question we should really ask ourselves is — are we happy with where it’s going? What will the next generation think about their origin story?” said Atri when asked about what Bollywood stands for with respect to a young diaspora Indian. From being inspired to create to shaping notions of true love, his relationship with Bollywood is a special one.
VI. Kajal Ramchandani | Dubai
“Everything I know of India is through my parents and Bollywood.”
Having lived in Dubai all her life, Kajal Ramchandani credits Bollywood for all that she knows about India. “Having hardly lived in India for a cumulative of 100 days in my lifetime, everything I know of India is through my parents and Bollywood. Chak De India, Rang De Basanti and Swades are some of my favourite Bollywood films. Bollywood has also in a way inculcated a sense of patriotism in me,” said Ramchandani.
“I feel Bollywood has strengthened the perception of the country to show the versatility of Indians and how they are nothing less than people living abroad in terms of education, dressing sense or even their English. The reason I’m using people abroad as metric even though I don’t agree with it is because Indians usually tend to do that. However, if I have to explain to someone how powerful we are then I would use the common metric. I feel Hollywood or people from other countries have a perception about Indians of having a particular accent, being substandard. I mean look at Raj from Big Bang Theory or Rajnit from How I Met Your Mother. Not all of us are like that!” said Ramchandani about the role of Bollywood in breaking away from stereotypical representation of Indians, which is inaccurate and derogatory.
VII. Bhavya Misra | Sweden
“All my childhood memories are associated with Bollywood.”
Being born and raised in Sweden did not stop Bhavya Misra from plastering every inch of her bedroom walls with posters of Hrithik Roshan. “When I was a teenager I would often have identity crises. I never felt completely Swedish or completely Indian, I felt like I was stuck somewhere in the middle. I would listen to Bollywood music when I felt lost. It made me feel at peace. So I guess you can say that Bollywood made my connection with India stronger,” said Misra when asked about how Bollywood has shaped her identity.
Bollywood has acted as a safe space for her, but she feels strongly about how the country is represented in Bollywood films. “I feel like the Indian mindset represented in Indian movies isn’t the reality. The movies often show a really open-minded, ‘western’ mindset but in reality, based on my experiences, most Indians are still really conservative. I think that Bollywood often misleads people with respect to India, its values and the way society is structured,” she concluded.
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