1. Introduction: More Than Entertainment
Movies are not just entertainment. They are powerful instruments of cultural transmission. Over time, cinema influences:
- What is remembered and what is forgotten
- Who is admired and who is vilified
- Which values are celebrated, and which are mocked
In the Indian context, Bollywood has long shaped national consciousness. But as India awakens to its civilizational roots, questions are now being asked:
Has Bollywood subtly worked against Indic culture? Has it vilified Hindu identity while glorifying others?
2. Erasure of Tradition in the Name of Modernity
Bollywood’s “mainstream” narrative—especially since the 1990s—has promoted:
- Mockery of Hindu customs (e.g., over-the-top Brahmin characters, pandits shown as greedy or regressive)
- Superficial celebration of festivals, reducing them to song-dance events with no philosophical depth
- Replacement of Sanatan icons with generic secularism, which often ends up favoring Abrahamic frameworks
Traditional knowledge systems like Ayurveda, Yoga, Sanskrit, or Gurukul values are rarely portrayed with respect. Instead, they’re exoticized or shown as outdated.
3. The Portrayal Gap: Hindu vs Muslim Characters
There is a growing pattern in how characters are represented:
| Hindu Characters | Muslim Characters |
|---|---|
| Often shown as superstitious, oppressive, casteist, patriarchal | Shown as cultured, poetic, secular, tolerant |
| Saffron imagery used to depict villainy or extremism | Muslim characters often victims of injustice, shown as morally superior |
| Temples as settings for crime, superstition | Mosques shown as serene, sacred, community-friendly |
| Nationalist or devout Hindu = potential fanatic | Devout Muslim = principled, misunderstood |
🎬 Examples:
- PK (2014) mocked Hindu rituals, godmen, and temple culture—while sidestepping critique of other religions
- Haider (2014) humanized separatist Islamists, while Indian forces were painted in black and white
- Raazi, My Name is Khan, Bajrangi Bhaijaan—emphasize Muslim suffering and nobility, often by contrasting with caricatured Hindus
This imbalance creates a one-sided cultural perception in the minds of millions.
4. Bollywood’s Power Structure and Echo Chamber
It’s no secret that Bollywood has been controlled by a tight network of families, financiers, and ideologically homogenous creators, many of whom:
- Dismiss Sanatan values as regressive
- Promote hyper-Westernized liberalism disconnected from Indian realities
- Actively resist alternative narratives (such as Indic renaissance films or dharmic cinema)
- Push content aligned with NGO-leftist-academic viewpoints that dominate media discourse
🎥 Rare films like The Kashmir Files or Tanhaji face media hostility or selective silence.
5. Consequences of Long-Term Cultural Conditioning
This biased storytelling leads to:
- Cultural inferiority complexes among Hindu youth
- Loss of pride in heritage, rituals, and deities
- Normalization of distorted history
- Underrepresentation of real Hindu heroes, philosophers, reformers
- Creation of a pseudo-secular mindset, where tolerance is demanded only from one side
Over decades, this has contributed to cultural deracination, especially in urban elite spaces.
6. What Can Be Done?
✅ Create and Promote Dharmic Cinema
Support films rooted in Indic wisdom, values, and storytelling—like Ved, Rocketry, Kantara, Tumbbad. Demand authenticity, not tokenism.
🎓 Media Literacy for Youth
Educate audiences—especially students—about subtext, propaganda, and ideological framing in films. Teach them to decode narratives, not consume blindly.
✍️ Support Independent Storytellers
Back authors, animators, regional filmmakers who present alternative perspectives free from elite media cartels.
📚 Reclaim Our Stories
Revive mythological, historical, and philosophical narratives with depth, pride, and nuance. Let Ramayana, Mahabharata, Chanakya, Kalidasa, and Savarkar return to screens—without distortion.
Conclusion: Cultural Sovereignty Begins with Conscious Viewership
Cinema can uplift or erase. Bollywood, in many ways, has drifted from the soul of India. It is not too late to reclaim narrative sovereignty. But that requires:
- Awareness over passivity
- Discernment over consumption
- Storytelling rooted in truth, not trends
Because a civilization that doesn’t control its stories eventually forgets who it is.
