interview
Bollywood and Cultural Change in Attitude
2020
Summary
In this monologue, Nimish Adhia analyzes how Bollywood films reflected shifts in Indian cultural attitudes between the 1950s and 1990s. He observes that heroes in films of the 1950s and 1960s were typically pandits, poets, philosophers, or tour guides — never businessmen, who were almost always cast as villains. This pattern, he argues, revealed a deep suspicion of commerce and a belief that trade was a zero-sum game in which one person's gain came at another's loss.
By the 1980s and 1990s, Adhia notes, heroes were increasingly portrayed as businessmen, signaling a dramatic ideological shift. Indians had begun to accept that commerce could benefit society as a whole rather than just enriching individuals. A parallel cultural change concerned the relationship between individual desires and national goals: where citizens had once endured the suppression of personal aspirations for the sake of state-led economic planning, the later decades saw individual pursuit of happiness become more legitimate and rebellious self-assertion more acceptable.
Key points
- In 1950s-60s Bollywood films, heroes were never businessmen — they were pandits, joshis, jailers, poets, philosophers, or tour guides.
- Businessmen characters in that era were almost inevitably cast as villains, reflecting suspicion of commerce.
- The underlying 1950s-60s belief treated trade and profit as a zero-sum game where one person's gain came at another's loss.
- By the 1980s-90s, heroes were increasingly shown as businessmen, marking a dramatic ideological shift.
- The shift reflected a new cultural belief that commerce can benefit society as a whole, not just individuals.
- Earlier, the needs of the nation state were placed above individual desires, with citizens enduring suppression of consumption and business ambition for national development planning.
- From the 1980s-90s onwards, the individual pursuit of happiness gained legitimacy and people became more rebellious against collectivist constraints.
Transcript
Bollywood and Cultural Change in Attitude
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6xDBpZ5McA Duration: 217.5s
Speaker (00:04): In the films that I studied, I noticed a pattern that in the films of nineteen fifties and nineteen sixties, no hero in the film was ever a businessman. The heroes tend to be pandits, Joshis, jailers, even poets, philosophers, tour guides. Okay? But they were never businessmen. In fact, any character that was a businessman was almost inevitably the villain in that movie. So I think in the fifties and the sixties, there was a very strong suspicion of businessmen. And in fact, the whole activity of commerce, of profit making was looked down upon as an antisocial activity. I think the underlying belief was that trade or commerce is a zero sum game. Okay? If one person benefits, then it must necessarily come at the cost of the other person. And I think that changed over time. In eighties and the nineties, what I began to notice is that a lot of films had heroes who were shown to be businessmen. And that was — that was a dramatic shift, I thought, that revealed something about what was going on in the Indian society, some change in ideology or cultural beliefs. And I think that change was that people no longer considered business to be dirty or an antisocial activity. And it is something that is worthy of a hero to engage in. So I don’t think the films had a particular tryst with any particular ideology, but I do think that films reflected the change in ideology that I talk about. People were more open to the idea that commerce can benefit society as a whole rather than benefiting just particular individuals. So I think this was a huge cultural change that took place in India. A second cultural change that took place in India is that earlier, the needs of the nation state as the national leaders defined it were considered above the individual needs of people. So if people wanted to earn money through business, if people wanted to consume imported goods, those needs were suppressed for the benefit of national economic development planning. And people were able to endure that suppression of their desires for the greater good. In the nineteen eighties and the nineteen nineties, I think that changed. People became more rebellious. Individual pursuit of happiness was considered to be more legitimate than it was previously.
Notable passages
"any character that was a businessman was almost inevitably the villain in that movie"
"the underlying belief was that trade or commerce is a zero sum game"
"people no longer considered business to be dirty or an antisocial activity. And it is something that is worthy of a hero to engage in"
"the needs of the nation state as the national leaders defined it were considered above the individual needs of people"
"Individual pursuit of happiness was considered to be more legitimate than it was previously."
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