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Vol. 32(2): 123-138 Copyright © 2012 SAGE Publications Los Angeles, London, New Delhi, Singapore and W ashington D C

GLOBALISATION O F PO PU LA R CU LTU RE: FR O M H O LLY W O O D T O BO LLY W O O D Jonathan Matusitz and Pam Payano N icholson School o f Communication, University o f C e n tra l F lorida, O rlando , USA

a b s tra c t T his article exam ines significant evidence of recent Bollywood influence on the W estern movie industry, particularly Hollywood, and explores the implications of such developments in the context of globalisation. W ith in the ongoing globalisation of entertainm ent, a process th a t does n o t automatically lead to cultural W esternisation and uniform isation , Bollywood has by now become b o th a symbol of Indian cinema's circulation all over the world and the em bodim ent of non-m onolithic globalisation. Bollywood is evidently no t a homogenising influence th a t forces non-Ind ian cultures to embrace its cinem atographic o r musical norm s and practices. Rather, it creates new hybrids. T he article offers a framework for explaining the growing cultural and economic changes and m ovem ents of such non-hegem onic spreading of popular culture and identifies future agenda for research.

keywords: Bollywood, culture, diaspora, entertainment, fi lm stud- ies, globalisation, Hollywood, India, media studies, movies, U SA , Westernisation

Introduction

W ithin film and media studies as rapidly changing fields, it is now suggested that ‘in the media assemblage there can be no privileging of cinema as original apparatus or industry' (Rai, 2009: 5), as so-called netizens all over the world more or less freely access different forms of media and are affected by them in multiple ways that researchers everywhere struggle to follow up. Earlier, Gopalan (2002) theorised Indian cinema as a constellation of interruptions, leading Rai (2009: 2) to argue now that the ‘era of cinema exhibition is coming to the end of its particular duration and the shape of things felt in cinema is reforming'. Indeed, these new developments now enable

‘deterritorialization of film becoming media, where a dynamic threshold between text, media, sensation, and bodies becomes thinkable' (Rai, 2009: 9).

As the film industry itself has become a m ore explicitly global industry, this globalising p roduction of en tertainm ent has brought highly significant m ulti- dimensional consequences which need to be more deeply researched from a variety of angles. The present article examines recent evidence of the impact of Indian films in this global context, especially Bollywood's influence on the Western movie industry, particularly Hollywood, culminating with the eight-Oscar winner Slumdog Millionaire (2008). A major premise of our analysis is that Bollywood has today become both a symbol of cinema's circulation w ithin cultural globalisation and the em bodim ent of non-m onolithic globalisation. From this perspective, we seek to make less firm con- clusions about the impact of Bollywood on Western film production processes and specifically on Hollywood, bu t highlight clearly that globalisation certainly does not automatically lead to cultural Westernisation. Bollywood continues to demonstrate its capacity to oppose this supposedly uniformising trend, showing that it can itself go global to affect both a wider global audience and perhaps target specifically the huge Indian diaspora (Lakshman, 2009), which is itself becoming quite visibly a glocalising agent in many parts of the world.

W hile Bollywood itself has been mainly analysed with regard to its contested polit- ics of representation, class and gender (Vasudevan, 2002: 3), the present exploration offers a useful wider framework for explaining the growing cultural and economic changes and movements specifically in relation to the globalisation of entertainm ent and the role of Indian cinema in that context.

An overview of Bollywood's origins and dynamics, basically an account of how it has evolved over the years is followed by an explanation of how Bollywood has established itself to some extent in the USA by now, though it could be argued that the evidence of such success remains quite mixed. Exploring Bollywood's impact on America, we also provide recent examples of US—Indian partnerships in the movie industry. A good illustration of such collaborations is reflected through some innovative musical-like productions blending both US and Indian elements. Notably these are both Hollywood and Bollywood productions. A subsequent section explores specifically the impact of Bollywood on the Indian diasporas, particularly in the USA, before we conclude with a discussion of such hybridising effects and offer some suggestions for future research.

Bollywood: A Descriptive Overview

Bollywood is the name of the mainstream Indian movie industry based in M umbai (Dwyer, 2006) and is first o f all a national centre of Indian film production, which also occurs in other major locations in India. Bollywood is in many ways a culturally dom inant force in m odern India (Mishra, 2009; Rajadhyaksha, 2009; Rajadhyaksha and W illemen, 2002). Evidently, it has had huge impact on various forms of identity construction at national, regional, local and individual levels. Film-related media

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have become increasingly im portant in shaping public views and forming public consciousness (Henniker, 2010: 26). They are clearly not just about gossip of vari- ous kinds and have enormous financial implications, too. In fact, Indian cinema is the world's largest film industry, in terms of the num ber of films produced and people employed, though no t of its finances (Dwyer, 2006). Bollywood, w ith an estimated 3.6 billion tickets sold globally in 2001 (compared to Hollywood's 2 .6 billion), is arguably one of the world's most prolific cultural clusters (Kripalani and Grover, 2002; Lorenzen, 2009). M any Bollywood films make full, explicit use of song and dance (see M orcom, 2007), often to describe the actors' journey into some kind of diasporic territory. The space of imagination is thus amplified across many boundaries, including national borders. The musical num bers also reconstruct this imagined space across the divide, utilising visual markers of international topography, while reorganising overseas societies in to a chorus for diasporic spectacle (Kao and D o Rozario, 2008). A typical film is two-and-a-half hours long, taking its tim e to unroll storylines of epic proportions, often involving the breakup and makeup of extended families. Some six to eight songs and intricate choreography, in which the actors themselves participate, are used to emphasise the story's emotional high points (Bouman, Devraj and D uncan, 2010; M ooij, 2006).

Bollywood goes back to the beginnings of cinema in India with D .G . Phalke's Raja Harishchandra in 1913 (M ishra, 2009). In the 1930s, Bollywood developed a hand- ful of studios which by the early 1940s produced around two third of Bollywood's 150—200 annual films (Barnouw and Krishnaswamy, 1963). By 1931, more than half of India's film production took place there (Lorenzen, 2009). The Indian movie industry, once dominated by m om -and-pop shops producing one or two movies a year, began to evolve into larger, stronger players releasing a steady stream of movies (Bellman and M isquitta, 2009; D udrah, 2009). Soon, film production and branded advertising entered new attractive partnerships, while the traditional mix of Bolly- wood films with their prom inent song-and-dance sequences was largely maintained. In the 1970s, Bollywood was endearingly nicknamed masala (‘spice mix' in Hindi) because it combined elements such as romance, drama and comedy with such song- and-dance sequences in symbol-driven narratives (Lorenzen, 2009).

The 1990s saw certain production houses associated with specific styles, especially the big budget romance shot in exotic locations w ith top stars (Dwyer, 2006). Bollywood became a global buzzword during London's ‘Indian summer' of 2002, when its image of kitsch, song and dance and melodrama, was used to market exhibitions, shops and even occasionally the cinema itself. Indeed, Bollywood is today the epitome of the celebration of the uniqueness of Indian cinema with respect to certain essen- tial ‘cultural' and performance-related features. O ther prom inent ingredients include an all-encompassing m elodram atic m ode, epic structures, story lines stem m ing from mythologies and Sanskrit dramaturgy that frequently leads to happy endings. Since Indian films appear to Americans like musicals, further discussions about genre perceptions on either side of the Atlantic seem warranted. Bollywood's long

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production numbers rival— in the m ind of American viewers— the Busby Berkeley extravaganzas of the 1930s as m uch as M TV's heavily produced music videos (Kao and D o Rozario, 2008).

In India, the Bollywood model attracted an all-Indian public across various re- gions and social divides and contributed a lot to the rapid growth of H indi as a lingua franca well beyond Indian national boundaries. From a commercial standpoint, too, this was highly successful and immediately and dynamically refined in the decades to follow. Some doubts may be in order whether the style of Bollywood films appeals to mainstream US audiences and whether the current US interest in Bollywood films may be mere evidence of a wave of curiosity about new movie styles. Certainly, the Bollywood formula embodies an excitement that alludes to an extraordinarily crea- tive and commercially attractive vitality while, at the same time, maintaining a close relationship w ith their roots as they negotiate transitional impulses (Sarkar, 2008).

Bollywood is renowned for its vivacious and effervescent musical sequences and romantic love affairs, bu t its success seems to reside also in its aptitude to bind together disparate viewers, whether located in India or anywhere else on the globe. O ne m ust in this context n o t forget or ignore that Bollywood films are immensely popular all over Asia and Africa, w ith dubbing in many different languages. In the Bollywood model, the lovers on the silver screen often personify universally experienced clashes between tradition and modernity, unifying the protagonists in a more or less romantic finale. The typical Bollywood ending is predictably happy and often symbolises wider communal reconciliation (Nayar, 1997). The great theatrical extravagance around Bollywood thus hides, to some extent, the centrepiece of the contemporary Indian attraction to the theme of national self-renewal. The publicity and excitement encapsulate the main storyline of national fantasy, now w ithin a new global sphere (Sarkar, 2008).

Bollywood also tends to borrow storylines from profitable movies produced abroad. Before the advent of Bollywood, foreign movies used to endure substantial changes to adapt to Indian tastes (Lakshman, 2009; Sarkar, 2008). Notably, numerous Muslim producers, writers, lyricists and actors have significantly contributed to popular Indian cinema and continue to do so (see Chopra, 2007). Although the language used in Bollywood movies is a blend of H indi and U rdu (spoken by a little more than 50 per cent of India's 1.2 billion people), Bollywood's presence and impact have been quite dom inant in India and in the Indian diaspora worldwide (Mishra, 2009) and have increased the reach of H indi/U rdu as a global lingua franca. W ith its growing international effect on movies, music, dance and various forms of artistic expression, Bollywood has created its own robust global brand and its own big business, attracting colossal investments (Lorenzen, 2009). In this constantly changing climate, Bollywood itself perceives at times a crisis, as many ambitious films are ultimately no t doing well at the box office. Indian films tend to peak, w ith some major hits getting into box office statistics for some time, bu t most films do n o t usually achieve long-term prominence. W hile the national picture itself is thus highly disparate, some more attention to the international spread of Bollywood films seems warranted.

Bollywood's Introduction to the US

W ith eight Oscars and over $100 million grossed at the box office, Slumdog Millionaire is a somewhat unusual bu t perhaps telling case. It was definitely the m ost successful Bollywood film that h it the American market, and perhaps globally as well. Signifi- cantly, one ingredient in the success of this particular film's storyline may well have been its appeal to an audience familiar w ith notions of ‘the American dream'. Notably, however, this film did no t do well in India, and there are im portant reasons for this (see Banaji, 2010). T he film has been able to bridge cultural gaps by incorporating all of the Bollywood elements (poverty, survival, love and trium ph) and only a small num ber of songs, satisfying bo th Western and Indian audiences, though the latter evidently to a lesser extent. Slumdog Millionaire is a classic Bollywood flick, right at the heart of M um bai, India's most vibrant and glittering city of immigrants (Lakshman, 2009). T he ‘Bollywood effect' proves its significance through its mainstreaming of a cultural production that was historically lim ited to its familial audiences (Banerjee, 2006). Despite all the hype about Slumdog Millionaire and its purpose as a tool to endorse Bollywood, the spotlight may no t be shining for long, however. The world recession has also affected India's movie industry and has thus lim ited, as indicated, the ability to finish productions or market the already completed ones (Steel, 2009).

Meanwhile, the romance between Hollywood and Bollywood has sparked part- nerships w ith Reliance Big Entertainm ent, a production company based in India, as well as introduced cameos, such as Sylvester Stallone in Bollywood films (Tim m ons, 2008). It has been observed that nowadays Bollywood is as com m on w ithin the U nited States as it is in its hom etow n. Moreover, the internet facilitates the expansion of South Asian cultural knowledge, w ith details of various artistic aspects available by the hundreds (Nair, 2009). Still, this does no t necessarily mean that there will be a wide take-up.1 Moreover, the danger that ‘commodified culture' advances stereotypes rather than deepening understanding of ‘the o ther' is ever-present and is a challenge that movies alone cannot manage. But movies are no t the only creative element in these globalising developments. Recent media reports suggest cautiously that Indian cuisine now takes on the N orth American market through media impact, leading to questions whether this, too, has the potential to become a mass market h it in due course (Kannan, 2012).

Notably, already by the 1990s, Bollywood had somewhat unintentionally ex- perienced an increased incom e from the Indian diaspora based in foreign lands (Lorenzen, 2009). M arketing executives calculate that the South Asian population in the U nited States has been beneficial to this growth. They are successful and enjoy their new homes, bu t their small percentage within the U nited States and spatial segregation in this huge territory would prom ote a proclivity for virtual unity through cultural media. W hile some Indian producers have established environments w ithin the USA to oversee distribution, some have chased their dreams of success more aggressively (Lakshman, 2009). Bollywood is the leading foreign exporter to the U S entertainm ent

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market, w ith winning films being screened in up to 75 US cinemas, some earning in surplus of US$ 1 million in their opening weekend, prom oting them to the top 20 box office charts.

The transnational introduction of H indi movies has catalysed aesthetic changes while simultaneously adopting Westernised visual styles and leaving no room for real transgressions or progressive changes (Rao, 2002). In the realm of global media, American infotainment remains the leading industry for both quality and marketability, raising the standards for efficiency and influence in various aspects of artistic expression (Sarkar, 2008).

According to Panchapakesa Subramania Sam inathan, a m anaging director at Pyramid Saimira (a South India-based film production and distribution house), Indian entertainment companies have to establish themselves outside of India as well. Pyramid claims to have over 900 movie theatres with a capacity of 550,000 seats in the USA, India, Malaysia, Singapore and China. By 2011, with over 2,000 cinemas, Saminathan anticipates Pyramid's global business to rake in 75 per cent of revenues, up from 20 per cent presently. Merely relying on the Indian diasporic audience is no t sufficient, however. Marketers have to draw on other global markets and ethnic communities as well (Lakshman, 2008).

Bollywood's Impact on the US: General Perspectives

Increasingly, Bollywood and Hollywood are now joining forces. Kylie M inogue, the Australian singer, made her first Bollywood appearance in Blue (2009), a movie star- ring Indian superstar Akshay Kumar. She recorded two songs for it, including the title track by A.R. Rahman. Sylvester Stallone appeared in an Indian film co-starring Kumar, Kambakkht Ishq (‘Accursed Love'), made in Hollywood and released in 2009. Also in early 2009, Warner Bros released the Hollywood-made Chandni Chowk to China, a Bollywood-style martial arts movie intended for the world market, also star- ring Kumar (Puente, 2009).2 W ill Smith, Tom H anks, Julia Roberts, George Clooney, Brad Pitt, Tom Cruise and Bruce Willis are all rum oured to be cutting deals with Indian entertainm ent companies. Because Indians comprise the m ain ethnic group in the South Asian population, and now that Slumdog Millionaire has established itself prominently among worldwide audiences, Hollywood m ight also increase its efforts to bank on Indian-themed movies and other East-W est partnerships (Puente, 2009). And now Amitabh Bachhan, the grand master among Indian film stars, will make his Hollywood debut in December 2012 in a screen adaptation of The Great Gatsby.3

Undoubtedly, thus, the US success of Slumdog Millionaire has amplified India's image and facilitated the mixture of American and South Asian cultures. In the same way that the introduction of Salsa in the USA (through the diffusion of Latino culture) threatened to dethrone ketchup as the country's top-selling condiment, Slumdog Millionaire heralds a time in which more and more Americans are consuming even spicier fare (Puente, 2009). U nder the catchy title ‘The New Indo Chic', Sengupta (1997)

listed a num ber of factors explaining why Americans were increasingly interested in Indian literature, art, fashion, music and cinema.4 Major reasons given were the growth in South Asian migration to the USA and India's desire to become a key player in the global economy, both of which also drive Australians now to become more interested in the Indian subcontinent. As Sengupta (1997: 113) notes, ‘Indo chic is n o t limited to the highbrow'.

Hollywood studios, like 20 th Century Fox and Universal, are carving ou t stakes in the M um bai industry, spanning no t only distribution bu t also the actual financing of H ind i films (Sarkar, 2008). W ith Oscar-winner Slumdog Millionaire increasing the awareness about Bollywood in the USA, marketers are arranging for promotions particularly targeted a t Ind ian Am ericans. O n e such exam ple is Insurer S tate Farm, which planned a karaoke contest where clients could upload videos to a website and allow viewers to vote on two finalists. T he prize was a trip to India to sing in a Bollywood film (Steel, 2009). References to Bollywood are no t lim ited to the media in that it is now frequently addressed via advertising campaigns, fashion shows and even in home decor showings (Hassam, 2007).

Although Bollywood has become a worthy adversary to Hollywood, it is believed that Hollywood is better off imitating, rather than trying to displace, Bollywood (Giridharadas, 2007). It is imperative that the movies continue to depict the myths, conventions and iconography that define Bollywood, even as Hollywood influences the fun aspects of the films (Avery-Merfeld, 2009). Developing a form at in which Bollywood could be translated to Western audiences is not an easy task because the typical happy-ending, parochial formula of Bollywood does not easily relate to Western audiences (Lakshman, 2009). However, the increase of Bollywood in the USA has built up this Indian influence so m uch that Hollywood's attempts to enter India's en- tertainm ent industry have been comparatively feeble, while Bollywood has been able to invest heavily in the USA. As of 2008, Bollywood's company Reliance positioned a US$500 million investment in Hollywood flagship Dreamworks (Lorenzen, 2009). Ultimately, Hollywood producers and investors are finding it difficult to network within India.5 Yet, Bollywood corporations now export at an immense scale to the USA and to many other booming consumer markets, while also attaining cinemas and production companies abroad (Lorenzen, 2009).

Bollywood films habitually have a better box office appeal in remote locations, mainly because they appeal to audiences of Indian expatriates and immigrants. A good percentage of Indian actors in these movies are immigrants themselves or are Indian actors like Steve Buscemi, types cut for playing villains in mainstream movies. Yet, they also take pleasure in working for smaller independent productions where they have more choices about what role they can play and where they often get m uch more screen tim e (Salkin and Hughes, 2008).

Such trends are reinforced by investment policies. India's Reliance Entertainm ent has purchased over 200 movie theatres in 28 US cities in search of global expatriate communities. Reliance hopes to connect w ith US Bollywood fans through its US

movie theatres. T he character of the US market offers a great incentive to Indian film distributors in their attem pt to directly and efficiently reach a broad base of Indian consumers. Acquiring many movie theatres, Reliance's m ost recent move, is part of a lofty goal of establishing a fully integrated Indian entertainm ent conglomerate (Lakshman, 2008).

As a result, Bollywood distributors methodically supply movie theatres in the main diasporic markets and actually far beyond, in many parts of Asia and Africa. Now, several Bollywood firms are acquiring cinema chains outside of India. Com mentators extolling the virtues of Bollywood have used the Oscar nomination for Lagaan (in 2002) as valid grounds for their excitement. This enthusiasm extends from Amsterdam to Tokyo. O ther successful Bollywood films include D il Se (1997), Kabhie Khushi Kabhie Gham (2001), Kal Ho Na Ho (2004) and Veer Zaara (2005) in the N orth American market, often ranked in the Top Ten, based on box-office records (Sarkar, 2008). Again, some of these films did n o t do so well at Indian box offices, so the picture everywhere is diffuse. In spite of everything, however, profitable Indian movies frequently gross higher revenues than Hollywood movies do, and this also holds true in certain over- seas markets in Eastern Africa, South-East Asia and the Arab world (Sarkar, 2008). Today, in the Western world, especially in the USA, Bollywood is being consumed just as m uch as mainstream Western films. W hile video rentals from ‘ethnic' stores are growing in numbers, and it has become impossible to m onitor distribution statistics, occasional showings in marginal and often run-down theatres are decreasing. However, these are indications that rather than declining today, Bollywood movies are becoming mainstream (Brosius, 2005; D udrah, 2007) and consumption is no longer focused on viewing in cinemas. The impact is thus, probably, m uch larger than official figures and statistics suggest.

Bollywood's Impact on the USA: Musical Perspectives

The musical dimension in this respect m ust be factored in. Contem porary Bollywood aficionados are well aware that Bollywood films are incomplete w ithout a musical number, or indeed several (Avery-Merfeld, 2009). A significant factor in India's favour is the huge opportunity for growth of visual media in a nation where Bollywood movies are a large vehicle for disseminating music. A typical Bollywood film blends spectacle and escapism; the purpose is often to facilitate the plot lines (Kao and D o Rozario, 2008).

As Bollywood has enjoyed unparalleled success since the dawn of the 21st century, it has been very m uch influenced by M T V (Avery-Merfeld, 2009). For example, the mingling of hip-hop and bhangra with a simple chorus (‘Singh is Kinng, Singh is K inng, Singh is Kinng') is what makes rapper Snoop Dogg giving ‘what up to all the ladies hanging out in M um bai' distinctive. H e is also rapping about ‘Ferraris, Bugattis and Maseratis' (Timmons, 2008). Singh is Kinng was a hit in India in 2008. Ted C hung, president of the Cashmere Agency, a company based in Los Angeles that

united Snoop Dogg w ith Akshay Kumar to produce the title track of Singh Is Kinng, said that Bollywood is attem pting to bridge the chasm between East and West.

For these reasons, a new musical and innovative synergy between Western music and classic Indian music is turning out to be particularly effective. In the Snoop Dogg case, the rhythm ic Bhangra genre went well w ith hip-hop. Another objective is to introduce each other's culture and show people new things. This way, they would be less ignorant or anxious over something they do no t know (Puente, 2009). In another example, Cheetah Girls; One World (2008), a connection is established between Indian audiences and Western elements to introduce Eastern cultural ingredients (Keveney, 2008). D oing some research, one can easily identify Indian songs that sound like Western pop hits.

O utside of Bollywood, the Indian music industry is one of the biggest worldwide. T he Indipop genre lends many Western-sounding pop tracks to the scene (Avery- Merfeld, 2009). In 2006, an episode of The Simpsons featured a Bollywood song picturisation. The goal was to prove how quickly Bollywood has been transformed into a familiar style for the mainstream, predominantly non-South Asian public (Hassam, 2007). T he soundtrack for Slumdog Millionaire was the best album on iTunes for some tim e and climbed from N o. 48 to N o. 22 on the Billboard chart immediately after the Oscars ceremony. M any Slumdog fans worldwide, including Americans, were buying this soundtrack. In a sense, it is a novel fashion for people to discover movie and musical content from India. Thanks to current inform ation technologies such as the Internet, access has become m uch easier (Puente, 2009).

In a sim ilar vein one m ust see th e opening in London— an d only later on Broadway— of Bombay Dreams, the musical brainchild of composer A.R. Rahman, the undeniable master of m odern Indian film music and Andrew Lloyd-Webber, the renowned impresario of English-language musicals (Sarkar, 2008). There is no US counterpart to this collaboration, in which actors, surrounded by dozens of dancers, create a new style of musical numbers. In this case, all forms of expression— acting, singing and dancing— are integrated and are at the same level. In most Bollywood movies, vocals are performed by playback artists while the actors on screen lip-sync (Caramanica, 2008).

For decades, Western artists have visited India for inspiration and new sounds, with George H arrison perhaps being the most famous example. O n the other hand, find- ing a passionate audience in India, a billion-plus population that is also the youngest nation worldwide in terms of mean age (Bhattacharya, 2005) has sometimes been difficult for m odern artists. Old-style or classic Western pop music still tops album charts in India. According to Rolling Stone's July India edition, the highest-grossing albums sold in India have included the Eric Clapton compilation ‘Com plete Clapton', and Michael Jackson's ‘Thriller' (Tim m ons, 2008).

Central to our analysis o f the Bollywood-Hollywood musical collaboration is the formation of ‘imagined space'. This refers to space that is beyond the parameters of realism. In imagined space, musical-style productions create an entirely new, unique

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space built from basic conventions and developments in choreography, sound and cinematography. Imagined space is non-existent in the real world; it is no t made to emulate the real world either. Put simply, it is phony space (Kao and D o Rozario, 2008). From this vantage point, a film becomes an artifice; a superficial, unrealistic cinematic variety m ethodically dismissed as ‘sim ple' entertainm ent. According to Barrios (1995: 5), films using imagined space are ‘trafficked in dreams and escapism'. However, space in which actors merely burst into song and dance, and streets and countryside that m orph into unlikely locations for spectacle, are prom inent features of Bollywood (Kao and D o Rozario, 2008). T hat they increasingly speak to global audiences, even though they are Indian films, requires further analysis into what attracts and connects viewers to such products.

Bollywood for the Indian Diaspora in the USA

More easily explained, in such imagined space, Bollywood affirms itself in the diaspora's imagination as a present-day phenom enon, no t merely a traditional one. It is also an indication of Bollywood's patterns of cultural absorption, taking something foreign and emulating it in an Indian fashion (Kao and D o Rozario, 2008). The exploration of Bollywood as a musical production presents the possibility of understanding how its cinematic imagination has created a connection with audiences in India and among the Indian diaspora in the USA and elsewhere. This is particularly pertinent in rela- tion to debates of Indian diaspora and Bollywood cinema, given the vivid, exotic and escapist nature of Bollywood and its escalating consumption by a globally diverse, Western-influenced and increasingly mobile Indian diaspora (Kao and D o Rozario, 2008). The incorporation of contemporary pop/nightclub music and dancing into Bollywood productions illustrates an attem pt to display contem porary India to diasporic audiences. W hile M ishra (2002: 262) argues that this integration is ‘as m uch a response to diasporic demands as it is to a transnational urban culture w ithin India itself ', it also helps members of the diaspora to feel proud that India has arrived on the global scene and goes well beyond the diasporic realm.

Bollywood's rehabilitated interest and modification in representation of the diaspora is linked to India's recent rising economic success. According to Kaur (2002), a major part of Bollywood's admirable success amid its progressively wealthier diaspora is due to India's greater global presence and economic standing. T he same is argued for both the diaspora itself and its Bollywood representation by Kao and D o Rozario (2008). M ishra (2006: 3) further suggests that the present reception reflects the late m odern entry of India into global capital and the accumulation of vast amounts of capital in the hands of diaspora Indians.

Thereby, diasporic expenditure on Bollywood movies becomes not only a m ethod of ascertaining community ties and preserving a distinct cultural identity in foreign lands, bu t also clearly a reflection of diasporic pride in the homeland, one which can now

be proudly flaunted to the new countries they inhabit (Kao and D o Rozario, 2008). This supports the diasporic assertion of an ‘imagined space', wherein consciousness and identity can be shared w ith ‘one's own' people, though scattered all over the globe. The advantage of imagining such a global com munity and, importantly, claiming one's membership in it, while free from the restraints that normally go w ith joint family living and close-knit social surveillance, provide a convenient virtual safety net that seems to be cherished by many members of the diaspora and thus contributes to more individualised identity construction among members of such global communities.

T he cultural relationships and consum ption patterns of the diasporic or non- resident Indians (NRIs) are thus an im portant key to understanding the surfacing of a hugely diverse yet global ‘Indian' identity and the connected culture industry. NRIs are Indians, whether they reside in New York or Dallas. They are often more Indian at heart than the majority of Indians in India, b u t are also often quite different from their Indian relations. If US-based NRIs now th ink of themselves as the centre of this globalised national identity, this claim is also available to the numerically huge Indian middle class that has ‘opened up ' and made itself acquiescent to fantasies of a life in the West, o r a life in India that is similar to the life of the N R I (Sarkar, 2008). W hile traditional Bollywood movies have in the past depicted NRIs as corrupt, greedy and lacking traditional values, the m odern diaspora is part of the new, cosmopolitan India, a t once an extension of the homeland and a contention of India's presence in the global arena (Kaur, 2002).

Postcolonial celebrations of Ind ian trad ition can thus happen in M anhattan nightclubs, beginning w ith short Western introductions that em bed them in to the global music scene, before evolving in to a more characteristic, contemporary Indian sound. The nightclub dancers, regardless of race or nationality, prom ptly re-enact the staged choreography typical of Bollywood without giving it any second thought. W ithin this imagined space, there is no absurdity in American night-clubbers being able to spontaneously adopt Bollywood choreography. This emphasises Bollywood's ability to compete with global pop music and makes it possible for diasporic communities to extend Bollywood's parameters even beyond the limits of the movies and traditional Indian and diasporic lifestyles (Kao and D o Rozario, 2008). In many ways, then, films, their music and their choreography can be used— and are being employed— to announce that India has arrived on the global scene.

Discussion and Future Directions

This article demonstrates that Bollywood is no t only an indication of cinema's move- m ent w ithin cultural globalisation; it also embodies a phenom enon of globalisation tha t is n o t m onolithic. As such, Bollywood does no t symbolise a homogenising influence forcing non-Indian cultures to adopt its cinematographic or musical norms and practices. At the same tim e, partly thanks to the success of at least some Bollywood

movies worldwide, the nation of India has n o t been subjected to eroding Hollywood invasion or dom inating US cultural inputs. Bollywood counters such uniformising, globalising trends. As this article clearly confirms, globalisation does no t automati- cally lead to cultural Westernisation (Power and Mazumdar, 2000).

Instead, Bollywood itself has gone global and has added a new type of mainstream mode that makes it neither uniquely South Asian nor exclusively spiced with an Indian, hippy style of the 1960s. By the same token, Bollywood is no t necessarily viewed as a critique of Western cultural ideals (Hassam, 2007). As we have seen, while Bollywood movies have been deeply influenced by M T V (recall the Snoop D ogg example), Hollywood and Western productions (e.g. The Simpsons) have also been inspired by this relatively young 80-year-old Indian cinematographic style.

Some detractors refer to Hollywood as a superculture, but the adjective ‘subcultural' would be far too inaccurate a description or perception of Bollywood. It may be true that Bollywood has been heavily influenced by Hollywood (more than vice versa), bu t looking at the entire globe and no t just America, Bollywood may by now have become more dom inant and influential than its Hollywood rival (Slobin, 2008). Certainly, the formation of Bollywood is a process that is simultaneously Indian and cross-cultural. Both Hollywood and Bollywood are experiencing changes of a textual nature, w ith changes in the aesthetics of movies as bases of cultural mimicry. There are also operational modifications, mainly through the ever-expanding co-production opportunities between different agents in the local and global industry of entertain- m ent (Thakur, 2008).

In line with these contentions, the present analysis has focused on Bollywood's impact on both US culture and diasporic or non-resident Indians (NRIs). In the busi- ness of cinema, product formulas that reach over national, social, cultural and ethnic divides can be a successful strategy for conquering dem and uncertainties (Lorenzen, 2009), bu t they also have m uch wider impact. O ur analysis provides a fresh and useful framework for understanding the increasingly complex cultural and economic changes and circulations of the globalisation of entertainment.

For future research, it might prove interesting to continue examining specific details of the perceptions formulated by Indian and Western audiences. Because Bollywood influence in countries like the U nited States is fairly recent, bu t rapidly growing, rather little is known about the effects this will have on Western youths and future generations. Additionally, popular culture scholars should investigate whether or n o t the Bollywood presence in Hollywood productions m ight turn Hollywood eventually into Bollywood West. The West may have the most prom inent weight in the world's media, b u t is certainly no t the only player. Globalisation, so m uch is clearly confirmed here, too, is no t merely another term for Americanisation. The current expansion of the Indian movie industry confirms this reality. Hopefully, this analysis will enlighten no t only Bollywood aficionados, b u t also its international fans, Western movie goers and diasporic Indian and non-Indian audiences, leading to further reflections on these exciting hybridisations of popular culture at a global and yet glocal level.

Notes

1 . T he undoubted success of Slumdog Millionaire may be com pared to the great attention focused for some tim e on Crouching Tiger, H idden Dragon (2000) from Taiwan. W hile everyone was talking about how Chinese films may eventually take over Hollywood, Chinese- style film m aking w ith lots of kung fu d id lead to some successful follow-up productions like Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004). For a short tim e, Chinese-style film- m aking also seemed to influence Hollywood with movies like K ill B ill (2003—4) and The M atrix (2003). However, this fetish for Chinese-style films soon waned, despite an enormous Chinese audience in the USA.

2. This also confirms the then current fashion for Chinese-style martial arts films. 3. See India Today International, Volume V, N um ber 23 (4 June 2012): 46. 4 . We may now add food to this list (Kannan, 2012). 5 . Intriguingly, this is quite similar to the experience of foreign retailers and lawyers trying

to penetrate the Indian m arket. See PW C (2012) on the form er and Krishnan (2010) on the latter.

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D r Jonathan M atusitz is an Associate Professor in the N icholson School of C om m unication at the University of Central Florida. His academic interests in- clude globalisation, intercultural com m unication, popular culture, organisational com munication and communication & technology.

Pam Payano is a Research Assistant in the Nicholson School of Com m unication at the University of Central Florida. H er academic interests focus on intercultural com munication, popular culture, visual com munication and globalisation. Address: University of Central Florida at Seminole State College, Partnership Center (#UP 3009), 100 W eldon Boulevard, Sanford, FL 32773, USA. [e-mail: [email protected]]