Election fever grips Bollywood and India’s financial sector

livemint.com:

Indian farmers gaze at passing clouds to predict rains. Spin bowlers toss up blades of grass to detect whether they’re bowling into or against the wind. Conversations at autumn-end usually veer towards the approaching winter.

Similarly, the advent of election season sees increased hubbub among political pundits and talking heads, or hyper-activity by central investigative agencies. Two other proxies currently provide clear indications of approaching elections: Bollywood releases and regulatory action in the financial sector. Bollywood’s right-wing underbelly is on show this election, with a long list of films queueing up for release before April-May.

Bollywood’s default political mode, especially during the 60s and 70s, was socialism, with screenplays focused on the repressive feudal hierarchy or big capital exploiting the dispossessed. The advent of 1991 economic reforms shifted the dominant leitmotif; the craggy arc of Indian cinema history now decisively bends towards the right, highlighting the imagined persecution of the religious majority. The movies released so far have a skewed narrative and take liberties with historical facts, in tune with contemporary political grammar.