The political aftermath of the September 18 Uri attacks, in which militants killed 19 soldiers in an Indian Army camp, has veered more towards hysteria than cool strategy. Pakistani actors and singers working in the Hindi film industry were threatened by the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. The party has retracted its opposition to the October 28 release of Karan Johar’s Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, which has Fawad Khan in the cast, only after brokering a controversial deal with the Maharashtra government. The Zee Telefilms channel Zindagi, which used to air Pakistani content, has dropped shows from across the border from its programming.
It is difficult to see what the embargo on Pakistani artists achieves. Banning Fawad Khan from working in Mumbai is hardly going to make it more difficult for militants to attack the Army in Kashmir. Indeed, the Narendra Modi government has made it clear that trade with Pakistan will go on. Given that the balance of trade is in favour of India, giving it up makes no sense.
A similar economic logic works with films, given that Pakistan is a natural market for Hindi cinema. Around 20 Hindi films are released in Pakistan every year, reportedly doing business worth Rs 100 crore-Rs 200 crore.
Provoked by the expelling of its artists from India, Pakistan’s media regulator ordered television channels and radio stations to stop airing Indian content. Not only did India’s hysteria do nothing for its military security and harm its film industry’s revenues, it also killed the country’s significant soft power leverage inside Pakistan.
In an age of mass politics, the pull of soft power can hardly be discounted. During the Cold War, the American government supported organisations such as the Congress for Cultural Freedom, which provided intellectual and artistic opposition to Communism. Among its other activities, the CCF lobbied against the Chilean poet and communist Pablo Neruda when it learnt that he was a frontrunner for the Nobel Prize in 1964.
Modi, more than any other Indian prime minister, understands the strength of soft power. He has mentioned yoga at the United Nations, and Hindi film songs are a key part of his events. This is hardly surprising. India’s massive film industry means that it has a soft power footprint far beyond what its economic or military power can buy. Across swathes of Asia and Africa, India is known primarily via Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan.
In the war of hearts and minds, Bollywood is a key part of the Indo-Pak conflict. Pakistan’s deep state wants to project India as a civilisational foe. The Pakistani Army has captured large parts of the state, driven at least in part by the bogey of India as an irredentist power intent on destroying Pakistan. In the information war, making sure Pakistanis see India through AR Rahman’s music or Karan Johar’s romances makes it just a little more difficult for Pakistan’s army generals and jingoistic politicians to paint India as a monster. In fact, the power of Hindi cinema is so well understood that even within the Indian Union, Manipuri militants have banned Hindi films, apprehensive that Mumbai’s movies will result in a process of so-called Indianisation, weakening their demand for sovereignty.
While this point is comprehended even by militants in Manipur, the power of Indian films and songs has been wasted when it comes to Pakistan. Short-term political gains for the Bharatiya Janata Party and the MNS have trumped the exercise of soft power in the service of India’s foreign relations.
Limited-time offer: Big stories, small price. Keep independent media alive. Become a Scroll member today!
Our journalism is for everyone. But you can get special privileges by buying an annual Scroll Membership. Sign up today!