From Familiar Screens to Civic Questions: Rethinking Indian Cinema in the Diaspora

Jul 15, 2025

Every hour, thousands of screens across the world flicker with the vibrant colors, music, and drama of Indian cinema. As the global leader in film production, India has produced over 2500 films a year, more than three times higher than China at number 2 with 800 [1]. As a country, India is defined by the plurality of its culture, and Bollywood (also known as Hindi Cinema) has been a huge source to represent this. Movies like Dedh Ishqiya showcase the culture of Lucknow by presenting it as the city of Nawabs, in Devdas we see Bengali culture through the actors who wear white saris and the representation of the Durga Pooja, and in Raees we see subtle elements of Gujarat through the Uttararayan festival [2]. Beyond representing culture, Indian films have had an impact on the diaspora through the tangible link it provides to Indian identity. Growing up, I saw how these movies lived in the homes of Indian families around me. They were quoted in conversation, rewatched at family gatherings, and shared across generations without needing explanation. They became a way to carry language, values, and memory, even for those born far from the places on screen. Even in other diaspora communities, like in the United Kingdom, the consumption of Bollywood films have played a role in reaffirming pride in Indian heritage and reinforced family values for third-generation British Sikhs [3].

India’s cinematic landscape has also been evolving beyond Hindi narratives. Recently we have seen a significant rise in regional language productions receiving comparable box office performances to Hindi films, particularly from South India in the Telugu, Tamil, and Malayalam languages. The prevalence of movies on streaming platforms and widespread accessibility to films new, and old, in different languages has also played a part in this trend [4]. As Indian cinema continues to grow, South Asian Americans have an opportunity to critically engage with a more complex array of stories. This also includes being able to understand the overt and subtle political messaging within these films to gain a better understanding of ourselves and our roots.

Cinema never exists in isolation. Beyond entertainment, films express political ideas that are capable of reinforcing state narratives, mobilizing dissent, or quietly shaping societal values. For instance, consider how access to resources can change the way stories are conveyed. In colonial Algeria, the state control of resources forced filmmakers to adopt guerilla filmmaking techniques and alternative distribution channels to release their films. The mobilizing power of film is also impactful. During the Egyptian Revolution, The Mosireen Collective specifically utilized film to showcase the realities of citizens by providing a platform for marginalized perspectives, raising awareness among their communities and inspiring individuals to demand change. The influence film has can also carry ethical risks, especially in its use as a tool for propaganda. For example, the German film Olympia, about the 1936 Berlin Olympics, by Leni Riefenstahl glorified fascist ideals by sanitizing the ideology through selective representation [5].

The Mosireen Collective | A Radical Guide

In India, during colonial rule, British censors tightly controlled film content, causing filmmakers to embed political messaging into historical and mythological genres [6][8]. After independence in 1947, films became a tool to promote nation-building ideals by emphasizing unity, secularism, and developmental progress, which aligned with the visions of politicians at the time. By the 1970s, inflation soared, corruption festered, and screenwriters channeled public rage into new archetypes. In Hindi cinema, this was seen through the rise of the "Angry Young Man", a vigilante-like protagonist who represented public frustration with corruption and combatted those forces. In Hindi films, this type of character was most famously played by actors like Amitabh Bachchan [7]. Meanwhile in areas like Tamil Nadu, cinema evolved from ideas inspired by the political rhetoric of Gandhi and the Congress Party during colonial rule toward explicit engagement with Dravidian identity politics, using narratives to critique caste hierarchies and assert regional self-respect [8]. As Indian cinema evolved through different eras and independently in different regions, one thing that remained clear was that the storytelling present was a direct response to historical pressures and local social realities [6][7][8].

Mari Selvaraj, 'Maamannan', and the cinema of caste in Tamil Nadu

Building on this legacy of politically charged storytelling, 2000s films like Tamil hit Sivaji: The Boss and Hindi classic Swades turned their focus to the diaspora experience. Both center on NRIs returning to India with dreams of change with different political implications. In Sivaji: The Boss, Rajinikanth’s character is a tech tycoon who fights corruption by funding hospitals while outsmarting bureaucrats through vigilante tactics.This narrative frames social change as a heroic individual mission, where capital gains from the western world can overcome systemic injustice [9][10]. Swades (2004) takes a quieter path. It follows Shah Rukh Khan’s character, a NASA engineer, who returns to India to bring his childhood nanny to America. Armed with first-world solutions, he tries to fix her village, only to realize that sustainable change requires understanding caste barriers and overcoming bureaucratic hurdles. We see his character transform as he starts to help the villagers build a hydro project they control by listening to and working alongside them[10][11][12]. While both films have their flaws, they act as a good starting point for diaspora viewers to ask critical questions about how we want to view these stories to honor our shared roots and initiate discussions about their political subtexts.

Swades: A Love Letter To Home, A Tale of Homecoming

For many South Asian Americans, Indian films were our first connection to language, tradition, and a sense of home passed down across distance. They shaped how we imagined family, belonging, and even justice, often before we had the words to describe those things ourselves. That cultural memory still matters. But honoring it also means learning to see it with fresh eyes. By revisiting familiar favorites or exploring stories told in different languages, we begin to understand the richness of Indian heritage and how many ways there are to tell its story. Watching with that kind of attention does more than strengthen cultural ties. It invites us to think more carefully about the values we carry, the histories we inherit, and the responsibilities we hold in the communities we are part of today.