How my Bollywood dissertation went viral
BA Policy, Politics and Economics student Jasmine Rai talks about how her Bollywood-based dissertation went viral on Twitter.
It is acknowledged that films have the ability to impact audience perceptions of certain cultural communities due to the ideological messages encoded within them. Despite this, there is a paucity of research exploring whether Bollywood films have the ability to impact audience perceptions of Punjabi-Sikh identity. Due to the popularity and importance of Bollywood films for the Non-Residential Indian (NRI), my dissertation explores the extent to which Punjabi-Sikh identity is still stereotyped and misrepresented in Bollywood films. In recent years, it has been argued that representations of Punjabi-Sikhs in Bollywood films have improved. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with non-Sikh and Punjabi-Sikh British Indian students in order to understand how they interpreted cultural representations and discourses around Punjabi-Sikh identity in Bollywood films.
Like most other South-Asians, I have grown up watching Bollywood films. As a Sikh myself, I started to question why Punjabi-Sikhs are always depicted as clowns, drunks or intellectually inferior compared to other characters. Despite Punjabi-Sikh characters typically being mocked, I found it interesting because Punjabi culture tends to be represented relatively positively in Bollywood films. We often hear Punjabi songs in Bollywood, Punjabi phrases being used as well as Bollywood actors wearing Punjabi attire. I decided that I wanted to do my dissertation on this topic because not only did I want to explore the representations of Punjabi-Sikhs, but I also wanted to research whether Bollywood stereotypes affected perceptions of the Punjabi-Sikh community.
The response to my dissertation topic was extremely positive. I think this is because many people could resonate with my work and felt that not enough people were talking about this issue, never-mind writing a 10,000 word dissertation on it! Many people commented or wrote to me that they were proud that someone from their community was using their dissertation as an opportunity to research important South-Asian issues. My research into this topic is also extremely timely given the recent criticisms of the Bollywood industry. Across the world, large protests have taken place in order to raise awareness about the negative impact of India’s new agricultural laws on farmers across India, including the Punjabi agricultural community. Social media has played an integral role in helping to spread awareness on the current protests taking place in India. However, anger has grown over the lack of support that farmers have received from Bollywood celebrities with large platforms. This has raised questions about Bollywood’s relationship with the Punjabi Sikh community more generally. Whilst Bollywood has capitalised from Punjabi culture, music and fashion for commercial gain, the industry has distanced itself from the issues and struggles facing the Punjabi community. Due to the history of oppression that Sikhs have faced in India, they often feel like a dislocated community in the nation. Thus, by culturally appropriating Punjabi identity and portraying Sikhs through negative representations, Bollywood continues to undermine and silence the realities of the Sikh community.
This was an amazing opportunity and it showed that despite this topic being very niche, many people were interested to find out about my research. This led me to record a podcast with Haroon Rashid for the BBC Asian Network’s ‘Beyond Bollywood’ podcast. One of the skills which I have been able to work on the most is my speaking skills. As someone who isn’t very confident with speaking to audiences, these opportunities have given me the chance to build up my confidence. I received help from the University of Birmingham press team to help me prepare for these interviews which was extremely helpful and taught me about the best way to communicate to audiences over the radio.
Twitter in particular is an amazing place for disseminating your work and expanding your network because one person’s retweet creates a snowball effect. It is also really important to be connected with the relevant people. For example, the majority of my followers are South-Asian, which meant that my dissertation posts got a high amount of engagement. I’d also recommend reaching out to people who you think would be interested in your work. I previously connected with a few BBC Asian Network presenters whilst writing my dissertation. They were influential and not only gave me advice but were happy to share my posts.
Whilst working on my research I realised that there was a huge paucity of work on Bollywood, despite it being the second largest film industry after Hollywood. During my Beyond Bollywood podcast, we touched on so many other topics such as colourism and body-shaming in Bollywood. I would definitely love to create my own blog in the future to create a space where I can share my thoughts on these kinds of issues. My experience with the BBC has also led me to apply to the BBC Trainee Scheme. I’d love to be able to work for the Asian Network to broadcast and talk about not only the Indian entertainment industry but wider South-Asian issues and affairs.