SMOKERS’ CORNER: Bollywood’s Hold on Pakistan

Bollywood films, often loaded with overt and heavy-handed anti-Pakistan propaganda, continue to dominate Netflix's trending charts in Pakistan. This phenomenon, while not a direct reflection of the patriotism of Pakistani viewers, can be attributed to a complex sociological puzzle. Ever since the 1980s, when Pakistan's cultural trajectory was shifted to the right by a military dictatorship allied with moralist groups, local audiences have been yearning for high-production cinematic entertainment.

Bollywood films, with their slick action sequences, grand soundtracks, and recognized stars, have filled this void.

Pakistani audiences often reconcile their love for Indian cinema with the hostile political narratives in Bollywood films by compartmentalising and isolating certain geopolitical contexts. They view the screen as an insulated fantasy world, where entertainment value outweighs geopolitical friction. This detachment allows them to relish the cinematic spectacle while disconnecting from the underlying anti-Pakistan hostility in the movies' narratives.

This is further reinforced by shared historical and linguistic familiarity between Pakistan and India, which enables cross-border cultural products to bypass psychological and cultural barriers.

On the flip side, Bollywood films can be viewed as an example of "soft-power hegemony." By manufacturing cultural consent, dominant forces maintain control over subordinate groups, shaping their values, aesthetic desires, and social logic. This phenomenon can be traced back to the 1980s when Pakistan's state-sanctioned 'Islamism' and the gradual 'Indianisation' of the Pakistani middle-class lifestyle led to a cultural vacuum.

Indian popular culture, smuggled through VCR tapes and later broadcast through satellite television and digital platforms, filled this void. As a result, Bollywood blockbusters, Indian soap operas, and wedding aesthetics subtly rewired the Pakistani middle-class imagination, embedding Indian linguistic tropes, fashion paradigms, and ritualistic sensibilities.

These Indian cultural products have become cultural weapons, shaping the Pakistani audience's mindset to mirror and reinforce India's broader political and cultural hegemony in the region. The Pakistani government's ban on Indian movies from local cinemas further exacerbates the situation, allowing Bollywood to portray Pakistan in a negative light without any financial risk.

The absence of foreign box-office stakes encourages filmmakers to treat their work as global brands, with storyline choices that avoid offending neighboring markets. This dynamic highlights the importance of cross-border media exchange in maintaining a balance between commercial restraint and the promotion of extreme nationalism.