Secularism in Indian Cinema: An Analysis of Bollywood Movies (1931-2016)

Abstract

This paper discusses the concept of Secularism in India and how it has evolved in the
Bollywood Cinema over the years. Before the partition of India what was the
character of Bollywood Cinema and since the independence how gradual changes
have taken shape. Many associated concepts of secularism like; ‘tolerance’,
‘nationalism’, ‘fraternity’ etc. what actually these have to do with the Bollywood
cinema. Does the religious background of the people who are involved in the
filmmaking process such as; actors, producers, directors, scriptwriters, lyricists,
playback singers, musicians, affect the cinema or are there some other forces or
factors works behind the filmmaking. All the questions mentioned above, forces and
factors have been considered in the context of Secularism in Indian Cinema.

Having reviewed relevant articles on secularism by different political scientists,

sociologists and many veteran Bollywood personalities; chapters from some
concerned books, several videos of interviews, statements, lectures, debates of
concerned personalities; and several topic-relevant Bollywood movies. I have come to
understand that the kind of secular tradition which Bollywood has followed and is
following, has a great concern with the people, politics and other social institutions of
India.

This study attempts to understand the kind of secular tradition followed by the
Bollywood cinema and its interconnection with the concepts; ‘tolerance’
‘nationalism’ and ‘fraternity’ and also the impacts of the Bollywood cinema towards
the society and vice versa. The study would be based on an analytical method using
primary and secondary sources.

Keywords: Secularism, Nationalism, Tolerance, Indian Cinema, Bollywood.

Subodh Chandra Bharti

M. Phil. Centre for South Asian Studies, School of International Studies

Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi- 110067
Email: subodhchandrabharti@gmail.com
Contact No. 8826408194

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Introduction

Bollywood of Indian Cinema has a large number of viewers in India, other South
Asian countries and the western world as well. The term Bollywood is originated
from Bombay (earlier name of present Mumbai). This industry which is based in
Mumbai has just completed hundred years of its establishment, in the year 2013.
Bollywood movies have a large market and huge earnings through cinema. Near
about one thousand movies release per year and thousands of people’s also rely on the
Bollywood regarding their livelihood.

Since the inception, Indian Cinema appears as major means to entertain people. It also
has impacts on the society and has concerns about the social, political and economic
environment. Use of history, mythology and real experiences in filmmaking is evident
in different movies from the beginning. The Bollywood movies, because of the use of
Hindi (Hindustani1) in scripts-dialogues and songs, have a larger reach to viewers in
India than the other regional langue based Indian. Bollywood movies because of its
wide-ranging viewers have a plural or multicultural kind of essence. People who work
onscreen have been influenced by the multicultural ethos of Bollywood cinema.
Various actors, directors, producers, singers, scriptwriters, lyricists, from the different
religious background, have a great contribution to the Bollywood and the spirit of
multiculturalism is still clearly evident.

Secularism is a term which cannot be discussed separately since it is closely

interconnected with tolerance, fraternity and nationalism. While discussing secularism
in the context of Indian Cinema, especially in Bollywood movies one must have to do
justice with these. Although, secularism and promotion of nationalism, fraternity and
tolerance evident in Indian Cinema, that how these have been being portrayed on
celluloid. Though people also have questioned the kind of ‘secularism’ and
‘nationalism’, which has been being projected through the Bollywood movies, over
the time.

This paper tries to study that how the ‘secularism’ is poignant in Bollywood movies
and how it deals with the interconnected terms: tolerance, fraternity, and nationalism.

Secularism: A Brief Socio-political Perspective

1
According to Gandhi Ji Hindustani is the language which is blend of Hindi and Urdu.

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The word secular originated from Latin word saecularis meaning ‘worldly’ or
‘temporal’, or non-spiritual. The term ‘secularism’ was first used by the British writer
George Holyoake in 1846. Holyoake invented the term ‘secularism’ to describe his
views of promoting a social order separate from religion, without actively dismissing
or criticising religious belief.2

Secularism in India has a deep root in the past, centuries ago when there no any word
like Hinduism as a religion existed, but different philosophical systems or schools
were in Indian philosophical traditions. Both the orthodox philosophical traditions
namely, Mīmāṁsa, Vedānta, Sāṅkhya, Yoga, Nyāya and Vaiśeṣika systems and the
heterodox philosophical traditions namely, Cārvāka, Bauddha and Jaina systems co-
exist since their inception. Although there are huge distinctions, disaffections and
disagreements on several points while discussing the philosophical questions, which
are related to human social-moral life. But there were only debates and discussions
and a logical and reason based explanation and refutation of others’ philosophy. So
from here, we can trace the essence of secularism in India.

During the period of Indian national movement, when there the feelings of
nationalism was on its fever pitch, the national leaders were also promoting fraternity
and tolerance, among different religious groups and hope for a peaceful co-existence
of different religion under a single nation, that is India. Later, the demand of separate
nation by Muslim League saying that Muslims and Hindus are different nations and
they cannot live together resulted in the partition of India and Pakistan in 1947). It led
to another debate in India about ‘secular state’. After a long discussion, held in the
Constituent Assembly, India became a ‘secular state’. According to D. D. Basu,
“India, under the Constitution, is a ‘Secular State’, i.e., a State which observes an
attitude of neutrality and impartiality towards all religions.”3

Gandhian secularism is quite different from the western concept of separation of

‘religious and political institutions’ – ‘the Church and the State’. For Gandhi religion
and politics are the two, having ‘common aim of serving the toiling masses’. He was
against the “power politics” and in favour “for moral and ethical religion as much as
for pure (satvic) politics”. He has a firm believe that there is no any “distinction

2
Ganguli, Amresh, Lesson 3 Secularism And Communalism In India, SOL DU Book, [Online: Web]
Accessed 17 February 2017, URL: https://sol.du.ac.in/mod/book/view.php?id=1136&chapterid=682
3
Basu, D.D. (22nd edn., 2015), Introduction to the Constitution of India, Gurgaon, Lexis Nexis, p. 130.

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between private and public morality” because it would ultimately give rise to the
“destruction of the society”. He propounded secularism which means “equal respect
to all religions” (sarvadharma sambhava) which has founded on the assertion that
different religion has their own way to find the truth, but the ‘truth of all religion’ is
same (Pradhan R.C., 2011).

Finally, what one can say that secularism is not merely a political idea or principle or
policy which the state follows, but it is related to the very core of the society and even
with the individuals. So it doesn’t mean only ‘the separation of state and religion’, but
that state has no any partiality or biased towards any particular religion and has ‘equal
respect to all religions’ which are being followed in the territory of that particular
state. And also that how an Individual or an institution or a community is free to
‘profess, practice and propagate’ any religion or faith without intervening and
interrupting in others religious affairs or hurting the sentiments of others.

Cinema and Society

Cinema is considered as the mirror of the society like the literature is considered,
because of its significant connection with the social environment. The background
context, story, message of a movie, all are related to or have to do with the social
environment of a particular society. A director directs a story or scriptwriter prepares
a script or a story in such a way that it must satisfy the viewers’ desires their fancies.
If they failed to do justice to the aspirations of the people the movie becomes a big
flop. For instance, if there is a war-like situation with the enemy country and the
director makes a romantic or a comedy movie and the other side someone is making a
patriotic film, the patriotic one will be widely appreciated at that time.

On the other side cinema also influences the society. It awakens the people of any
society towards their moral responsibilities, questions the corrupt practices of policy
makers and bureaucrats, inspires to the imagination, promotes nationalist feelings and
hope during wartime. It promotes fraternity among diverse groups, makes the society
aware of their past, history and tradition in a very interesting way and not merely to
entertain. But sometimes what we can also see that in a more diverse and plural
society, facts are presented in different and distorted forms because of the narrow
interests of the filmmakers or producers or promoters. Sometimes what we also see,
that people from a particular group or community perceive something else different

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from what the movie tries to convey. So there is both negative and positive impact of
cinema can be seen on individuals as well on communities.

Particularly in the Indian context, the word secularism is interconnected with

‘tolerance’, ‘nationalism’, and ‘fraternity’, because of the huge diversity of different
cultures, religions and faiths. The question of ‘tolerance’ comes mainly when the
minority groups feel like their rights, practices and faith are being jeopardized, and
the majority group is appearing bigoted towards them. On the other side, the majority
group questions the ‘nationalism’ of the minority groups by questioning their loyalty
towards national integrity (territorial integrity of the nation). Hence the question
appears that how ‘fraternity’ would be established among the people.

After the partition of India with the change in political landscape, a sudden change
was noticed in the films which have been produced during 1950s-60s. These films
portrayed joint family, which indicated that “with the arrival of newly educated
members, modern ideas were introduced, but an emphasis on old traditional values
was retained”. Again when inflation was out of control in 1970s-80s, political-
bureaucratic corruption arrived at its extreme, and the foreign reserves got low down,
an emergency was declared, leaders of the opposition were sent to jails and “the
governing style became draconian.” All these events lead “the common man feel that
justice was denied through usual routes” and this led to the arrival of the ‘angry young
man’ in Hindi films, and he was none other but Amitabh Bachchan. His two films,
Zanjeer (1973) and Deewar (1975) became very popular. Then after the assassination
of Indira Gandhi (1984) and of Rajiv Gandhi (1991), when economic reforms are
done in a large scale, the impact of consumerism, urbanization and globalization’ and
romanticism appears in Indian cinema (D. Bhugra, 2005).

At present in the 21st century when globalisation has completely taken place in India,
now the trend of Bollywood movies has also moved towards progressive changes,
such as; intellectual movies, use of different Indian languages, the appearance of lead
actors from abroad, especially from Pakistan. Bollywood movies have deepened its
roots in South Asia completely as well globally. Actors from Bollywood have reached
in Hollywood as the lead protagonist, a considerable increase in realistic and
intellectual movies and the number of their viewers has also increased.

Bollywood Fraternity and Secularism

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To understand the concept of secularism regarding fraternity in Bollywood, there one
must have to see what runs on on-screen and what is behind the cameras. The
Bollywood cinema portrays fraternity in celluloid and also the individual life of the
Bollywood actors and other Bollywood personnel matters. The fan-following of these
Bollywood personnel somehow affected or influenced by their way of living. For
instance, the Bollywood fraternity celebrates all the festivals of India with no bias
towards any religion. They celebrate Holi, Diwali, and Eid and organise Iftar party,
they celebrate Ganapati festival and also celebrate Christmas with great enthusiasm.

There are many Bollywood families where people from different religions have
marital and family connections. Salim Khan’s family is an example of very secular
Bollywood family, where almost all religion’s persons are there. Slim Khan married
to a Hindu -Sushila Charak and again to a Christian actress Helen. His Children son
Sohel Khan married to a Hindu girl Seema Sachdev, son Arbaaz Khan married to a
Hindu actress Malaika Arora, daughter Alvira Khan married to a Hindu actor Atul
Agnihotri. In Tagore-Khan family, actress Sharmila Tagore married to a Muslim
Indian cricketer Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi, their son actor Saif Ali Khan married to a
Hindu actress Amrita Singh and again with actress Karena Kapoor, again Sharmila’s
daughter actress Soha Ali Khan married to a Hindu actor Kunal Khemu.

Many other actors such as; actress Mumtaz married to a Hindu Mayur Madhvani,
Shashi Kapoor to a Christian Jennifer Kendal, Pankaj Kapoor to a Muslim actress
Neelima Azeem, Nasiruddin Shah to a Hindu actress Ratna Pathak, Shahrukh Khan to
a Hindu girl Gauri Chhibba. Hritik Raushan married to a Muslim girl Suzanne, Farah
Khan (a Choreographer) to a Hindu person Shirish Kunder, Fardeen to a Hindu girl
Natasha Madhvani, Ritesh Deshmukh to a Christian actress Jenelia D’Souza. Arjun
Rampal married to a Parsi woman Meher Jessia, Farhan Akhtar to a Hindu girl
Adhuna Bhabani, Amir Khan to a Hindu film producer Kiran Rao, Lara Dutta to a
Christian tennis player Mahesh Bhupati, Imran Khan to a Hindu girl Awantika Malik
and many others.

Remembering his past days a veteran Bollywood film director Mahesh Bhatt (2005)
says that, Sahir Ludhianvi Sahab the greatest lyricist of Bollywood, being a Muslim
choose to stay in a ‘secular India’ after the Partition. The famous bhajan of all-times,
‘Allah tero naam, Ishwar tero naam’ ‘was written by this extraordinary poet’. Again

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he talks about a ‘great filmmaker Guru Dutt’ who ‘worked with people like Kaifi
Azmi and Abrar Alvi’. The movie Chaudvin Ka Chand which was produced by Guru
Dutt and directed by M. Sadiq is the best film made touching the socio-cultural milieu
of Lucknow and the Muslim tehzeeb (culture).

Bhatt (2005) says that “Hindu filmmakers of those times made films dealing with the
Muslim culture without any reservations and so that age is called the golden age of
Hindi cinema.” Again he says about his father made near about hundred films. A
number of these were based on ‘The Arabian Nights fantasies’. Although he was a
Brahmin, he knew more about Islam and the Islamic culture, and his mother belonged
to a Shia Muslim community, but she used to tell him and his siblings ‘tales from
Hindu mythology’ after finishing her Namaz. According to Bhatt (2005) “these stories
still resonate in my heart. One of these stories was effectively put to use by me in my
film Raaz. The climax of Raaz was sourced from a tale my mother told me about
Savitri and her fight with the Lord of death, Yama, to bring her husband back to life
from the jaws of death.”

Muslims and Other Minority Groups in Bollywood Cinema

Javed Akhtar (2006) again says about the projection of a Muslim character in Hindi
cinema that “Muslim was a poet or a Nawab. He lived in a Haveli with chandeliers
and chilmans. He would only talk in poetry. And the women were very beautiful all of
them. It was a world that never existed rather like in cowboy movies where there was
a Hollywood-created cowboy culture. It was a world created by cinema.” During the
period of the early 60s to early 80s mainly the image of Muslim women in Hindi
cinema is portrayed as Tawaifs4 and unfortunately this is described as they represent
the vanished elite culture of the cities of Nawabs. Tawaifs wears colourful costumes
and sumptuous jewellery and perform before their clients. In many films, it is also
shown that Tawaifs search for true love and want to marry and a normal life which
never happens in their life. Pakeezah (Kamal Amrohi, 1971), Umrao Jaan (Muzaffar
Ali, 1981), Muqaddar ka Sikandar (1978).

On the other side men Muslims protagonists were presented either as Nawab or a
poet, or a drunken man, who gives a scope to look at Indian Muslim culture. In the

4
Dancing girl or Courtesan

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film Shatranj Ke Khiladi5 (Satyajit Ray, 1977) where two Nawabs; Mirza Sajjad Ali
(Sanjeev Kumar) and Mir Roshan Ali (Saeed Jaffrey) passionately obsessed with the
Shatranj game, the Nawab of Oudh Wajid Ali Khan (Amjad Khan), who is an artist
and poet find himself not capable of defending British conquest. In the film Mere
Huzoor (Vinod Kumar, 1968) a male protagonist Akhtar Hussain (Jeetendra) always
well-dressed, well Urdu speaking gentleman got married to his love ‘the female
protagonist’ Sultanat (Mala Sinha), fallen in bad company and starts taking alcohol
and fallen in love with a Tawaif. In the film Amar, Akbar, Anthony (Manmohan Desai,
1977), again here the Muslim protagonist was a Qawwal (singer), the role played by
Rishi Kapoor.

Muslim protagonists in Indian Cinema have also been presented as a very tolerant
Emperor like in the movies Mughal-e-Azam (Karim Asif, 1960) and Jodha-Akbar
(Ashutosh Gowariker, 2008) where the Emperor is very tolerant towards other
religious faith, he falls in love with a Hindu princes, celebrates the Janmashtami
festival, lifts the Jaziya6 tax, all these shows his tolerant nature.

Many Bollywood movies where Muslim characters, presented as associates of Hindu

heroes, proving their secular testimonial by proving their patriotism while doing their
duties very honestly; Such as; Inspector Salim of Sarfarosh (John Mathew Matthan,
1999), Constable Mushtaq Singh in the film Indian (N. Maharajan, 2001), Haider Ali
of the film Garv (Puneet Issar, 2004), ATS Officer Arif Khan in the movie A
Wednesday (Neeraj Pandey, 2008).

Javed Akhtar (2006) again says that “secularism and religious tolerance in Hindi
commercial cinema is exclusively the Hindu’s responsibility. You can show a
character whose name is Vijay (or Ramesh, or Ashok, or Vinod) picking up a Koran
and touching it to his eyes and, with total reverence, putting it somewhere. Or he is
saved by a billah 786, which is the numerological number of Bismallah-e-Rahmaan-
e-Rahim; or he enters a dargah and the green chaddar of the dargah flies and saves
him from the villain, and so on.” Again he says “No Muslim has picked up the Gita or
Ramayana, put it against his eyes with reverence and prayed.....never seen, in a
commercial film, a Muslim character playing Holi although, as a matter of fact, in

5
Based on the time of the 1857 rebellion and British conquest.
6
Tax collected from the Hindu pilgrims

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India, millions and millions of Muslims celebrate Holi....... ...You have films against
untouchability; about child marriage; about widow re-marriage; but never a film about
any social menace or wrong religious practice of a minority, never....There was a film
called Nikah that was about divorce and so on, but it was about particular characters
unlike Sujata or Achut Kanya where you are questioning the basic tenets.”

About the portrayal of a Christian character in a Hindu cinema what Javed Akhtar
(2006) finds that a male Christian character shown as ‘a good-hearted drunkard’ man
and a female character as ‘Miss Mona/Lily or Mona Darling’ and the female
characters ‘for a very long time’ shown as ‘the vamp used to be Julie or Rita or
Mona’ but when the trend shifts and the protagonist ‘heroines started to wear the same
kind of clothes’ ‘Mona darling went out of fashion’. There are several of Bollywood
movies where a nurse belongs to Christian faith called sister, although very short
appearance they show.

Sikhs mostly have been portrayed as an army or a police officer (Border, 1997; Main
Hoo Na, 2004; Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Sathiyon; 2004), or as a truck driver who
helps the hero or the hereon and saves them from the goons (Ye Dil Ashiqana, 2002).
A very honest and kind and helping Sikh and who never tolerates any evil thing
happening before them. Parsi groups have very fewer appearances in the Bollywood
movies, seems as they represent according to their population. The Parsi mostly one
can find in a bus or a plane journey, and most of the time they appear as couples, they
speak Gujarati and a very sweet Hindi (Ishq, 1997; Had Kar Di Aapne, 2000).

Secularism in Bollywood Movies from the perspective of Nationalism

“The history of Indian cinema has long been associated with that of the nationalist
movement. Cinema profoundly shaped, and was shaped by, nationalist discourses of
the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.”7 Although the anti-colonial
movement against British imperialism was marked by a concern to preserve
intercommunity amity, Indian cinema was permeated by a Hindu narrative right from
its inception.8 As from the time of the silent feature films, mainly the Hindu myths
were used in filmmaking such as Raja Harischandra (1913), Lanka Dahan (1917),

7
Veronique, Benei, (2008), ‘Globalization’ and regional(ist) cinema in Western India: Public culture,
private media, and the reproduction of a Hindu national(ist) hero, 1930s– 2000s, South Asian Popular
Culture Vol. 6, No. 2, p. 84
8
Ibid, p. 85

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Shri Krishna Janma (1918), Kaliya Mardan (1919), Bhakta Vidur (1921), etc. Here
the Hindu religious scripture based myths used to be portrayed in films. Since the
1930s, when the talkie starts in Indian cinema the Hindu myths continued in films.
Some of the movies are: Draupadi (1931), Rajrani Meera (1933), Seeta (1934),
Chandrasena (1935), Savitri (1937), etc. But beside these, a trend of social issue
based cinema also started such as; Amrit Manthan9 (1934), Dharmatma10 (1935),
Achhot Kanya11 (1936), and Naya Sansar12 (1941) etc.

S.S. Rajgopal (2011), talks about the films where Hindu norms have been represented
in a way that seems contradictory to “the concepts of secularism upon with the Indian
nation-state was originally built.” Some of these are; Pardes (Subhash Ghai, 1997),
Kabhi Kushi Kabhi Gham (Karan Johar, 2001). In these movies, Indian families live
in other countries, and they maintain their native culture, like celebrating Holi,
Karwachauth, Diwali, singing Hindu devotional songs, wearing traditional Hindu
cloths, etc. in that way “making any other religion or culture appear ‘Un-Indian’.”

The Bollywood film industry has acted as a techno-cultural transmitter in this regard,
with its engagement in the production of nationalist cinema that projects in its setting
the definition of this Hindu nation.13 “The easiest way by which Bollywood does this
is by presenting to its audience a stereotypical image of a Muslim, who appears in
typically Muslim attire, reflects mannerisms considered to be purely Islamic and is
also depicted as a strict adherent of the codes of Islamic religiosity.”14

There are several events of 1980s-1990s; Bhagalpur riots (1989) the Kashmir riots
(1989), the demolition of Babri mosque (1992), Bombay Riots of (1992-93), Kargil
conflict (1999), created a trend of projecting Muslims as less patriotic and terrorists in
Hindi cinema. Films like Roja (Mani Ratnam, 1992), Sarfarosh (John Mathew
Matthan, 1999), Pukar (Rajkumar Santoshi, 2000), Mission Kashmir (Vidhu Vinod
Chopra, 2000), Indian (N. Maharajan, 2001), Gadar: Ek Prem Katha (Anil Sharma,

9
In this film the king Kantiverma banns the sacrifice system and was killed under a conspiracy made
by the Rajguru (head priest).
10
Story of Sant Eknath, a Marathi poet and preacher on social injustices; inequality, untouchability etc.
11
A film where the untouchable girl Kasturi (Devika Rani) and a Brahmin boy Pratap (Ashok Kumar)
fall in love but due to the caste system they had to marry with Manu and Meera of their same castes
respectively.
12
A film, written by a film critique Abbas on radical society and journalism.
13
Kumar, Sanjeev HM (2013), Constructing the Nation’s Enemy: Hindutva, popular culture and the
Muslim ‘other’ in Bollywood cinema, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 3, pp 458–469.
14
Ibid.

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2001), Maa Tujhhe Salaam (Tinu Verma, 2002), Maqbool (Vishal Bhardwaj, 2003),
Fanaa (Kunal Kohli, 2006), Black Friday15 (Anurag Kashyap, 2007), New York
(Kabir Khan, 2009), Kurbaan (Rensil D'Silva, 2009), My Name is Khan (Karan Johar,
2010), show image of the Muslims as terrorists by tracing their religious identity of
Islam and linking with terrorism.

Movie Fanaa (2006) represents Indian Muslims as ‘good Muslim/bad Muslim

dichotomy’16 in the movie the family of the female protagonist Zooni Ali Beg
represented as ‘the good Muslims’, who honestly supports the Indian army and ‘bad’
ones, are involved in the Islamic militancy in Kashmir.

Citing the Film-critic Shiladitya Sen’s statement, Nadira Khatun (2016) wrote “It was
not as political party leaders such as Bal Thackeray instructed some of the directors
and producers to make communal films. It does not work like that. But producers and
directors had the attitude to represent such issues like terrorism, communalism,
apprehending that those portrayals would be well appreciated by the audience.”17
Again she says that “The filmmakers themselves are not necessarily always extremists
nor are they driven by the Hindutva agenda. But because of the prevalent polarized
political situation in the country, there is a demand for films with a narrow
majoritarian agenda. Sensing the audience’s demand, filmmakers sought to capitalize
on the right-wing agendas.”18

According to a Veteran ‘Bollywood film’ director Mahesh Bhatt (2005), post-

independence in Hindi cinema, Nehruvian socialism was portrayed, and Dilip Kumar
portrayed as “an excellent symbol of secular India”. Again he says that “recent revival
of Mughal-e-Azam19 and its global success proves that the pendulum of public taste
has once again swung towards films that celebrate the pluralism and the secular creed
of free India”. He also draws the attention that there also has a shift in movies, that
earlier movie like Gadar Ek Prem Katha (1999) had much hate and questions towards
Muslims on the nationalism.

15
Although it was based on the 1993 Bombay Blasts.
16
theorized by Mahmood Mamdani, a cultural theorist; stresses the dichotomy between the ‘good
Muslim’ who is co-opted by the state, and ‘the bad Muslim’ who challenges the status quo.
17
Khatun, Nadira (2016), Imagining Muslims as the ‘Other’ in Muslim political films, Journal of Arab
& Muslim Media Research, Vol. 9, No. 1, pp. 41-60.
18
Ibid.
19
Again Released as coloured version in November 2004.

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Portrayal of Fraternity and Communal Harmony in Bollywood Movies

Before the Independence, the trend of secularism and promotion of communal

harmony and fraternity has been portrayed in Hindi cinema. As Javed Akhtar (2006)
mentioned that “The first film that was made in 1933 was by a Parsee gentleman
Ardeshir Irani. The title of the film was Alam Ara. It had 50 songs, and it had Muslim
characters. It shows that minorities had the first claim on the talkies especially the
Muslims.” Movie Padosi (V. Santharam, 1941), a story of two best friends Pandit
(Mazhar Khan) and Mirza (Gajanan Jagirdar)- a Hindu-Muslim friendship, where
they live very happily in a village and care each other’s family, their wives and
children are also good friends. But suddenly an industrialist Omkar came with a
proposal to build a dam, and the villagers oppose under the leadership of Pandit and
Mirza. Omkar tries to bring a dispute between them, and Mirza leaves his house near
Pandits’ house after a quarrel, and finally, they die together while trying to save the
lives.

Again the film Hum Ek Hain (P.L. Santoshi, 1946), portrayed a picture of mother
‘Zamindarin Ma’ (the landlady) who tries to save lives by distributing grains to the
poor and draught affected people of the village. Rahmaan Chacha, a Muslim employ
of Zamindarin Ma, brings three children; two boys one from the Christian family and
other from Muslim family and a girl who belongs to an untouchable caste ‘Bhangi’ of
that time, whose parents have been died during the draught. ‘Zamindarin Ma’ accepts
all the children as her own and treats equally and the song ‘Hum Ek Hain’ becomes
popular.

Another important movie was Dhool Ka Phool (Yash Chopra, 1959), in which a
Muslim found an 'illegitimate' Hindu child (baby Boy) crying in the jungle. He brings
him to his home and takes care of the child, and the song which was very popularised
was: “Too Hindu Banega Na Musalman Banega, Insaan Ki Aulaad Hai, Insaan
Banega”.

Manmohan Desai’s movie Coolie (1983) shows a very secular kind of movie where
the first scene starts as a Muslim sister tying Rakhi to a Hindu brother. Refusing to go
with the Villain, Vahida Rehman says “Ek Hindustani Pak-damn Aurat Ke Liye Uske
Shauhar ki Kutiya Mahleo se Jyada Keemat Rakhti Hai” (for an Indian woman, her
husband’s hut is more precious than a great palace), here this dialogue means a lot.

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Child Iqbal is saved by his Hindu Mama who lost his one hand while fighting with the
goon who tried to kill Iqbaal, and also the role played by Amitabh Bachchan as Iqbal
a Muslim, who loves Julie D’ Costa (Rati Agnihotri) a Christian girl.

Stressing the importance of a language a mean to reach to the viewers Javed Akhtar
(2006) mentions that “a language or a metaphor is secular. This is understandable
because if you want everybody to see your film if you want to communicate with
everybody, you will have to be secular. The producer cannot afford to be selective
about his audience. He is desperate; he wants everybody. So, he has to be secular,”
and this is quite visible in Bollywood cinema which is also known as Hindi cinema,
but here the language used, is not a typical kind of Hindi but a mixture of Urdu and
Hindi.

Now there is another shift taking place slowly that use of other Indian languages
including English in scripts, dialogues and songs of the Bollywood cinema. There is
also a change in the traditional way of presenting a South Indian or Bengali person
during dialog delivery in Hindi with a Bengali or South Indian accent. Now the
dialogues are being delivered directly in the original languages. All these signs again
prove that how Bollywood shows its secular face while selecting a language as a
medium to reach the people.

Mahesh Bhatt (2005) says that the Indian music society; the music directors and the
lyric writers have made wonderful tunes and songs which have the essence of
pluralism and which shows the Hindu-Muslim Bhai-Bhai kind of fraternity. The
ghazals, thumris, and khayaals etc. are the complete mixture of plural culture or
tehzeebs, all portrayed through the music is what one call India.

The trend of music changes in Hindi cinema with the time and a shift from the
Thumari, Ghazals to romantic and sadabahar songs in Bollywood. Kishor, Md. Rafi
and Mukesh as male playback singers reached to the people and Lata and Asha on the
other side as female playback singers. But it was not the end of Ghazals or folk
tradition. Both the folk tradition and the Ghazals remain alive but not exactly in
Bollywood but yes parallel to Bollywood, through live concerts, albums, etc. Talat
Mahmood, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Jagjeet Sing, Ghulam Ali, Pankaj Udhas, Anoop
Jalota, Mehndi Hasan, these are very famous names in Ghazal. Present day there are
several music competitions, programs, concerts have been being organised by many

13 | P a g e
TV productions. Singers from metros and also from villages of India are participating
in these shows. Singers also from other countries like Pakistan and Nepal are coming.
Atif Aslam, a young Pakistani singer, is very famous in India and Bollywood, he is
singing in Bollywood movies as a playback singer since 2005. Rahat Fateh Ali Khan
is also a Pakistani singer active in Bollywood.

If one sees the movies made after 2010, there are major shifts we can find, such as;
there is no more 80s-90s type of villain in the present day’s movies, no religious
projection is there. The dressing of the film’s characters is not being done like what
has been used earlier that a Christian wear white and black cloths, holds the Holy
Bible in hands, wear a cross in his/her neck, a Muslim woman or girl wear Burkha or
Shararah, etc. The trend has shifted towards comedy, fiction, mysterious, thriller
movies and also movies related to current social-political issues. Movies like OMG
(Umesh Shukla, 2012), PK (Rajkumar Hirani, 2014), Dharma Sankat Mein (Fuwad
Khan, 2015) have raised questions about the religious arrogance and hypocrisy.

Bajrangi Bhaijan (Kabir Khan, 2016), is an Indian drama film, in which the male
Protagonist is a Brahmin Hindu and a Hanuman-Bhakt Pawan Kumar Chaturvedi
‘Bajrangi’ got a mute ‘girl child’20 and tried to find her parents. When he found that
the girl belongs to Pakistan, he also went to Pakistan illegally to return her. This
movie got huge appreciation from Pakistan also.

Very recently the movie Karan Johar directed ‘Ae Dil Hai Mushkil’ was in
controversies, regarding the actor from Pakistan Fawad Khan has worked in the
movie. A sudden ban on Pakistani artists in followed by Uri attack (September 2016)
and then ‘surgical strike’ (September 2016) from the Indian side, some right-wing
groups started agitating that Fawad Khan’s scenes must be deleted before the movie
release. Otherwise, they would not let the movie released and protest against it. MNS
threatens to vandalise multiplexes if they screen film.21

Film Kurbaan’s director Rensil D'Silva says about the decision as 'unfortunate' by
stating that, “They need to understand that a lot of money is riding on this film. Why
should Karan Johar and the distributors suffer? I hope better sense prevails. We are all

20
childwho actually belongs to POK, she and her mother came to Hajarat Nizamuddin, and by fault she
left in India while her mother back to Pakistan
21
The Indian Express, October 18, 2016.

14 | P a g e
patriots, and we all feel terrible about the attacks that happened. We all feel for the
Army men who lost their lives. But I don't think banning a film which stars Pakistani
actors is the most appropriate solution. Pakistan is a terrorist state, and we need to
give them a fitting reply. But I don't know if banning films is a fitting reply.”22 On the
other side Veteran Singer, “Usha Uthuppa feels that Pakistani actors should be
boycotted in the future but the completed projects should be exempted from the ban,
and she said, “We all must take a stand that we don't use or collaborate with Pakistani
actors or artists in the future. But at the moment, I don't think it's a good thing to do
this.”23

Another movie ‘Raees’ directed by Rahul Dholakia was also in controversy because
of the presence of a female protagonist (Mahira Khan) from Pakistan in the film. Shiv
Sena has threatened cinema owners not to screen the film Raees24, in Chhattisgarh.
All the exhibitors got a threat letter to not to screen a ‘deshdrohi’ (antinational)
picture.

Another recent incident on the film sets of Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s upcoming movie
‘Padmawati’ in Jaipur, where he was slapped and assaulted by the Rajpoot Karni
Sena. Karni Sena is protesting against the movie saying that the truth or the history is
being distorted by the filmmaker, showing a love relation between Allauddin and Rani
Padmini. However, Bhansali and the production house of the movie refused that there
is no any filming on such thing and they are not distorting the history. All these
current events show that how the society has become intolerant and how the political
groups are spreading propaganda in the name of national and antinational. All this
creates a kind of illusion over the mind of the people very slowly and subconsciously.

Conclusion:

Going through all the above facts and views from the different source what one can
find that during the silent film era (1911-1930), mostly the movies were based on the
mythologies and based on old scriptures. With the emergence of talkies, variety came
to Indian cinema and music, and songs became the spirit of the Bollywood movies.

22
Guha, Epista (2017), “Ae Dil Hai Mushkil' controversy: Bollywood stands divided”, The Times of
India, New Delhi, Feb 26, 2017.
23
Ibid.
24
Shahadevan Sonup (2017), “Raees: Shiv Sena wants Shah Rukh Khan’s film banned in Chhattisgarh,
issues threat letter”, The Indian Express, New Delhi, January, 11, 2017.

15 | P a g e
Movies on social issues and communal harmony remains to pin the prime till the early
1950s, but another shift took place in later 1950s and 1960s where traditional cultural
projection was in prime. The 1970s and 1980s were devoted to the fighting with the
social evils. Later part of the 1980s and 1990s era was an era of romanticism. On the
other side issue of terrorism was also highlighted later 1990s to 2010. From 2011
Bollywood is moving towards more open, progressive, intellectual kind of movies on
different issues and the commercial cinema also growing parallel.

Going through all the facts and views, one can conclude that, the secular essence of
Indian cinema and mainly of the Bollywood cinema has always affected by the socio-
political contexts. The subjects and objectives of any movie are completely linked
with the society. Any director or producer cannot make any movie undermining or
disrespecting any faith, religion, community or group. If it happens, the movie will
not get appreciation from a large society. But the problem in Bollywood cinema is not
the content but the context in which a particular kind of content is used or portrayed.

Secularism is always there in Bollywood cinema, but contexts and contents were
different. Similarly, nationalism and tolerance still are important debatable factors
while dealing with secularism. Since Indian society is democratic the decisions of the
majority will prevail until and unless the multiculturalism in a true sense would not
establish in the society. One cannot blame the Bollywood being intolerant or
antinational or projecting majoritarian kind of nationalism; ultimate cause is ours
social and political structure.

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