A Tinted Kaleidoscope: India as Hollywood sees fit.

Yes, the Indian representation in the Hollywood landscape has seen a

tremendous growth in the last few decades. By which, I mean they have become

less stereotypical or more accurately, less of white man’s vision of adding

flavor to his film for aesthetics. So, shouldn’t we be celebrating the herculean

effort of the western media to broaden their cultural knowledge and push

through their growing pains to alter their grasp of another culture?

The answer is emphatically no.

Sure, we have come a long way from the days of white actors painting their

faces brown to portray Indian characters - I am looking at you Peter Sellers in

The Party and Sir Alec Guinness in A Passage to India. We have miles to go in

terms of Hollywood obliterating its obsession with portraying India as either an

exotic spiritual land shredded in mysticism (Eat, pray, love) or a destitute place

teeming with poverty.

But does this topic warrant this undue attention now? – One might wonder.

Unfortunately, our comprehension of foreign culture is heavily influenced by

mass media around us. Especially when it is rooted in visual depiction as it is in

film medium. So yes, story tellers shoulder the responsibility to stick close to

the truth. After all it is their films out there shaping the identities of entire

ethnicity- just ask how many westerners think India is one giant colony of

slums. Courtesy of movies like Slumdog millionaire and The Darjeeling

Limited.

When it comes to hiring Indian talent for production, UK has always been ahead

of the US. There is an impressive history of Indian talent in British productions

not only in films but also Television. While this could be attributed to the two

countries’ long standing colonial history, there is no reason for Hollywood to

lag in this day and age.

In the recent past Hollywood’s attempt to include Indian actors has been

suspicious. Much like Priyanka Chopra’s role in Matrix or Deepika Padukone’s

in XXX: return of Xander Cage, they are often blink and miss. One cannot but

wonder - were they included for the sole purpose of tapping into the humongous

market in India?

On one hand, talents from India are increasingly finding their place in

mainstream Hollywood, on the other hand, the way Indians, and India itself, are

depicted remains questionable.

Acquiring Indian artists to create and write Indian characters is a step in the

right direction to alter these gaps in cultural delineation. Take for example the

character of an Indian immigrant, Dr. Nalini Vishwakumar in Mindy Kaling’s

‘Never Have I ever’ TV series, written and portrayed by an Indian, does not

have the over-the-top comedic accent like say, Apu in ‘The Simpsons’, written

and voiced by an American.

As for the directors who are hell bent on confining their cameras to the slums of

India - there is a whole other world of India waiting for your lenses. A vibrant

colourful kaleidoscopic world, I might add. Not the jaundiced yellow tinted

universe that movies like Extraction employ to play into another stereotype.

Source:

https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/323308486.pdf

https://matadornetwork.com/read/yellow-filter-american-movies/

https://www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/article/2021/closing-the-gap-for-south-

asian-representation-on-screen/