Historicizing Myths in Contemporary India: Cinematic Representations and Nationalist Agendas in Hindi Cinema

This book examines cinematic practices in Bollywood as narratives that assist in shaping the imagination of the age, especially in contemporary India. It examines historical films released in India since the new millennium and analyses cinema as a reflection of the changing socio-political and economic conditions at any given period. The chapters in Historicizing Myths in Contemporary India: Cinematic Representations and Nationalist Agendas in Hindi Cinemas also illuminate different perspectives on how cinematic historical representations follow political patterns and market compulsions, giving precedence to a certain past over the other, creating a narrative suited for the dominant narrative of the present. From Mughal-e-Azam to Padmaavat, and Bajirao Mastani to Raazi, the chapters show how creating history out of myths validate hegemonic identities in a rapidly evolving Indian society.

The volume will be of interest to scholars of film and media studies, literature and culture studies, and South Asian studies.

Swapna Gopinath is an associate professor of film and cultural studies at Symbiosis Institute of Media and Communication, Pune, India. She is a Fulbright fellow and has completed postdoctoral research on urban spatiality and ideological dimensions in India. She writes on film and culture, and contextualizes contemporary India in the Global South. She also teaches film and culture at FLAME University, Pune, as a visiting faculty member.

Rutuja Deshmukh is a visiting faculty member of the Cinema Department at Savitribai Phule Pune University, India. She also teaches film and culture at FLAME University, Pune as a visiting faculty member. She is currently a research fellow at Symbiosis International University, Pune. Her research areas include popular cinema, popular cultures, and questions of gender and representation at the intersection of neoliberalism. Her work has previously appeared in Economic and Political Weekly, Jump Cut, The Feminist Review, The Wire, FemAsia, Countercurrents, and HimalSouthasian.