Volume III Special Issue VIII August 2023

Name of Author : Dr. Mahuya Bhaumik

Title of the paper : Bollywood and Visual Culture: A Thread Uniting India

Abstract: India is a country marked by diversities and the visual culture of India bears testimony to the plurality and multiplicity embedded in the culture of our nation. Sculptures, monuments, paintings, clay work and cave carvings are a few examples of the variegated assemblage of visual cultures that enrich India. Moreover, multiplicity of languages, cuisines, religious beliefs make the nations diversity more prominent. Bollywood, the largest cinema industry of India, is a medium which offers a unifying link to the pluralities and diversities of Indian visual culture and linguistic differences. The cultural differences brought in Bollywood movies through the portrayal of characters hailing from diverse cultural, religious, socio-economic and geographical backgrounds bring in various cultural specificities and help the audience appreciate and respect diversities prevalent across the country and yet believe in the truth of humanity irrespective of all differences. Hindi, as the chosen language of Bollywood, also bridges linguistic differences. Bollywood cinema can be studied as a platform offering cultural and linguistic continuum and this paper would be an attempt to locate this continuum through an analysis of a few Bollywood movies and explore the potential of Bollywood to be the connecting thread assimilating diverse visual cultures of India.

Keywords : Bollywood, Visual Culture, Diversity, Assimilation, Unity

DOI :

Page Number : 1-5