Opinion | In India, rising success of Tamil and Telugu films are challenging Modi’s Hindi push

The rise of non-Hindi films is proving that just as Bollywood is not the Indian film industry, Hindi is not the national language of India

Growing embrace of non-Hindi languages in the cultural sphere comes amid fervid efforts by Narendra Modi’s government in championing Hindu nationalism

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Prabhas (right) and Rana Daggubati in a still from Bahubali: The Beginning (2015). Photo: Arka Media Works

Published: 10:00am, 4 Nov 2022Updated: 10:04am, 4 Nov 2022

For years, Bollywood has operated on the premise it is the default Indian film industry.

Bigger and older than America’s Hollywood, Hindi cinema is a heavyweight pop culture force that generates billions in ticket sales annually and has birthed megastars such as Shah Rukh Khan, but the films have also typically projected the politics and sentiment of the ruling party in New Delhi.

But something has changed in the market. Telugu films like Baahubali and RRR; Kannada film KGF Chapter 2; and Tamil movies including 2.0, Vikram and Ponniyin Selvan 1, have been released in multiple Indian languages over the past five years. Furthermore, coronavirus lockdowns during the pandemic have led to the growing popularity of streaming platforms, where Malayalam films in particular have found a following.

This growing embrace of non-Hindi languages in the cultural sphere comes amid fervid efforts by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in championing Hindu nationalism in the country of 1.3 billion people. Just weeks ago in September, his de facto deputy, Home Affairs Minister Amit Shah, proposed to elevate the use of Hindi in several settings, including as the medium of instruction in state institutes.

Shah is not a native Hindi speaker, nor is his boss. Both speak Gujarati, and both notably made public speeches in their mother tongue until Modi started campaigning seriously for prime minister in 2013, projecting the impression that Hindi was needed to speak to a pan-Indian audience.

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