All roads now lead to India

By winning the Oscars, we have pushed the door open to the Western world. But it’s also true that for some time, indirect ways will be the only way to reach out to the world markets. Pratik Kanjilal elaborates.

In her impassioned acceptance speech for the Best Actress Oscar in 2001, Halle Berry, the first African-American woman to win the honour, said that “a door had been opened”. But she also said that she “stood on the shoulders of giants” — generations of Black women who had made a mark in American politics, letters, the arts and popular culture. Her award did define a turning point in Western perceptions of race, but it was part of a historical process. When one culture seduces another, it is usually after a long courtship rather than a whirlwind romance, in the course of which it renders its artefacts accessible to the other, which is pleasantly surprised to find them palatable.

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Last Sunday, Slumdog Millionaire and Smile Pinki pushed open that door again in Los Angeles. The Indian sweep of the Oscars is being celebrated as an unexpected singularity, but it was a cusp in a decade-long trend. At the end of the ‘90s, when chicken tikka masala was already the national dish of Britain, the success of bhangra rap and other fusion forms had generated an obsession with Indian pop culture. Mira Nair’s Monsoon Wedding (2001) — set entirely in India, unlike predecessors like Mississippi Masala and Bhaji on the Beach — capitalised on the new demand. In 2002, the Selfridges departmental store on London’s Oxford Street was turned into a Bollywood theme park complete with celebrations of Indian style gurus and street food, a recreation of Dimple Kapadia’s Mumbai bedroom and a special supplement of Vanity Fair to celebrate it all.

But the turning point was Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Bombay Dreams, which hit the West End the same year. The musical, which went on to Broadway, introduced A.R. Rahman to US and British audiences. Its hit numbers were reworked from earlier films scored by Rahman — Rangeela (1995), his first original Hindi score, Minsara Kanavu (1997, re-made in Hindi as Sapnay), Dil Se (1998), Taal and Mudhalvan (1999, Hindi: Nayak). Just as Western viewers were no strangers to the themes and locations explored by Slumdog Millionaire, they were already favourably disposed to its music. Now, the Oscars have pushed the door wide open. The question is, who’s going to step through it next?

In 1981, Indian literature had broken down the door to Western markets with Midnight’s Children, the most phenomenal Booker winner ever. The writers who stepped out in Salman Rushdie’s footsteps were not the greats of contemporary Indian literature but Indian writers in English — crossover writers, if you will. The tide turned only in 2006, when India was the Guest of Honour at the Frankfurt Book Fair, where the Bengali writer Mahasweta Devi delivered the keynote address. This April, India will be Market Focus of the London Book Fair and considerable interest in Indian language writing is anticipated.

After Slumdog Millionaire, Indian cinema may follow a similar trajectory. It took a British-made film to earn Gulzar international recognition. And O Saaya, which bagged Rahman an Oscar, is a fusion number sung by a rapper. We may see a long period in which crossovers and co-productions remain the preferred route to international markets. And, in fact, Indian popular cinema in its native form may never gain general acceptance. Something will always be lost in translation.

(Pratik Kanjilal is publisher of The Little Magazine)