Amongst other things, 2020 would also be remembered as the beginning of the end of Soft Power as we knew it. Floated by American political scientist, Joseph Nye, soft power leaned on ‘weapons’ such as culture to attract rather than coerce an idea by a country.
While soft power was seen as an ‘American’ concept, it was put to great use by most socialist ideologies to propagate a certain mindset that went on to become the norm. Replacing the paranoia of the Cold War, soft power used popular films to push liberalism but at the same time, in a round-about manner, it normalised events such as wars, genocide, abuse and harassment of women.
It’s also the reason why millennial film viewers love underdogs, believe that they understand the human side of criminals and root for the bad guy. Much like sociopolitical concepts, cinema also needs new markets to thrive. For Hollywood, the lure of the booming Chinese market in the early 2000s made money do all the talking.
Hollywood pretended to stand for principles of equality and such—Rambo teamed up with the “brave Mujahideen fighters of Afghanistan” in Rambo III or wanted Oscars to be more diverse, inclusive—but its executives told Richard Gere that they could not finance his films lest it upset the Chinese. In 1993, Gere, then one of the world’s biggest box office stars, called out China for its “horrendous human rights situation”, and in 2008, he called for a boycott of the 2008 Olympics, pressuring China to make Tibet independent.
For Bollywood, China was turning into a new market like Africa in the 1970s, Dubai in the 1980s, the UK, Canada and the US in the 1990s and Pakistan in the 2000s. Films of Aamir Khan raked in big bucks in China where, at one point, he was considered to be bigger than Tom Cruise. Many would not see the connection, but Bollywood and China is a great match.
The former’s penchant for socialism is the perfect pitch for the latter that views its communist ideology as the new step of socialism. Unlike other cinema, especially Hollywood and China, that used their films as the ultimate soft power tool, Bollywood’s soft power prowess rarely helped India.
It romanticised the enemy (Pakistan), mocked friendly nations (Afghanistan and Nepal) and rarely commented on China. If not for recent developments, COVID-19 and Galwan, China’s deep pockets would have used Bollywood to push its agenda without much suspicion. It could still happen thanks to OTT where the material is beamed right into the living rooms. Much like how popular culture is getting ready to shift gears, soft power, too, is entering a new phase. Get ready for digital soft
(The author is a film historian and bestselling author and can be contacted at power.gautam@chintamani.org)