Hindutva boycott of Hindi cinema

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Several boycotts have been started against Hindi films by Hindu nationalists in recent years, with the term Urduwood being used to characterise the Hindi-language Bollywood film industry as a Muslim-dominated, anti-Hindu industry which favours the use of Urdu over Hindi. [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Contents

History

Bollywood has historically had many Muslims involved in the production of its movies, with some of the most popular film stars being Muslim, especially the Khans of Bollywood and many of the lyricists and songwriters infusing Urdu into the scripts; [7] [8] Urdu, which is heavily influenced by Middle Eastern languages such as Persian and Arabic, is generally associated with South Asian Muslims. [9]

Names

Along with Urduwood, related terms that are used are Khanwood (referring to the dominance in Bollywood of actors with the common South Asian Muslim last name Khan), Jihadwood, and Dawood-wood. [2] [10] [5]

Boycotts

Accusations of Bollywood films hurting Hindu sentiments have led to calls for boycotts against several major films in recent years under the hashtag #BoycottBollywood; [11] [12] [13] Bollywood producers have said that the threat of boycotts has led them to avoid certain topics in their films. [14] In addition, there have been more recent films which are nationalistic or pro-Hindu. [15] However, some films have been able to succeed regardless of the boycotts, [16] and there seems to have been an overall limited impact on boycotted movies' revenues. [13]

Some boycotters have called for South Indian cinema to be promoted instead, claiming that it was more respectful in representing Hindu culture, [17] [1] [18] [19] however some South Indian films were also boycotted by them. [20] [21]

See also

Events

Film topics

Religious and linguistic topics

Related Research Articles

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Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, refers to the film industry based in Mumbai, engaged in production of motion pictures in Hindi language. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" and "Hollywood". The industry is a part of the larger Indian cinema, which also includes South Indian cinema and other smaller film industries. The term 'Bollywood', often mistakenly used to refer to Indian cinema as a whole, only refers to Hindi-language films, with Indian cinema being an umbrella term that includes all the film industries in the country, each offering films in diverse languages and styles.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hindi</span> Standardised variety of Hindustani used in India

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Urdu</span> Language spoken in India and Pakistan

Urdu is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in South Asia. It is the national language and lingua franca of Pakistan, where it is also an official language alongside English. In India, Urdu is an Eighth Schedule language, the status and cultural heritage of which are recognised by the Constitution of India; and it also has an official status in several Indian states. In Nepal, Urdu is a registered regional dialect and in South Africa it is a protected language in the constitution. It is also spoken as a minority language in Afghanistan and Bangladesh, with no official status.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hindustani language</span> Indo-Aryan language spoken in India and Pakistan

Hindustani is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in North India and Pakistan, and functioning as the lingua franca of the region. It is also spoken by the Deccani people. Hindustani is a pluricentric language with two standard registers, known as Hindi and Urdu which serve as official languages of India and Pakistan, respectively. Thus, it is also called Hindi–Urdu. Colloquial registers of the language fall on a spectrum between these standards. In modern times, a third variety of Hindustani with significant English influences has also appeared which is sometimes called Hinglish or Urdish.

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References

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