As the Bharatiya Janata Party gears up with its campaign speeches, manifestos, and candidate lists ahead of the Lok Sabha election, it has a bouquet of new movies in its arsenal that are working to sway the hearts and minds of Indian voters.
Bastar: The Naxal Story, JNU: Jahangir National University, Main Atal Hoon, and Article 370 are part of the bold new Bollywood propaganda machine. And what’s more, these movies have a way of breaching the Model Code of Conduct too.
The plots are framed as proof of credibility, based on real-life events like the Godhra train burning incident that sparked riots in Gujarat in 2002, figures like VD Savarkar, who is pitted against the liberal elite, and tropes such as Hindus against Muslims and Left-dominated academic spaces like Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU).
As the country hurtles toward the general election, more propaganda films are set to follow in quick succession in the coming weeks: Accident or Conspiracy: Godhra, The Sabarmati Report, and Emergency, starring Kangana Renaut. Randeep Hooda’s Swatantrya Veer Savarkar was released on Friday.
Political and spy thrillers, war movies, and biopics that tug at the heartstrings of patriotism have been the maintainstays of the entertainment industry, be it in India or abroad. But never before has Bollywood rushed to make so many films on polarising topics while either attacking Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s critics or feeding off a growing Right-wing nationalism.
“JNU celebrated when 76 soldiers were killed in Bastar. Just think about it. Where do they adopt this mentality from? Leftists, liberals, pseudo-intellectuals from cities are behind those in Bastar who are planning to divide India. I’ll shoot these Leftists dead in public. Hang me then,” thunders Neerja Madhavan (Adah Sharma) in Bastar. Raima Sen as Vanya Roy has the subtlety of a hammer, leaving no room for nuance. Words like ‘narrative’, ‘liberals’ and ‘red corridor’ are thrown around in rapid succession as Sen tries hard to equate Naxalism with Communism, which he believes is the result of a foreign agenda pushed by those only interested in accruing more wealth.
Nearly all of the films have one thing in common: They are hyperpolitical, nationalist, and suspicious of India’s liberals and Leftists. The teaser for Ranjan Chandel’s The Sabarmati Report, which will be released on 3 May—just before the third phase of polling—ends with the text: “27th February 2002. Godhra, Gujarat. A homage to the 59 innocent lives burned to death…”. Almost as if filmmakers, producers, and actors have taken a page out of The Kashmir Files (2022) and The Kerala Story (2023).
But long before such films came up, director Vivek Agnihotri had been trying to push the agenda: Buddha In A Traffic Jam (2016) had a hotchpotch Naxalite plot, while The Tashkent Files (2019) on the death of Lal Bahadur Shastri shows NGOs as “social terrorists” and Supreme Court judges as “judicial terrorists”.
“These films are driven either by ideology or opportunism; often the latter disguised as pro-establishment leanings,” says Kaveree Bamzai, senior journalist and author of The Three Khans. More importantly, they’re being accepted as peak entertainment.
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‘Kerala in your neighbourhood’
Indian scriptwriters, directors, and producers are simply drawing from real-life events, tapping into the cultural and political zeitgeist.
“There is Kerala in your neighbourhood. I do not wish to say more,” Home Minister Amit Shah said at a rally in Karnataka in 2023, hinting at the supposed “anti-national” elements in the state. He had earlier referred to the Malappuram district in Kerala as “mini Pakistan”.
Sudipto Sen’s The Kerala Story takes this sentiment forward, exploring “the true story” of 32,000 women from Kerala who were held captive in ISIS camps and converted to Islam. Panned by critics but praised by Modi, it crossed Rs 200 crore at the box office.
Many compared it to Agnihotri’s The Kashmir Files on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s, a movie that was also extolled by Modi and the BJP. The controversies and the political debates it sparked across India worked in its favour—the movie earned Rs 252 crores at the box office.
“Without enough information on complex issues in places like Kashmir or Kerala, films become a historical tool, and people have always believed movies as being historically accurate,” says Apeksha Priyadarshini, a film studies scholar at JNU. “So, extreme representation of a person or incident by a filmmaker pushes people to believe in a certain kind of narrative without the responsibility of not maintaining historical accuracy.” Disclaimers stating that the films are ‘inspired by real events’ only serve to exacerbate this trend.
None of these films are timid. According to film scholar Priyadarshini, Abhjijeet Panse’s hit film Thackery (2019), starring Nawazuddin Siddiqi, was a turning point.
“This trend of making biopics and pro-establishment films, of rewriting history, began with Thackeray. Earlier, films would tangentially refer to the demolition of Babri Masjid, but with this film, it became legitimised to show it and other instances of violent historical moments,” she said. The Marathi language film was produced by Rajya Sabha MP Sanjay Raut.
Since then, directors have become more brazen when revisiting polarising events, and audiences have become inured to it. Bastar: The Naxal Story is filled with sweeping generalisations in its denunciation of literals, industrialists, courts and the media. But Amarnath Jha, who wrote the screenplay along with Sen and Vipul Shah, insists that it’s not political.
“This is the reality of Maoism and the mothers of Bastar who suffered the most because of the Naxalite movement. It is not a political film, but an emotional film,” says Jha, who describes himself as a former Maoist.
Aditya Dhar’s Article 370 hit theatres in February 2024, bludgeoning viewers with its central message: The Modi government is single-handedly responsible for peace and prosperity in Jammu and Kashmir through the abrogation of Article 370. Politicians like Omar Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti are shown as power-hungry proponents of separatism and militancy. The film earned around Rs 50 crore in its first week.
“Not every film is working, but yes, the success of films like Article 370 and The Kerala Story gives the push for making such films. Even actors then choose as per the meatiness of their role,” says trade analyst Taran Adarsh.
A similar trend is gaining traction in other language films as well. The Telegu film, Razakar: The Silent Genocide, which was released on 15 March, revisits a bloody chapter in Hyderabad’s history when it was ruled by the seventh nizam, Mir Osman Ali Khan after Independence. The film focuses on the atrocities committed under his rule until the state was integrated into the Union on 17 September 1948. The movie is produced by Karnataka BJP’s Gudur Narayana Reddy, who is a candidate in the upcoming elections from the Bhuvanagiri assembly constituency.
In the zeal of showing forced conversions and how Hindus were terrorised by the militant group of Razakars, the movie does not acknowledge the role of communist leaders who led a mass movement against the Nizam ruler. In a way, Razakar is The Kashmir Files of the South.
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Real to reel—JNU in films
Filmmakers seem to be operating on the mantra that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. And JNU, a fading bastion for Left politics, is the perfect backdrop.
JNU has found itself in the eye of the storm ever since 2016, over the infamous sedition row that was sparked by allegations of anti-India sloganeering on the campus under the leadership of then-JNU Students Union leader Kanhaiya Kumar.
From the attack on students in January 2020 to the appointment of RSS-affiliated Shantishree Pandit as the university’s Vice Chancellor, there have been many attempts to censor the alleged ‘anti-national’ politics of the campus.
Screenings of some of the movies on the JNU campus have not happened without the mandatory protests and spectacle from all factions. When Sen and Jha were heading to JNU for the screening of Bastar on March 13, they were accompanied by bouncers. Sen told ThePrint that 400 students crowded the VC. “We only arranged for the screening for open discussion. How can they dismiss a movie before watching?” says Sen. About 40 members of the Student Federation of India (SFI) had gathered to object to the film being screened so close to the student elections on 22 March.
Roughly 50 minutes into the movie’s screening, there was a power cut, which continued for another hour. The director then alleged that SFI members had cut the power off, a statement upheld by an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) spokesperson.
“Such truths about the history are not found in our textbooks, and it is a commendable act by the director to bring it forward for everyone to see,” says Rohit Bamola, PhD research scholar at the Centre for African Studies, School of International Studies, JNU.
But not every student bought what Sen was selling. During the panel discussion held after the movie, one student pointed out how the depiction of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel who were attacked by the Naxalites seemed too far-fetched. In response, Sen claimed that he relied on eyewitness accounts to make the movie.
“It is the journalist’s job to at least Google the data instead of constantly asking me,” said Sen.
Emergency era movies
Political leaders make for good fodder for the movie industry.
“Our filmmaking was deeply influenced by Nehru, Gandhi till the 1960s. These were not propaganda films, but ideals adopted to modernise Indian society,” says political commentator and author Rasheed Kidwai.
The most powerful examples of anti-establishment resistance in filmmaking probably took place during the Emergency years, when a wave of political movies were critical of Indira Gandhi. Popular mainstream actors like Dev Anand stood firm against her iron fist rule.
In Gulzar’s Aandhi (1975), Aarti Devi (Suchitra Sen), dressed like Indira Gandhi, leaves her familial responsibilities behind to pursue political ambitions. While Gulzar categorically denied the movie was based on Indira Gandhi, the similarities were uncanny—from the white saree with blue border to the streak of grey on Devi’s hair.
A few months into its release, the film was banned on the alleged grounds of damaging the reputation of the Congress party. Two years later, when Gandhi was ousted from office, Gulzar finally agreed that it was based on the former PM. The film was rereleased and even streamed on Doordarshan.
Then there was IS Johar’s Nasbandi (1978) about Sanjay Gandhi’s forced sterilisation initiative. Johar roped in look-alikes of popular Bollywood actors such as Amitabh Bachchan, Manoj Kumar, Rajesh Khanna, and Shashi Kapoor for the movie. It, too, was banned but released later on TV.
Amrit Nahata’s Kissa Kursi Ka (1978) faced a similar fate when it received multiple cuts after the censor board reviewed it, and eventually, Sanjay Gandhi and then-Information and Broadcast Minister VC Shukla allegedly destroyed prints of the movie.
But what has transpired in the last few years, from political discussions, speeches, social media and now movies, is the trend of Nehru-bashing. It’s the best way to curry favour from the ruling party.
Actors and funds
In this new chapter of Bollywood, Akshay Kumar and Kangana Ranaut have emerged as the poster children for the BJP ideology. Apart from them, there is Anupam Kher in The Kashmir Files, Nana Patekar in The Vaccine War, Yami Gautam Dhar in Article 370.
“Those who are feeling let down by assuming that I support BJP are stupid. I like Narendra Modi as a politician and prime minister. I see Chanakya in him,” Piyush Mishra, narrator in the teaser of JNU: Jahangir National University, told ThePrint last year.
Raima Sen, whose last Hindi film was in 2016, returned to Bollywood with The Vaccine War last year and also starred in Bastar. In both films, she plays characters drawn from real life. In Bastar, she plays the role of activist, author, and Delhi University professor Nandini Sundar who had filed the petition to ban counter-insurgency group Salwa Judum; the case eventually led to the dissolution of the government-backed vigilante outfit. But in the film, Sundar is shown as an intellectual associated with the Naxalite movement who gathers funds to continue the cycle of violence in Chhattisgarh and forms alliances with foreign militant organisations.
In The Vaccine War, she is a spoof of journalist Rohini Singh who works for The Wire. In the film, she is shown as distributing ‘toolkit’ against the Covid vaccine in India and taking money from foreign pharma companies to question the efficacy of the vaccine.
Moreover, actors are lending their star power to Right-wing politics and events. Alia Bhatt, Ranbir Kapoor, Katrina Kaif, Vicky Kaushal, Ayushman Khurrana and Rohit Shetty were invited to the inauguration of Ram Mandir in Ayodhya on 22 January. Priyanka Chopra also made a trip to Ayodhya with husband and singer Nick Jonas and daughter Malti on 20 March.
The use of Bollywood as a vehicle to further political agenda isn’t unique to the BJP, though. Almost all political leaders—from Nehru to Barack Obama—have relied on star power to grab eyeballs.
“Even Nehru used Bollywood to extend India’s cultural diplomacy. Modi is doing it to push soft power like his Swachh Bharat Mission or the building of Ram Mandir,” says Kidwai.
No one seems to want to be on the wrong side of the person or party in power.
Soft power, reframing narratives
Political films are a way of exerting soft power, and most have the support of the central government. The Kashmir Files was declared tax-free in BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand, and Goa.
“I have heard that perhaps a film on Article 370 is going to be released this week. I think your ‘Jai Jai Kaar’ (cheers) are going to be heard all over the country,” Modi announced during a rally at Maulana Azad Stadium in Jammu on 20 February.
Even critics are on the same page. The Kashmir Files won two awards at the 69th National Film Awards; Uri: The Surgical Strike picked up four at the 66th National Film Awards.
“Ultimately, filmmakers are businessmen, and it is a double whammy if someone makes an anti-establishment movie, and it does not do well,” says Kidwai.
The other issue is the lack of resistance in the form of entertainment content and similar cultural mobilisation by the Opposition.
“The social, literary, and cultural organisations of BJP have an all-round cohesiveness and sense of purpose, from organising screenings in remote places to relaxing taxes,” says Kidwai. This has not only created business for the films, but also pushed the BJP agenda through pure socio-cultural intervention.
“Mamata [Banerjee], [Arvind] Kejriwal, and [MK] Stalin are powerful figures, they did not invest in cultural expression. They have no cultural or literary wing in their parties,” he adds.
In this mass deluge of propaganda movies, historical films like Ae Watan Mere Watan, which released this weekend, go almost unnoticed. The plot is centred around the unsung heroes of the freedom struggle and how 22-year-old Usha Mehta started an underground radio station during the Quit India movement.
However, Kidwai warns against underestimating or writing off the Indian movie-goer. His optimistic view is buoyed by the fact that not every pro-establishment film is commercially successful. Even Akshay Kumar and Kangana Ranaut have had to bite the dust on multiple occasions with flops like Samrat Prithviraj (2022) and Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi (2019).
“You can predict voting patterns, but you cannot always predict the taste of the audience. Often, adversity brings out the best of creativity. It can happen here too,” he says.
Views are personal.
(Edited by Humra Laeeq)
Not sure if you saw the movie, but Article 370 portrays a character similar to Farookh Abdullah not Omar. I mean, if you’re gonna write a full page article maybe do some basic research?