The triumph of Modi propaganda in Bollywood
- As election season looms, a spate of recently released films seem to be directly channelling the Indian prime minister’s policies, presence and rhetoric
In May 2014, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a commanding majority at a general election after 30 years of coalition governments, an Indian magazine called Open published a cover story about the victory headlined “Triumph of the Will”.
This is also the name of a 1935 propaganda film by German auteur Leni Riefenstahl that was commissioned by none other than the leader of the Nazi Party, Adolf Hitler – whose name even appears in the opening credits.
If the magazine had made the connection deliberately then it did not publicly admit to it, though it would have been uncharacteristically prescient given the relationship between Modi and the movie industry that later developed.
If, on the other hand, its use was unintentional, then it only spoke of how clueless the magazine’s editorial staff were about propaganda and its toxic legacy in the 20th century.
Open began life as a small, whimsical, independent magazine that (full disclosure) I worked at until the week of that cover story. But in the run-up to the 2014 election it suddenly switched gears, emerging as a mouthpiece for the BJP and Modi’s core team especially. Despite widespread derision over the “Triumph of the Will” cover on social media, the magazine for its part has kept quiet.
