Globalizing Pakistani Identity Across the Border: the Politics of Crossover Stardom in the Hindi Film Industry
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View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by Via Sapientiae: The Institutional Repository at DePaul University DePaul University Via Sapientiae College of Communication Master of Arts Theses College of Communication Winter 3-19-2018 Globalizing Pakistani Identity Across The Border: The Politics of Crossover Stardom in the Hindi Film Industry Dina Khdair DePaul University, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://via.library.depaul.edu/cmnt Part of the Communication Commons Recommended Citation Khdair, Dina, "Globalizing Pakistani Identity Across The Border: The Politics of Crossover Stardom in the Hindi Film Industry" (2018). College of Communication Master of Arts Theses. 31. https://via.library.depaul.edu/cmnt/31 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the College of Communication at Via Sapientiae. It has been accepted for inclusion in College of Communication Master of Arts Theses by an authorized administrator of Via Sapientiae. For more information, please contact [email protected]. GLOBALIZING PAKISTANI IDENTITY ACROSS THE BORDER: THE POLITICS OF CROSSOVER STARDOM IN THE HINDI FILM INDUSTRY INTRODUCTION In 2010, Pakistani musician and actor Ali Zafar noted how “films and music are one of the greatest tools of bringing in peace and harmony between India and Pakistan. As both countries share a common passion – films and music can bridge the difference between the two.”1 In a more recent interview from May 2016, Zafar reflects on the unprecedented success of his career in India, celebrating his work in cinema as groundbreaking and forecasting a bright future for Indo-Pak collaborations in entertainment and culture.2 His optimism is signaled by a wish to reach an even larger global fan base, as he mentions his dream of working in Hollywood and joining other Indian émigré stars like Priyanka Chopra. Fast-forward four months, and Zafar and other Pakistani stars working in India were given a 48-hour ultimatum to evacuate the country following a deadly attack by alleged Pakistani terrorists on an Indian military base in Kashmir.3 Facing threats of violence from communalist groups and an industry ban suspending their current and 1 Press Trust of India, “Films, Music Can Bridge Indo-Pak Gap,” NDTV, July 15, 2010, http://movies.ndtv.com/movie_story.aspx?Section=Movies&ID=ENTEN20100146659&s ubcatg=MOVIESINDIA&keyword=bollywood&cp. 2 “There will be a lot more Indo-Pak collaboration in the future, says Ali Zafar,” Dawn.com, May 4, 2016, https://imaGes.dawn.com/news/1175268/there-will-be-a- lot-more-pak-india-collaboration-in-the-future-says-ali-zafar 3 France Press Agency, “Bollywood Film Set to Open in India After Pakistani Actor Ban,” TheGuardian.com, October 23, 2016, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/oct/23/bollywood-film-set-to-open-in-india- after-pakistani-actor-ban. 1 GLOBALIZING PAKISTANI IDENTITY ACROSS THE BORDER: THE POLITICS OF CROSSOVER STARDOM IN THE HINDI FILM INDUSTRY CHAPTER ONE: A HISTORICAL LEGACY The emergence of Pakistani crossover stars must be situated within an ongoing historical legacy of political, economic and cultural engagement between India and Pakistan, beginning with the watershed moment of both countries’ independence in 1947. The legacy of Partition has had a profound impact on national discourses, conflicts and modes of cultural representation between both countries. Likewise, it is impossible to discuss the development of commercial entertainment in either nation without examining the mutual origins and imbrication of both film industries during the early years of independence. This critical intersection between industries, along with the shared tapestry of North Indian culture and the linguistic dominance of Hindi-Urdu, have shaped the character of popular cinema in both countries, leaving a lasting impression on these institutions and their consequences for national identity. These conditions both enabled and constrained the possibilities for crossover stars historically. The strong foundational ties and internal similarities between both industries created a compelling impetus to exchange talent; indeed, isolating and defining the first crossover stars is difficult considering that migration and re-settlement was a formative phenomenon in the Hindi film industry following Partition. Where India ended and Pakistan began was a malleable idea physically, culturally, and mentally in the transitional phases of nationhood. However, the gradual inurement of nationalist discourse and the consequent “Othering” of Muslim/Pakistani identity in Hindi cinema 1 severely limited crossover migration, deterring the staying power of Pakistani stars on the rare occasions when they did grace Indian screens. This trend would be further exaggerated by political events after 1970, when both industries faced economic challenges and began to diverge structurally and culturally. The tide would not shift again until liberalization and globalization transformed the Indian and Pakistani economies in the 1990’s through the present. However, the reciprocal origins of both film industries remain an important factor in the historical migration and recent success of Pakistani crossover stars, just as the legacies of Partition and nationalist politics continue to impact their representation, popular reception and durability. The events surrounding the dissolution and Partition of British India in 1947 highlight, as Ian Talbot points out, the stark modernity of India and Pakistan as distinct political entities.1 The sudden and incongruous designation of geographic borders cut across vibrant co-existing communities, businesses, property and integral heritage sites, rupturing the everyday social and historical experience of millions of people while leading to the largest documented migration in human history, with an estimated 12.5 million refugees crossing the border to join both newly independent states.2 While the events leading to Partition are complex and multi-faceted, its roots in British colonial administration and systems of electoral representation grounded in religious determinism are central to its legacy. These forces and their attendant rhetoric gained momentum during the independence struggle; however, it was not until Partition that notions of identity based solely on religious affiliation were normalized, obfuscating traditional and 1 Ian Talbot, India and Pakistan: Inventing the Nation (New York: Oxford University Press, 2000), 6. 2 Ibid, 157. 2 more nuanced perceptions of identity organized around caste, language, class, and region.3 The result was some of the most violent sectarian massacres in recent history, while Partition itself created an immediate sense of ambiguous place and belonging both for those residing in the affected border provinces as well as for those who would now be considered minorities in a ‘foreign’ land because of their faith. Besides a number of forced migrations due to lost resources, family separation, or calculated ethnic cleansing campaigns, many of those who elected to migrate did so on a temporary basis, assuming they would return to their homelands and communities in the imminent future.4 The plight was especially difficult for women; at least 83,000 were raped, abducted and forcibly converted, compelled into new lives and families against their will.5 It was in the painful and contradictory crucible of Partition that national ideas about India and Pakistan were formed, and the borders between each nation solidified. The irony and emotional dissonance characterizing the aftermath of Partition gave rise to selective and deeply partisan histories regarding its provenance in both countries. The paradoxes of Partition’s foundational logic were thrown into relief as friends and neighbors murdered one another ruthlessly and people converted faiths simply to ensure their own safety, sometimes pledging allegiance to both nations or rejecting either.6 In addition, each nation had to absorb and justify hoards of refugees whose lives were uprooted for the sake of tenuous ideological ideals. As a result, national mythologies 3 Yasmin Khan, The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2007), 63-166. 4 Ibid, 105-166. 5 Ibid, 135. 6 Ibid, 151. 3 were built up around Partition; in India illegitimate Muslim claims to statehood were blamed for the loss of cherished territory and dreams of a united Hindustan, in addition to being the primary cause of heinous atrocities committed against Hindus and Sikhs. In contrast, Pakistani discourse emphasized the sanctity and destiny of the “Land of the Pure,” configuring refugees as sacrificial martyrs courageously fighting for a rightful Muslim state free from Hindu subjugation.7 In both official discourses mutual culpability in Partition-related violence is elided. Each nation’s history was thereby forged in response to a religious and culturally polarized “Other” that echoed long-standing colonial definitions of identity and political sovereignty – even as this opposed very different indigenous histories and social realities. This credo was strengthened by the bitter memories and injuries inflicted during Partition, generating durable feelings of resentment and suspicion against the “Other.” As Yasmin Khan persuasively argues, this “perceived aggression”8 on behalf of both states was the outcome of phobias exacerbated by the transitional phase of nation building post-independence, in which “the