Kumar, Akshaya (2015) Provincialising Bollywood: Bhojpuri cinema and the vernacularisation of North Indian media. PhD thesis. https://theses.gla.ac.uk/6520/ Copyright and moral rights for this work are retained by the author A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge This work cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the author The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the author When referring to this work, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given Enlighten: Theses https://theses.gla.ac.uk/ [email protected] Provincialising Bollywood: Bhojpuri Cinema and the Vernacularisation of North Indian Media Akshaya Kumar Doctor of Philosophy University of Glasgow School of Culture and Creative Arts July 2015 © Akshaya Kumar 2015 Abstract This thesis is an investigation of the explosive growth of Bhojpuri cinema alongside the vernacularisation of north Indian media in the last decade. As these developments take place under the shadow of Bollywood, the thesis also studies the aesthetic, political, and infrastructural nature of the relationship between vernacular media industries – Bhojpuri in particular – and Bollywood. The thesis then argues that Bhojpuri cinema, even as it provincialises Bollywood, aspires to sit beside it instead of displacing it. The outrightly confrontational readings notwithstanding, the thesis grapples with the ways in which the vernacular departs from its corresponding cosmopolitan form and how it negotiates cultural representation as an industry. The two chapters in Part I provide a narrative account of the discourses and media-texts that saturate the Bhojpuri public sphere. The prevailing discourses and the dominant texts, the thesis argues, resonate with each other, but also delimit the destiny of Bhojpuri film and media. The tug of war between the cultural and economic valuations of the Bhojpuri commodity, as between enchantment and discontent with its representative prowess, as also between ‗traditional‘ values and reformist ‗modernity‘, leaves us within an uncomfortable zone. The thesis shows how aspirations to male stardom consolidate this territory and become the logic by which the industry output keeps growing, in spite of a failing media economy. Each of the three chapters in Part II traces the historical trajectory of language, gendered use of public space, and piracy, respectively. In this part, the thesis establishes the analytical provenance for the emergence of Bhojpuri cinema in particular, and vernacular media in general. While Bhojpuri media allows Bhojpuri to seek its autonomy from state- supported Hindi, it also occupied the fringe economy of rundown theatres as Bollywood sought to move towards the multiplexes. If the advent of audiocassettes led to the emergence of Bhojpuri media sanskar, the availability of the single-screen economy after the arrival of multiplexes cleared the space for the theatrical exhibition of Bhojpuri cinema. The suboptimal transactions of counterfeit media commodities, on the other hand, regulate the legal counterpart and widen the net of distribution beyond the film theatre. I argue that the suboptimal practices are embedded within the unstable meanwhile. As an occupant of this meanwhile temporality, Bhojpuri film and media, whether in rundown theatres or on cheap mobile phones, grow via contingent and strategic coalitions. 2 This thesis, then, argues that cinema as a form makes it possible for Bhojpuri speaking society to confront, and reconcile with, its own corporeality – the aural and visual footprints, the discursive and ideological blind spots, and the aspiration to break free. On account of the media economy and its power to ratify a new order of hierarchy via celebrity, Bhojpuri media threatens to transform the social order, yet remains open to the possibility of manipulation by which the old order could rechristen itself as new. 3 Table of Contents ABSTRACT 2 AUTHOR’S DECLARATION 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 7 CHAPTER 1 10 INTRODUCTION 10 METHODOLOGY AND LITERATURE REVIEW 16 PROVINCIALISING 28 BOLLYWOOD 30 WHITHER BHOJPUR? 31 PART I 35 CHAPTER 2 36 ‘SIRF AWAAZ BHOJPURI HAI [ONLY THE VOICE IS BHOJPURI]’ 36 THE BHOJPURI SPEAKING REGION (BSR) AND THE FIGURE OF THE ‘BIHARI’ 40 HISTORICISING THE CONTEMPORARY 45 SEARCHING FOR BHOJPUR 51 ENCHANTMENT AND DISCONTENT 57 THE DESWA DEBATE 69 FILMS, MUSIC, VIDEOS AND POLITICS: A VERY LONG ENGAGEMENT 79 CONCLUSION 84 CHAPTER 3 87 THE BHOJPURI PUBLIC SPHERE 87 SASURA BADA PAISAWALA [MY FATHER-IN-LAW IS VERY RICH] (2004) 92 THE BHOJPURI ‘SOCIAL’ 93 NIRAHUA RICKSHAWALA [NIRAHUA, THE RICKSHAW-PULLER] (2007) 97 ACTION-MELODRAMAS: INDIVIDUATION OF THE ‘SOCIAL’ 100 JAAN TERE NAAM [MY LIFE, FOR YOU] (2013) 106 NARRATIVE PRODUCTION OF STARDOM 111 THE DISCREET CHARM OF BHOJPURI CINEMA 112 THE BAWDY AND ITS REMEDIATIONS 118 THE ‘VULGAR’ PUBLIC SPHERE? 125 CONCLUSION 127 PART II 130 CHAPTER 4 131 THE BHOJPURI SANSKAR 131 THE HINDI-URDU CONSOLIDATION 132 THE VERNACULAR SANSKAR 137 BHOJPURI’S LOGIC OF DIFFERENCE 141 VERNACULARISATION, MELODRAMA AND ALIENATION 147 THE CONTEMPORARY BHOJPURI SANSKAR 150 CONCLUSION 152 CHAPTER 5 154 GENDERED LEISURE, GENDERED PROMISES 154 THE STRATIFICATION OF URBAN LEISURE 154 A SHORT HISTORY OF ‘FAMILY FILM’/ ‘ACTION CINEMA’ 157 GENDERED MIND-MAPS: SPACE, TIME AND LEISURE 160 4 PRODUCING ‘REARGUARD’ 166 MULTIPLEXING IMAGINATIONS: BHOJPURI CINEMA AS REARGUARD? 171 THE MISSING WOMEN 175 CONCLUSION 177 CHAPTER 6 180 OTHERWISE: SUBOPTIMAL TRANSACTIONS OF THE MEANWHILE 180 THE PIRATE REGULATION 182 TECHNOLOGIES OF THE MEANWHILE 185 THE MEANWHILE SELF 190 CONCLUSION 192 CONCLUSION 194 BIBLIOGRAPHY 205 5 Author’s Declaration I declare that this thesis has been composed solely by myself and that it has not been submitted, in whole or in part, in any previous application for a degree. Except where stated otherwise by reference or acknowledgment, the work presented is entirely my own. Signature: _______________________ Akshaya Kumar 6 Acknowledgement This thesis has been the outcome of a series of accidents that took an engineer, employed uncomfortably in Pune, first to Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), New Delhi, and then to the University of Glasgow. Behind most of these accidents were people who supported me through some very difficult and some very pleasing moments. This is an occasion to thank them all, some in letter and many others in spirit. For the completion of this research, my sincere gratitude is due to my supervisors – Dimitris Eleftheriotis and Ian Goode – who carefully read various drafts and offered numerous suggestions. The uneven and ambitious design of my thesis caused some difficulties; yet, with their patience and rigour, this research has benefited immensely. I am also deeply indebted to Brian Larkin, Tejaswini Ganti and Lotte Hoek for shaping my understanding of ethnography. Brian Larkin, for many prompt and detailed responses that shaped my entire outlook. Adrian Athique, Rajinder Dudrah, Anna Morcom and Stephen Hughes, for early encouragement. Francesca Orsini, for reading a chapter and providing meaningful feedback. Jane Gaines, at Columbia University, where I was a Visiting Scholar in Sep-Oct 2013, for many discussions and suggestions. Also, Partha Chatterjee, Sudipta Kaviraj, Arvind Rajagopal and Vasudha Dalmia who gave my ideas a patient hearing while I was in New York. Screen, the Film Studies journal, and the University of Glasgow, for the financial support without which this research could not have been undertaken. Karen Lury, in particular, for patiently responding to my endless questions, comments and requests. At the Center for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS), New Delhi, Aditya Nigam, Prathama Banerjee and Ravi Sundaram for the 2010 course ‗Researching the Contemporary‘. At the Center for the Study of Culture and Society (CSCS), Bangalore, SV Srinivas, for reintroducing me to Film Studies and persistently offering ideas and enlightening conversations. Ratnakar Tripathy, for sustained intellectual participation in my research design, sharing unpublished work, and putting me in touch with the key people for fieldwork. Ananya Mukherjee, for insisting on the research-worth of Bhojpuri Cinema, and pushing me down that path. Anyone who has conducted fieldwork knows how much one depends on certain people for navigating the field. My memory cannot possibly exhaust the names of all those who helped me across Bihar, Delhi and Mumbai. Rahul and his mother, for hosting me and sharing several joyful evenings. Uday Kumar, for his selfless support through difficult 7 times. Om Prakash Giri, whose motorbike I rode as pillion through Siwan, Chhapra and Gopalganj, for organising the meetings even before I had arrived. Sudheer in Sasaram, for various conversations across the town; Raviraj Patel and Shaibal Gupta of ADRI, Patna, for speaking in extraordinary detail. I am also indebted to Manoj Sinha, R N Dash, Rakesh Kapoor, Arvind Sharma, Chhaila Bihari, Raghvendra, Dhananjay, Manoj Siwani, Bhagwan Singh ‗Bhaskar‘, Vijay Shankar Pandey, Subhash Yadav, Tang Inayatpuri, Haroun Shailendra, Arunesh Niran, Sonu Sajan, Akarshak Raj ‗Golu‘, Raju Rasiya, Sikandar Saahil, Rustam Ali Chishti, Subhash Sharma, Shambhu Baba, K Sonu, Santosh Singh, Karun Raj, Sanjeet Madhoshi, Pooja Mehra, Mansoori Lal, ‗Sangeet Prabhakar‘