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5 Shooting for Awara Paagal Deewana (dir. Vikram Bhatt, 2002) in New York City’s Times Square © Tejaswini Ganti, 2001 London, creating websites to promote their films, dubbing films into English, Spanish, and French, and subtitling them in English, Hebrew, and Japanese in order to expand their markets to include areas without significant South Asian diasporic populations. Hindi films have become a visible part of the media landscape in the West as evidenced by the premieres of films in prestigious international film festivals like Cannes, Venice, and Toronto; the screenings of films in mainstream cinemas such as London’s Leicester Square, New York’s Times Square, and even the IMAX in Indianapolis; the nomination of Lagaan (see chapter 4) for an Academy Award in the Best Foreign Film category in 2001; and the release of films like Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge, Terry Zwigoff’s Ghost World, and Lars von Trier’s Dancer in the Dark which explicitly reference popular Hindi cinema.

Though the industry associations were pleased with the level of unity displayed by the protest, it did not lead to any concrete changes in government policies. However, later in 1949, the central government appointed a Film 111 4 111 0111 1 111 4 111 0111 4 0111 41 Enquiry Committee comprising filmmakers and government officials to look into the problems of filmmaking and investigate issues relating to finance, distribution, exhibition, and taxation. In 1951 the Committee published its report, a comprehensive portrait of filmmaking in India at the time along with a series of recommendations, but, to the dismay of filmmakers the government ignored the report.

The press was rigidly censored and newspapers were barred from publishing the names of those arrested. Incidents of torture and even murder occurred in jails. In addition to political arrests, those placed under detention included “bad characters” and “antisocial” elements like smugglers, hoarders, and black marketeers. Indira Gandhi’s son, Sanjay, oversaw a national population policy involving the forced sterilization of millions of mostly poor men and women. He also initiated urban “beautification” projects, which involved demolishing poor neighborhoods and clearing slums, thereby displacing thousands of people.