Editorial Note
In Bollywood and pan-India, progressive filmmakers, actors and critics face significant challenges in expressing dissent against the Hindutva agenda.
In India, movies transcend entertainment and cathartic sensibilities. It often regresses into the distorted realms of individual and mass sensitivities, blurring the lines between mythology and history, fact and fiction, reel and real life. The consequences are demi-god movie stars, undulating fans and hypersensitive fan-clubs, collective hysteria and suspension of critical faculties epitomizing the Indian metaphysical concept of “Maya” applied to the mundane world. Bollywood represents the Indian movie industry to the outside world, eclipsing the relevance, content and aesthetics of thriving regional movies.