India Culture, Business, Sports and Food. Get all the buzz in India now

Mahatma Gandhi saw only one film in his life, Vijay Bhatt’s Ram Rajya, and he thought even that was a waste of time. But it was not only Gandhi with this view. The Indian Government saw no place for films and other entertainment in its task of nation-building. Entertainment could give people wrong ideas and lead to chaos, the government felt. Thus, for the government, entertainment posed both a moral and a political problem. The answer was strict state control over radio and television, and no subsidies for cinema. Today entertainment has become a profitable industry. Economics has trumped morality. But if we consider the future of entertainment, the political questions remain, even if we do not agree with Gandhi or the Indian government. What form should entertainment take in India? Where is the chaos feared by the government? Or is it too soon to tell? The Indian government justified its monopoly over the airwaves by assuming that only it could have a vision of the common good, and could bridge the class differences in society. It feared that private businesses would simply cater to the rich and ignore the majority. It turned out that government monopoly was ineffective. After all, it is difficult for bureaucrats to legislate over culture. All India Radio and Doordarshan enjoyed captive audiences with no domestic competition, but it was film songs and feature films that audiences responded to. Though refused government support, Hindi cinema created an audience for itself. In the process, it came to define, along with regional cinema, the contours of mass entertainment in India. The end of government monopoly came about more than a decade ago. It has been replaced by scores of private channels, both in radio and TV. The avenues of communication have multiplied through satellite, cable, Internet and cell phones that can download streaming video. For private enterprises, the scope to fulfill the promise of an independent media is staggering. However, cinema and celebrity culture saturates the media environment. We have "breaking news" about Soha Ali Khan’s new wardrobe, and wire flashes about Salman Khan’s latest dust-up. Entertainment has become news, and news is judged by entertainment value.                                                       Rather than an expansion, we witness a narrowing of topics and a duplication of themes. The information revolution seems to have created a hall of mirrors, endlessly reflecting the same images. No one can pretend that the aspirations for [...]