India

THE STATE AND CINEMA

Although some film stars succeeded in politics, popular Hindi cinema has had an uneasy relationship with the Indian state. The resistance to state-imposed Hindi in education, public administration, radio, and television starkly contrasts with the commercial Hindi cinema's pan-Indian popularity and national status. This is even more significant in the case of Hindi film song lyrics, which are embraced across both linguistic and class boundaries, including the privileged, English-speaking upper echelons, who otherwise typically disdain popular cinema.

State-controlled radio's bid to exclude Hindi film music failed, but historically the state's efforts to regulate the industry through taxation and censorship, though contentious, have been more successful. The Motion Picture Association of India (IMPA), the official body representing industry interests, has consistently but unsuccessfully negotiated for lower taxes. A few low-budget artistic films and occasionally a popular feature film deemed "educational" might receive exemption from the stiff entertainment tax, but a certification by the Censor Board is mandatory for all general theater film releases and appears onscreen. The state assumes moral regulatory authority, insisting on cutting what it deems inappropriate representations of sexuality and violence as well as overtly political content. Hindi cinema has devised awkward strategies to circumvent censorship related to sexuality, creating its own unusual conventions, reminiscent of Hollywood films produced under the Production Code. A ban on screen kissing initially derived from the British censorship code was subsequently accepted by the industry in a curious mode of self-regulation that contrasts with the erotically charged "wet sari" scenes common in song sequences. Standing in for the kiss or intimate love scenes, lyrics, gestures, and body movements creatively suggest the erotics of romance and desire. The Indian state's role as an arbiter of morality and taste is most clearly seen in the patronage it offered cinema through the Film Finance Corporation (FFC), a financial and distribution platform established in 1960 (reconstituted as the National Film Development Corporation, an amalgamation of the FFC and the Indian Motion Picture Export Corporation in 1980), and the Film and Television Institute of India, a training school set up in 1961. Together these contributed to the emergence of art cinema in India suited almost exclusively to the taste and sensibility of the Indian literati.