Hindi cinema and its other

 Wider understandings of popular, commercial Hindi (Indian) cinema centre on discourses surrounding the ‘Bollywood’ machine. In these discussions, a critical exploration of Adivasi (Indigenous) representation in Hindi cinema is often left unexplored. Popular Hindi cinema as a World Cinema exerts tremendous influence in India, and indeed South Asia. However, it continues to provide essentialist representations of Adivasi communities in India. This paper discusses some of these representations in commercial Hindi cinema, by looking at examples of film texts with Adivasi characters. It also examines the difficulties involved in cinematic representations which are blind to multiple identities within the nation-state, in this case, how Adivasis are constructed within popular Hindi cinema as the ‘Other’, to an already existing ‘Other’ subaltern (Indian) mass.<br />This paper additionally explores some examples of how, rather than be ‘swamped’ by Hindi film’s cultural dominance, local audiences, particularly in Adivasi communities, are negotiating with it to their advantage. It is in these peripheral and under-represented communities, that local media traditions are blending with popular Hindi cinema to produce creative results. How such results are re-invigorating the Adivasi film and music industries is examined. <br />