The Bollywood-ization of Pakistan
Indian culture is deeply entrenched in Pakistani minds.
Effect of Indian culture ‘is undeniable and it’s constantly increasing,’ Lahore analyst says
LAHORE, Pakistan–Sana Khan is engrossed in preparing for her wedding, planned for mid-December.
She’s made the rounds of most designer shops in Lahore, checked out the city’s jewellers and has begun a regimen of soothing facials and body massages, guaranteed to make her glow on the big day.
But Khan, 26, who works as an advertising executive and earns about $650 per month, still has to do the most important part of her bridal shopping – a trip to India.
“I am planning to buy at least 50 per cent of my dowry from Delhi and Jaipur,” she said, giggling with joy at the prospect of a shopping spree in India. “I may even order my bridal there.”
Humaira Khawaja, 27, whose brother recently got married in Lahore, has a word of advice for Khan: one trip may not be enough, since she made three trips to India before her brother’s wedding.
“All our clothes came from India,” said Khawaja, who works with her father at his carpet factory. “All the clothes we gave the bride were Indian, her jewellery came from India and all of our clothes – meaning my sister, nieces, mother – also came from India.”
Her reason for preferring merchandise from across the border is simple: “Their workmanship and design elements are so much better than ours. We are nowhere close to them,” she said.
At a time when relations between India and Pakistan have once again soured – with both sides blaming each other for recent terrorist attacks – the Bollywood-ization of Pakistan is continuing at full throttle.
“The effect of Indian society on our culture is undeniable and it’s constantly increasing,” said Amjad Islam Amjad, a cultural commentator based in Lahore.
“We’re so much in awe of them that in every aspect of our culture we bow down to them, whether it’s imitating their clothes or dances.”
While Indian traditions are peacefully taking over Pakistani culture, the two countries have shared a hostile past. Since the split of 1947, when the British raj dismantled its empire, the neighbours have shared a troubled history. For many years they’ve remained archrivals and have fought two wars – in 1961 and 1975.
This was followed by the bitter Kargil offensive in 1999 in the ongoing dispute over Kashmir.
“The Kargil offensive completely ruptured relationships between Pakistan and India,” said Rasool Baksh Raees, a political analyst and professor at the Lahore University of Management Sciences.
“It has taken us years to mend the situation and the wounds are still fresh.”
Since 1999, numerous joint initiatives have taken place including bus travel, cricket matches, joint productions in movies and fashion shows of designers from both countries. All these moves led to an acceleration of the Bollywood-ization of Pakistan.
“Their culture is more developed, stronger and more powerful than ours,” said Amjad. “Also, they’ve marketed themselves so well that it’s easy for us to believe they are better.”
In Pakistani cinemas, Indian films draw huge audiences while the majority of local productions play to empty or half-filled houses. Bollywood celebrities are so popular in Pakistan, event managers prefer booking Indian actors and models to Pakistani celebrities – even if it means paying them 10 times the price of a local entertainer.
At street stalls, vendors market glass bangles by naming them after popular Indian television shows.
Hajra Hayat, a fashion designer, recently became convinced of the Bollywood-ization of Pakistan when she attended a Holi function during a friend’s wedding. Holi is an Indian festival where attendees throw coloured powder.
Recently, the Pakistani elite have begun celebrating Holis as part of their wedding extravaganzas.
“We’re definitely awestruck by the Indians, more so now than before, which is a testament to the great job their media is doing in marketing their culture,” said Hayat.
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“I sometimes get brides asking for an outfit to be made in the same colours as the ones that Aishwarya Rai or Kareena Kapoor wore in a certain Indian film. I never get requests from a bride inspired by a Pakistani actress.”
Cultural expert and short-story writer Afra Bukhari says Pakistanis are eager to imitate the Indians because they are progressing at a faster rate than us.
“Their economy is doing better than ours, their political situation is more stable than ours and they are held in greater esteem by the rest of the world,” said Bukhari. “We believe imitating them would help us do better too.”
But event manager Ayesha Meezan says sometimes the urge to imitate goes too far.
“We often get couples eager to get the Devdas look for their weddings (Devdas is a popular Indian film based on an epic tale of love),” she said. “They’re not even willing to consider a theme more indigenous to Pakistan.”
But Khan has turned a blind eye to politics and tradition.
“Whatever is going on between the two countries won’t affect my decision to go to India to shop, and neither should it.”