Creating a new space : India's new wave of urban independent cinema since 2010.

Abstract

The emergence of a new wave of independent films since 2010 is revolutionising Indian cinema and precipitating awareness in the public sphere. Contemporary scholarship thus far, has focused asymmetrically on Bollywood - India's dominant cultural signifier. My PhD research on new Indian 'Indie' cinema constitutes probably the first comprehensive academic analysis of this ongoing phenomenon. The Indies draw from India’s multiple contemporary socio-political discourses, often espousing narratives of marginalised individuals and communities in 'state of the nation' films. Adopting a postcolonial, postmodern theoretical framework, I posit the new Indian Indies as a glocal hybrid film form that has emerged from an interstitial or in-between space. I locate this middle space between India's current tryst with globalising modernity and its traditional past. My methodology includes in-depth interviews and close analyses of three independent films: Dhobi Ghat, Gandu and Peepli Live. My theory of a 'meta hegemony' is one of the core features of my thesis. I have devised this paradigm to investigate the historical hierarchy of hegemony in Indian and global cinema and to contextualise the Indies' emergence in a Bollywood-dominated cultural milieu. Ultimately, I presage the Indies growing influence in the future trajectory of Indian cinema.