What’s in the Backdrop: Representation of Landscape in Bollywood Cinema

Abstract

Representation of landscape images is a ubiquitous feature of Bollywood films that provides cinematicscape to the storyline and aims to appeal to the sentiments and emotions of the audience by engaging with the narrative. Landscape images engage in the process of making and unmaking of meanings because of their symbolic value that constitute a sense of place and underpin human relations with immediate and distant spaces. Notwithstanding the ubiquity of its images in Bollywood cinema and its centrality to forming the collective imagination and, thereby, the sense of place for audience, landscape is yet to find its place in wider social discussion and debates, especially in the developing world. This paper critically examines the visual representation of landscape in Bollywood films and the various interpretations that can be found in both its production and consumption within the realm of the culture industry.