9. “No One Thinks in Hindi Here”: Language Hierarchies in Bollywood

Abstract

“Immy, can you tone it down a bit?" I was watching a film shoot at the Marriott Renaissance in Mumbai in July 2014, and the director, Vikram Bhatt, was instructing the lead actor, Emraan Hashmi, about his body language during a tracking shot where he had to stride resolutely across the hotel’s ballroom. When Bhatt’s assistant director began to block the shot for Hashmi, Bhatt bellowed in Hindi from his position in the back of the room, “Arre beta, thode dheere se jaao! [Hey son, go a little slower!]." He then spoke on the phone in Gujarati with a marketing