Mapping movie genre evolution (1994 – 2019) using the role of cultural and temporal shifts: a thematic analysis

Movie genres

Altman (1984) stated that in simple terms, movie genres are perceived as generalized, identifiable structures which is predominant in Hollywood’s rhetoric. However, when scrutinized closely it was found that genres have multiple layers which has been studied by several theorists like Paul Hernadi, Tzvetan Todorov and Frederic Jameson. Altman specifically focuses on Todorov’s ideology of classifying genres into their semantic and syntactic attributes. Semantic approach typically investigates the visual traits presented in a cinema, such as the locations, characters, and sets. These visual cues are generally associated with a specific genre. For example, a Hollywood western has certain visual commonalities like an old salon, sturdy cowboys, a lonely sheriff and so on. On the other hand, the syntactic approach focuses on the structure of the narrative in which they are arranged. For example, if the western is taken into consideration, then we will notice that the narrative focuses on the protagonist’s journey who encounters his uncivilised double and is morally divided between two polarizing value systems. Altman states that although the semantic and syntactic approach provides deep insight on movie genres, they have been evaluated and analysed separately. He points out that while the semantic approach of understanding genre has “broad applicability” and can be applied to majority of the films, it has less explanatory power about the narrative’s structure (Altman 1984, pg. 11). Whereas, on the other hand the syntactic approach has stronger “meaning-bearing structures” (Altman 1984, pg. 11), while missing out on generic applicability. Thus, Altman proposes to combine both the approaches to understand the true nature of a film’s genre as they are complimentary in nature.

However, when it comes to Indian films, Madhava Prasad (2011) has stated that when compared to Hollywood, the distinction of genres has not been significant, and it is difficult to categorise them into their semantic and syntactic attributes. This is primarily because of the rise of the social films during the 1940’s, right around the independence and partition era which was a bricolage of several genres. The social genre primarily concentrated on reflecting the existing societal problems in its core narrative. It focused on several intercommunity disputes and sought to resolve them by promoting mutual trust and understanding. The social genre grew into prominence in the 1950s as major production houses understood the importance of producing films that aligns “with the changes in social attitudes” in order to cater to the contemporary demand of the audience (Vasudevan, 1996, pg. 64). With the aspiration to accumulate quick profit and lure the audience, Hindi filmmakers infused additional sensational attractions of action, romance, dance, and comedy into the social narrative structures that provided cultural meaning for the new era. However, industry observers staunchly believe that labelling majority of the films produced in the 1950s as socials is “superficial” and it is not justified to tag most of them as “socials” (Vasudevan, 2011, pg. 104). Nevertheless, for decades majority of the films produced in Bollywood were still labelled as socials up until the 1990s when the film industry saw a revolution in demarcating genres.

The advent of the economic liberalization and globalization era in the early 1990s brought forward a sea of change in the Indian lifestyle. As pointed out by Vasudevan (2011), the Indian cinema industry was also revolutionised during the same phase. The contemporary Indian film making style substantially differed from the “high-end family movies” which was synonymous with Indian cinema for decades (Vasudevan, 2011, pg. 383). Filmmakers were more inclined to make movies which led to genre diversification. Referring to Vasudevan’s (2011) literary essay on the changing landscape of film form and spectatorship in India, Madhava Prasad (2011, pg. 70) has also identified that the “self-conscious genre cinema” has emerged out to be a dominant aspect in the industry from the 90s. Modern filmmaker, Ram Gopal Verma, with commercial hits like Shiva (1989), Rangeela (1995), Satya (1998), Bhoot (2003) etc. is deemed to be one of the crucial figures who has given rise to the new genre cinema (Vasudevan, 2011). His production house, ‘Factory’ is regarded as a harbinger for letting contemporary filmmakers in producing new genre cinema in India. Vasudevan (2011, pg. 386), states that it was perhaps during this period, the Indian film industry achieved “Hollywood standards in terms narrative integration” for the first time.

Another major reason that fostered the emergence of the new genres was the lucrative export market for Indian films that opened up after the economic liberalization (Vasudevan, 2011). This period saw a surge in foreign investment in the Indian film industry. Foreign based companies (including non-resident Indians) started showing interest in producing Indian films (Vasudevan, 2011). These companies were interested to invest money only on content-oriented projects which aligned with the Hollywood style of filmmaking. They were strategically focusing on product differentiation which centred on nurturing new genres rather than sticking to the formulaic method of old Indian films. The corporatisation of the film industry also led to transparent financial protocols which supported several small players (film institute graduates and theatre professionals) to initiate off beat film projects financed by bank loans, independent financers and state film finance (Vasudevan, 2011). Furthermore, the reconstruction of the economic policy was complimented with a “massive sense of change” in the Indian population (Vasudevan, 2011, pg. 334). This change was specifically visible in the rapid transformation of the Indian lifestyle which was slowly starting to tilt towards the western notion of the consumeristic economy. Contemporary filmmakers were more inclined to cater the modern audience which was another reason that gave rise to new genres in India.

Thus, although we acknowledge the aspect of labelling Indian movies as the ‘hold-all social’ genres following the independence and partition era, we also cannot deny the emerging evidence of the rise of the self-conscious new genres in the Indian film industry after the economic liberalisation in the 90s (Prasad, 2011; Vasudevan, 2011). Inspired from the west, contemporary filmmakers in India charted an interesting pathway to introduce most of the conventions of the new genre style of filmmaking while retaining the essence of the socials’, i.e., addressing the issues of modern life in their narratives. And as the objective of the study was to comprehend the evolution of the genre preference in the Bollywood industry from 1994 till 2019, a phase which overlaps with the same time period which witnessed the emergence of the self-conscious genres, we have interpreted movies based on specific genres rather than considering them as “socials”, which is regarded as a “superficial” genre label by the industry as it did not do justice to majority of the movies to which it was applied (Prasad, 2011, pg. 71; Vasudevan, 2011, pg. 104). Secondly, we also do not deny the phenomenon of ‘genre mixing’ which is a routine activity in the industry as most of the contemporary popular Hindi films are hybrids (inspired from several genres) and still contains elements of melodrama, comedy, romance, action etc. in their narrative (Prasad, 2011). However, with a view to maintain parsimony in classifying the movies, the genres have been categorised based on their core-content. Let us take the example of Tiger Zinda Hai (2017). The movie had several elements like the comic banter between raw agent Tiger (Salman Khan) and Rakesh Prasad (Kumud Mishra), topping up with melodramatic romantic sequences between Tiger and Zoya (Katrina Kaif) that led to grand musical spectacles in Austria. The film also included the father son bonding component between Tiger and his young son Junior (Sartaaj Kakkar). However, despite being a blend of several elements, the focal point (core-content) of the movie revolves around patriotism and the action-packed faceoff between Tiger and Abu Usman (Sajjad Delafrooz), the leader of an Iraqi terrorist group in Ikrit. And thus, despite being a bricolage of several genres Tiger Zinda Hai is interpreted as an action movie. Similarly, URI – The surgical strike (2019) also has substantial melodramatic elements that revolved around Major Vihaan Singh Shergill’s (Vicky Kaushal) familial ties with his mother, sister and martyred brother-in-law. However, despite demonstrating the importance of family in the Indian culture, URI – The surgical strike is also categorised as an action movie as it primarily focuses on the fictional version of the true attacks by the Indian Army on the Pakistan occupied Kashmir as a retaliation to the 2016 terrorist attack in the peaceful town of Uri. Thus, here we intend to specify that although we acknowledge the prevalence of genre mixing, the classification of genres in this study is based primarily on the core-content of the movie.

Genre evolution - temporal shifts in content

The temporal fluid nature of the movie genre is the function of the social and cultural taste an audience undergoes over a time frame (Booth, 2012). This is a gradual change which takes place over the time, an example would be the way consumer behaviour and preferences changes over the due course of time which is mapped in the social cognitive theory (Schunk, 2012). A movie has the ability to depict a cultural confluence and enact a social change in its storyline. This makes a movie a powerful tool to generate an idea of change in the society and behaviour of the audience (Gross, 1985). The taste and time are linked and blending both these components help in creating the content for the audience to which they relate and resonate with their real world. The addition of subcultural developments, contextuality, and topical themes of content can be usefully understood as a component of an audience's tastes while choosing a particular genre (Bourdieu, 1984).

The cultural milieu of societies and the growing globalisation in a cyber era transcends time, distance, and place broadens the scope of cross-cultural amalgamation. The individual choices operate on beliefs, efficacy, sociocentric focus and influence (Bandura, 1997). These are influenced by the type of futures they seek to achieve collectively as a society. Socio-centric forces interact to re-shape the nature of cultural life, through rapid cultural and technological evolution in their beliefs, morals, social roles, and styles of behaviour. The nature of adaptability and learnability (Dobzhansky, 1972) helps the human species to remarkably evolve. The humans learn by observing, acquiring knowledge, attitudes, values, emotional proclivities, and competences through the rich fund of information conveyed by actual and symbolic modelling of behaviour in the movies (Bandura, 1986). The cultures develop and replicate themselves in the form of language, customs, and social practices. In a larger view, one can project the cultural patterns a society has gone through over time.

This agentic capacity rooted in beliefs of personal and collective efficacy to produce effects by one’s actions in a society influence the representation in genre of movies. Cultures are diverse and dynamic social systems which are not static and so is their influence on the current undercurrents integrated with content and influence on genre of movies.

Figure 1 helps us in understanding the evolving nature of genres over time. The genre of the movie is dependent on the kind of content satisfying the gratification needs of the audience and the gradual change in the nature and kind of content over the time influenced by subcultural developments taking place in the society. The content is levelled up from time to time to seep in the form of new storylines, genres and plots.

Figure 1. Temporal shift in content (Source: Created by researcher).

The choice of exposing oneself to a genre of content is personal to everyone. As stated, previous gratification studies conducted in the area of media listed quite a few moderating variables affecting choice. The choice of content is highly dependent on the personal gratification sought by the individual. The repeat behaviour or binge watching a certain kind of content is associated with fulfilment of cognitive and affective gratification needs. The objective of this study is to focus on understanding the evolution of movie genre preferences in India. This study will enable movie makers to identify popular genres that provides the highest gratification to the audience. The theoretical underpinning that supports the process of learning and unlearning behaviour is derived from the social cognitive theory, which explains that a movie genre is temporal and contextual in nature. Movie genres blend in the social and cultural undercurrents to design fresh content for the audience (Memory, 2008). Thus, movie genres are tweaked according to the changing human behaviour practiced at a particular point of time.

Movies and genre preference

Traditional motion picture researchers have always tried to generate a proper definition for the movie genre. However, with the passage of time, the idealist thought of defining a genre was discarded away and the overall collective belief of the audience was used to signify the genre for a movie (Tudor, 1986). Despite Tudor’s thought on genre being widely accepted in the movie literature, a handful of theorists such as Altman (1999) have described that as a movie genre is perceived differently by several user groups, it becomes fairly difficult to come up with a consensus that identifies the true definition of a movie genre. However, Altman’s theory shows very little interest in the consumption process of movie genres. His research on the consumption pattern of a movie genre remained highly abstract and was concerned with several “hypothetical spectators” rather than focusing on the actual behaviour of the society and the market (Jancovich, 2010). As researchers found it very difficult to find a collectively acceptable definition of genre, several theorists have tried to simplify the situation by distinguishing between the mainstream (genre) versus art (anti-genre) movies. Genre movies are defined as “commercial feature films which, through repetition and variation, tell familiar stories with familiar characters in familiar situations' (Keith, 1995). On the other hand, anti-genre movies are deemed to be free from the formulaic and repetitive storytelling style which is evident in the mainstream movies. As the focus of our research is based on the consumption pattern of top revenue grossing Bollywood movies in India, we focus on the mainstream definition of movie genre.

The relevance of understanding genre preference has been discussed by several researchers in the media literature. The most important aspect of the genre is that it helps the audience in anticipating the prospective storyline of a movie through trailers (Zufryden, 1996). In the first instance itself, the audiences consider watching or skipping the movie based on their genre preferences. Thus, it becomes very important for the producers to make movies that hits the sweet spot among the audience. This has motivated numerous researchers to conduct studies to comprehend the preference of movie genres in their country. For example, in the USA Brewer et al. (2009) analysed the top 100 revenue grossers released between 1997-2001. They reported that although a variety of genres were successful at the box office, violent and adrenaline genres such as horror and action were found to be having more attention seeking power. Meanwhile, Gazley et al. (2011) conducted a primary survey in New Zealand and comedies and dramas had more impact on the box office when compared to sci-fi or action movies. In 2012, Walls & McKenzie conducted a study to check whether Hollywood movies portraying American culture dominated the world movie market or whether Hollywood produced movies as per the demand of the world audience. They found out that compared to other genres only Hollywood action movies had a better collection throughout the world. They also pointed out that a successful run in the U.S. market does not guarantee profitable box office returns throughout the world due to cultural disparity. On similar lines Lauren et al. (2015) conducted a study on several undergraduates in the U.S. and found that as young Americans had fanciful expectations about romantic relationships, they were more inclined towards romantic drama movies when compared to other genres.

In China, Ye et al. (2018) were involved in a study in which they had to ascertain the diversity in genre preference between East Asian nations and countries belonging to Central Eastern Europe. Their study reported that the Asian nations were more inclined towards action-adventure movies compared to the European nations who displayed a higher preference for romantic and comedy genres. Soto-Sanfiel et al. (2019) conducted a similar study to analyze the relationship between adolescents and their movie watching preferences in eight different countries in Europe. They reported that comedy and adventure were the most popular genres and the preference for suspense, sci-fi and romance varied across countries. Nagaraj et al. (2019) analysed the Malaysian audience to determine the reason behind the degrading demand of Malaysian movies when compared to Hollywood. Their results depicted that the Malaysian audience had a higher preference for Hollywood because of their affinity towards action and horror genre movies. As Malaysian movies were not able to cater their needs, the audience shifted towards Hollywood movies. Jam et al. (2020) surveyed 400 respondents to study the preference of movie genres in Pakistan. Interestingly they reported that around 80% of the audiences were inclined towards patriotic movies as they were proud of their armed forces and such movies ignited a sense of eternal love for their country.

Analysis and results

To address the first objective of the study the researchers have considered analysing the trend of the top five revenue grossing genres between 1994 to 2019. A total of 105 movies are spread across the five genres. The genre with the highest frequency of movies is Romantic Dramas followed by Action, Family Drama, Comedy and Romantic Comedies. Figure 2 displays the trend of Romantic Dramas in Bollywood.

Figure 2. Romantic drama (Source: Created by researcher).

From Figure 2 it can be comprehended that the frequency of romantic dramas being commercially successful has drastically reduced after the early 2000s as compared to Action movies (see Figure 3), which has seen a steady growth after the early 2000s.

Figure 3. Action (Source: Created by researcher).

As depicted in Figure 4, it can be interpreted that the audiences have also started to lose interest in family dramas post 2010. Although the graph displays a huge spike in 2015, one should notice that only two mainstream family drama movies have managed to hit the top five spots over the last eight years.

Figure 4. Family drama (Source: Created by researcher).

When compared to the remaining genres, comedy films have managed to hold a steady graph after 2004 (see Figure 5). Except for the years 2013 and 2016, they have always secured a spot among the top five revenue grossers.

Figure 5. Comedy (Source: Created by researcher).

The final genre on the list is romantic comedies. It is deemed to be a hybrid genre as it is an amalgamation of comedy and romance. Romantic comedies are typically light-hearted, humorous stories which revolves around romantic ideals such as ‘true love’ (Filmbug, 2021). From Figure 6 it can be seen that although not as steady as comedy movies, romantic comedies have managed to pull off a balanced run over the last few years.

Figure 6. Romantic comedy (Source: Created by researcher).

For addressing the second objective, the researchers extracted the storyline (in text format) of 105 movies from boxofficeindia.comand imdb.com to conduct the TA. The data corpus consisted of 27,572 words, divided into five different genres. To recognize a specific pattern the researchers conducted TA on the textual data and generated several codes to understand them. The analysis follows the six- phase approach of TA (see Figure 7).

Figure 7. Six phase approach of Thematic Analysis (Adapted from Braun and Clarke 2006).

The first phase of the TA was to familiarize the researcher with the dataset. The researchers went through the dataset more than twice in order to highlight important points in the text for future analysis. Once the researchers were familiarized with the dataset, they manually coded the data in alignment with the research objectives. One should take into account that codes are not fully written up explanations, rather they are compact and small descriptions of the underlying text. The researchers followed a deductive method of coding. The deductive method of coding is used when the researcher is investigating a specific question and is anticipating a detailed and explicit description for only one specific aspect of the data (Boyatzis, 1998). To check the stability of the codes the researchers coded the transcriptions more than once. However, to improve the reproducibility of the codes, two external coders (having prior coding experience and keen interest in Bollywood films) were selected for the process. To avoid any misinterpretation, the coders were provided with instructions which clearly mentioned the objective and scope of the study along with the sampling procedure which helped the coder to set boundaries while coding. Finally, a total of 24 codes and 10 themes were extracted from the dataset which was spread across the five genres (see Table 2).

Based on the storyline of the movies, the researchers divided the overarching theme of romantic dramas into two broad domains. Firstly, ‘Restricted access to romantic relationships which was prevalent during the early 90s’ and secondly ‘Realistic portrayal of romantic relationships after 2000’. Similarly, the two overarching themes for family dramas were ‘addressing emotional conflicts during the 90s and early 2000s’ which gradually shifted their focus towards ‘addressing societal problems after the early 2000s’. Action movies were classified into three themes. Predominantly, ‘family revenge stories were common during the early 90s and early 2000s’ which slowly transformed towards addressing ‘national security threats after early 2000s’. Another theme that emerged with the on-set of the millennium was more focus on ‘female empowerment’ and strong female characters in action movies. While analysing comedy movies, the researchers found that the popularity of ‘slapstick comedies’ surged during the 2000s and is still going strong till date. And finally, the researchers attributed two broad themes with romantic comedies. Although there were a few hit romantic comedies in the early 90s, the major change was visible with the dawn of the twenty-first century. The two primary themes attributed with romantic comedies were their focus on ‘liberated lifestyle’ and ‘individual aspirations’ after the early 2000s.

Romantic drama

Theme 1: Restricted access to romantic relationships (early 1990s)

Culturally, India has been a country which is associated with arranged marriages. Although the Indian literature and scriptures reported the importance of love and romance in abundance, yet romantic relationships have not been a decisive factor in prospective marital alliance (Gupta, 1976). The prospect of a romantic relationship attracted social embarrassment and thus, despite their displeasure young individuals in India abstained from getting involved and expressing their love romantically (Bhalerao, 2018). Thus, the researchers theorize that most of the young individuals were deprived of romantic relationships, and they imagined themselves in the shoes of the main character and momentarily escaped reality by seeking out emotional closure from romantic movies. This made romantic dramas extremely popular in India. However, there was a drop in the popularity of romantic dramas over the last two decades as the Indian population started opening up about romantic relationships explicitly. With access to the internet and Hollywood content during the early 2000s, the Indian population was highly influenced by the liberal and independent lifestyle of the West.

One of the most evident features of the western civilization was the access to unrestricted “partner selection and relationship maintenance” (Bejanyan, 2015). As the modern Indian population was exposed to the western culture, the concept of dating evolved in the country which resulted in the growth of dating applications and love marriages (Gogaga, 2018). The process of selecting a life partner underwent a change in India. The decision of choosing their life-partners also became more of a personal choice than a family discussion (Sarkar and Rizzi, 2020). Thus, the researchers point out that, as the younger population found romantic closure through online dating and unobtrusive matchmaking in their workplace, they gradually distanced themselves from the highly redundant and melodramatic content of romantic movies (Gittel, 2017). This social change was reflected in the way the number of family dramas and romantic drama movies was reduced. The romantic movies were shifting to exposure and inclusion of liberal values and excluding family storylines out of them, making them unfit for family movie night affairs.

Theme 2: Realistic storylines (after 2000s)

Most of the Bollywood romantic movies in the 90s like Dilwale dulhaniya le jaenge (1995), Pardes (1997), Pyaar to hona hi tha (1998) etc. ended on a happy note, where the male and the female lead would get married and live happily ever after. However, with the decline in the popularity of such romantic movies during the early 2000s, the movie makers sought to reformulate the over-the-top melodramatic content of romantic movies by incorporating realistic storylines (Chakraborty, 2018). They started reflecting on the post marital disagreements between couples, which is a very common occurrence in India (Times of India, 2018). Culture and communication go hand in hand, the cross-culture communication theory (Tannen, 1983) helps us in understanding the phenomenon where the Indian audience shifted from positive stories to realistic stories and chased a practical slice of life content. This kind of content enables them to resonate more with their own life struggles, where each day might not end on a happy note. Thus, the young population of India have shown an inclination towards accepting realistic love stories which tends to capture the bitter and sweet aspects of a modern-day relationship (Filmfare, 2021). Furthermore, as people were becoming more aware of the societal problems in India, the inclusion of social messages in romantic films like Toilet – Ek Prem Katha (2017) and Pad-Man (2018) that propagated the importance of sanitary health or be it Sui-Dhaaga (2018) that glorified make in India products, overtly advocated several of the present government’s welfare and development schemes in the purview of a romantic backdrop which in turn also boosted their popularity. Thus, to keep the romance genre alive the movie makers transformed the content of Bollywood romantic dramas making them more realistic and relevant for the audience.

Family drama

Theme 1: Emotional Conflicts (1990s – early 2000)

This theme categorizes family movies that focus on the ego clash between the rich and the poor, intra family conflicts and moral dilemmas. These storytelling attributes were common till the early 2000s. The presence of a joint family was very common in all these movies. The primary content of these movies focused on the clash between diverse economic backgrounds, suppression of the female lead and demonstrating strong Indian family values. However, the popularity of family dramas saw a drastic fall after the early 2000s and their story telling style also transformed. The most visible change was in portrayal of an Indian family structure in a movie during the early 2000s. Researchers have pointed out that the traditional Indian family structure was predominantly based on the joint family culture for centuries (Sinha, 1984). However, urbanization and rapid industrialization impacted the society drastically by altering the employment scenario in the country. As most of the Indian population was slowly shifting from the joint family structure to a nuclear family structure, their taste in the family dramas also transformed over time. Opening up of Indian society in terms of family structure from joint to nuclear family structure brought in the concept of individual decision making. These changes were captured in the family drama movies as well. Family films steered clear from repeating the conventional storylines in order to cater the modern tastes of the audience (Vasudevan, 2011). For example, most of the successful family drama movies released during the 90s such as Hum aapke hain kaun (1994) and Hum saath saath hain (1999) depicted the conflicts faced within a joint family. However, with time Bollywood family dramas like Taare zameen par (2008) and My name is Khan (2010) started portraying the problems confronted in a nuclear family.

Theme 2: Addressing Societal Problems: (After early 2000)

With time, the family drama movies not only shifted their focus from joint to nuclear families, but they also started addressing societal and sensitive problems like child education, religious harmony and illegitimate childbirth. Movies like My name is Khan (2010), and Taare Zameen Par (2008) touched upon sensitive topics with a strong focus on nuclear family values. The audience found themselves more connected to stories which focused on the problems faced by a nuclear family due to the change in the overall family structure in the country (Jhambekar, 2015). Taking a lesson from the past, the movie-makers intentionally brought in the element of our contemporary culture with an amalgamation of social message to serve different needs of the society (Tannen, 1983). This reflected the changes the Indian society underwent at different times and contexts. The movies preach and bring the culture of acceptance of new reformative steps the society witnessed as a part of entertainment with fresh genres of movies and sometimes mixing two genres together.

Action

Theme 1: Family revenge stories (1990s – early 2000s)

Most of the popular blockbusters released in the 90s and 2000s like Karan Arjun (1995), Ghatak (1996) Soldier (1998) and Gadar (2001) were typically family revenge stories. However, with time this trend slowly changed, and family/romance driven revenge stories took a back seat after the early 2000s. The moviemakers realized that the audiences were drifting away from monotonous family driven action stories and thus, they reformulated their story-telling style. Furthermore, after the growth of the internet and influx of English movie channels via cable television during the early 2000s, the Indian audience was exposed to several Hollywood movies which also had an impact on their movie watching preference. As explained in the previous section, the taste of the audience was slowly shifting from family driven movies during the 2000s which had a spill over effect on the Action genre as well. This movie genre was completely influenced by western standards of sci-fi and action movies. The west was a step ahead in introducing this genre and the exposure to such content reformulated the way people made and watched action movies in India. Here, it is worthwhile to point out that although several Hollywood movies have wide releases, all genres are not successful everywhere. When compared to other genres like drama or comedy, action movies perform better than the others (Lee et al., 2009). One of the possible explanations of this phenomenon might be drawn from the concept of ‘cultural discount’, which states that a movie (comedy or drama) may have lower value for foreign audiences who lack the cultural expertise to wholly appreciate the film’s narrative (Lee, 2008). However, as graphic violence is one of the most universalistic elements in action movies, these films are culturally less discounted when compared to other genres, i.e., they are deemed to be a universal genre because of their widespread acceptance across the globe. Thus, we can postulate that the growing popularity of the Hollywood action movies had an impact on the audience’s movie watching preference in Bollywood.

Theme 2: Addressing national threats (Late 2000s)

The most popular Bollywood action blockbusters released in early 2000s like Dhoom (2004), Dhoom 2 (2007) and Ghajini (2008) were heavily inspired by Hollywood flicks. However, there was a drastic change in the content of Bollywood action movies after the 26/11 Taj Attack at Mumbai. A similar type of paradigm shift was also visible in Hollywood after the 9/11 World Trade Centre attack in New York. The world saw a rise of superhero movies being released in Hollywood, starting with Spiderman in May 2002. As America was grappling with immense grief, Hollywood’s response to this unjust tragedy was felt by the continuous release of superhero movies which instilled a sense of hope and reassurance among them (Hsiao, 2016). Based on the existing literature, the researchers of this study theorize that a similar course of events unfolded in Bollywood after the 26/11 attack in Taj at Mumbai. As the entire population was feeling insecure about the safety conditions in the country, Bollywood’s response to this scenario was to produce movies which presented the heroics of the Mumbai Police and the Indian Army. Movies like the Singham series, the Tiger series, Simmba (2018) and URI – the surgical strike (2019) became increasingly popular, where the main protagonists worked for the police or the army and fought against terrorist organizations, corrupt officers, drug abuse, human trafficking etc. The success of these movies even led to the creation of Rohit Shetty’s ‘cop universe’ and Yash Raj’s ‘spy universe’. Like many other developing nations, India also faced several threats and Bollywood’s response was to produce movies which instil a sense of faith and confidence in the Indian security forces. Thus, this study theorizes that as most of these action flicks tend to develop stories showcasing real national threats, it evokes a sense of patriotism and valour among the audience and hence they tend to feel more connected with them. Moreover, we can also map the changes in the action genre’s narrative with the ‘new India’s’ ideology that was adopted by the present government. Prime Minister Modi’s support for URI – the surgical strike (2019) at the inauguration of the National Museum at Mumbai (India today, 2019), paved the way for several filmmakers to produce bold and controversial, yet commercially successful movies that backed the present government’s pro-nationalistic ideology. Furthermore, movies like URI have also been instrumental in the pre-2019 election campaign in India by popularising the present regime’s ideology among the masses. Thus, as pro-nationalistic movies support the present regime, they become part of a political agenda giving them unequivocal popularity across the country. Literature also suggests that moviemakers in the past have also been involved in cine-politics by reflecting the reigning government’s ideology of a progressive India in their narratives (Prasad, 2001).

Theme 3: Female empowerment (Late 2000s)

One of the most crucial and visible transformations was the changing role of the female characters in Bollywood action movies. In most of the action blockbusters like Karan Arjun (1995), Jeet (1996), Soldier (1998) or Gadar (2001), the leading lady was portrayed as a damsel in distress who was ultimately saved by the male lead. However, the stereotypical portrayal of women in Bollywood saw a drastic change during the late 2000s. Action flicks like Ek Tha Tiger (2012), Singham Returns (2014), War (2019) and URI (2019) portrayed strong and self-reliant female characters, which was a rare occurrence in Bollywood action movies released during the 90s and early 2000s. Historically, women in India led a suppressed life and they were confined to taking care of their family only. However, India has been witnessing cultural and societal changes that promotes equality of opportunities to women in various domains of the society (Krishnan, 2019). Karandikar et al.’s (2021) study on Bollywood movies released between 2007 and 2017 also suggests that the female characters had a strong sense of individuality and rebellious mentality. This study primarily attributes these changes to the rising education level in India. Government schemes like the Ujjwala Scheme (2007) and Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Abhyan (2015) also helped to raise the awareness of the importance of the human rights of the female population in the country. These positive changes are also reflected in most of the contemporary Bollywood movies where the role of the female lead is not just confined to being a source of solace for her male counterpart.

The increasing literacy rate, reduction in number of female infanticides, participation of women in workforce, female-friendly labour laws and workplaces, and emergence of entrepreneurial ventures from women leaders, have changed the power structure of society (Nishi, 2021; Kaur, 2022; Hindrise 2022). Today equality is just not an abstract concept in India. It is a reality experienced by both males and females in the country which is aptly represented in movies like Ki&Ka (2016), English Vinglish (2012) and many more. The social cognitive theory of learning and unlearning (Schunk, 2012) of certain behaviours can be utilized here as the justification of the evolving nature of society, movie genres and audience taste preferences time and again.

Comedy

Theme 1: Rise of mainstream slapstick comedies.

The researchers found that the mainstream comedy movies became a consistent part of the top revenue grossers only after 2005. Prior to 2005, there were only two mainstream comedy movies that made it to the top five list. Post 2005, comedy films made it to the top five grossers more frequently. Interestingly, it was found that most of the popular comedies like Welcome (2007), Ready (2011), Housefull 2 (2012), Housefull 4 (2019) etc. were slapstick in nature where broad comedy, confusion and absurd situations were their prominent feature. The researchers attribute the growing popularity of slapstick comedies with the escapist mentality of the Indian audience. Escapism has been mostly associated with those individuals who seek retreat from their monotonous life (Katz and Foulkes, 1962). The authors point out that India as a country has been gradually going down in the happiness index list. India ranks 136 among the 146 surveyed countries and its average happiness score has dropped drastically from 4.77 in 2013 to 3.82 in 2022. More than 89% of the Indian population suffer from mental stress which makes India one of the most depressed countries in the world (India Today, 2019). The change in lifestyle of the younger generation, increasing working hours and no time for physical activities and hobbies has shifted people to seek enjoyment and fulfilment through movies. Which has shown an increased indulgence towards light-hearted happy movies. Thus, the researchers assume that because of a hectic and stressful lifestyle people are drawn towards slapstick comedies in order to relieve their mental tension. Hence, Bollywood has witnessed a sharp rise in the popularity of slapstick comedies.

Romantic comedies

Theme 1: Liberated lifestyle (after early 2000s)

Romantic comedies were an overt example of genre mixing. On one hand, when melodramatic romantic movies saw a dip in its popularity during the early 2000s, the popularity of comedy movies was on a rise. In order to revive the fading popularity of the romance genres, comedy was introduced in the former’s narrative structure. This is when several movie makers kickstarted the era of romantic comedies in India (Ajaz, 2019). This amalgamation of romance and humour brought forward a tectonic change in the portrayal of romantic characters in Bollywood. When compared to the older romantic movies, the principal characters in rom coms like Salaam Namaste (2005), Garam Masala (2005) and Love Aaj Kal (2009) had a much more liberated view of life and romance when compared to the melodramatic romantic movies. The portrayal of western ideologies like live in relationships, casual dating and polyamorous relationships was popularized by rom coms. As discussed in the earlier section (see Romantic dramas), the influence of western culture was vividly visible in India. Cross-cultural communication theory explains the need of adopting western culture concepts with an Indianized blend of values. The exposure the younger generation has been through the movies, going and living abroad and social media trickles down the effect in their behaviour and choices. The younger generation found themselves more connected with the bold and liberated idea of relationships and romance which was portrayed in the contemporary rom coms.

Theme 2: Individual aspirations (after early 2000s)

This theme captures another important aspect of romantic comedies i.e., the urge of young individuals to pursue their dreams and passion instead of following the usual societal norms of pursuing a regular nine-to-five job. As ‘follow your passion’ became the buzz phrase of the twenty-first century (Reneau, 2021), Bollywood movie makers also started portraying characters who were independent, optimistic, and open to an alternative form of lifestyle. The essence of this theme can be traced back to Bellah et al.’s (1996) proposition of expressive individualism. This form of individualism postulates that every individual has “a unique core of feeling and intuition that should unfold or be expressed if individuality is to be realized” (Bellah et al., 1996, pg. 340). Several rom coms like Love Aaj Kal (2009), Ajab Prem Ki Ghazab Kahani (2009) and Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani (2013) portrayed beliefs of a rebellious and progressive Indian society where the protagonists were ready to quit their monotonous jobs to follow their passion without any compromises. These characters reflected a contemporary lifestyle which was rebellious in nature and aligned with modern western ideologies. The confident and instinctive persona of the lead characters disregarding accepted social norms was appreciated by the young cohort. Furthermore, Karandikar et al.’s (2021) study suggested that the prevalence of rebellion² was far more evident for the female leads in Bollywood who sought for self-identity, liberation and discover the meaning of life. The researchers attribute this phenomenon with the social cognitive theory (Tyron, 2013), which provides an understanding about how people shape their behaviour and lifestyle through observational learning. It was found that the young population in India also started displaying similar attributes as they were increasingly seeking employment opportunities that aligns with their individual aspirations (World Economic Forum, 2018). Moreover, the emergence of the entrepreneurial culture in India, gave rise to more than hundred unicorns³ which provided a platform for young individuals to achieve their dreams (Invest India, 2021). Thus, the researchers theorize that as India as a country was going through an entrepreneurial wave, the audience felt more connected in watching movie characters who were willing to take risks in order to follow their passion.

Limitations and future studies

One of the major limitations of the study is that it excluded 25 out of the 130 selected movies. Those movies were spread across seven additional genres. As those 25 movies were inadequate to develop an adequate trend line for the analysis, they had to be dropped from the study. This resulted in the exclusion of genres like biopics, sports dramas and suspense thrillers which have become extremely popular in the recent past. For future studies, we suggest including a larger pool of movies to generate better results. Secondly, the Bollywood industry has been producing several internationally acclaimed films that do not follow the conventions of a commercial potboiler. These films, otherwise known as parallel or art cinema are an integral part of the film industry in India. Art films are seen different from the mainstream genre films for their affinity towards producing thought provoking content that leaves a lasting impression on the audience’s mind. These films are structured idiosyncratically in their narratives with an affinity towards portraying “realism and a high level of self-consciousness” in their movies (Berliner, 2018, pg. 66.). For example, Firaaq (2008), directed by Nandita Das, revolved around the aftermath of the 2002 communal riots in Gujarat which left thousands homeless. The story depicted the devastating impact of violence on the commoner’s life. The film garnered several national and international awards in the Cinequest film festival at San Jose, Thessaloniki film festival at Greece and so on for its unfeigned depiction of the post-riot situation. However, despite receiving critical acclamation, Firaaq sustained losses at the domestic box office. Similarly, there are many other art films like Dor (2006), No Smoking (2007), Peepli Live (2010) and so on, that chose to portray sensitive issues like the plight of a young widow, effect of excessive smoking and suicides committed by farmers in India. However, although these filmmakers’ bold vision on depicting sensitive content were critically acclaimed both globally and nationally, they did not manage to be commercially successful. Compared to commercial potboilers that focuses on providing the audience with a glossy congenial resolution at the end, neo-realistic art films like ‘Firaaq’ or ‘Peepli Live’ do not shy away from portraying harsh truths which leaves the audience with a poignant question (Gokulsing and Dissanayeke, 1998). And as majority of the audience is attracted towards movies providing them with “easy comfort and solace”, genre films are more popular (Hess Wright, 2012, pg. 60). Unlike popular genres, art films do not intend to restore the social status quo by providing a sense of ritual and order at the end of a movie, rather they provide a verisimilar representation of the community. However, as this study has primarily focused only on the commercially successful genres in Bollywood, for future, we suggest a careful analysis of art films as it can provide delicate insights on the socio-political changes in the nation. Lastly, although the context of the study was limited to movies, future researchers might also make an effort to comprehend the evolutionary changes of other entertainment avenues like gaming, music, advertisement etc.