Should Bollywood continue to engage with Pakistani artists?

Any event involving the physical presence of talent from Hindi films in Pakistan, or vice versa, is bound to make headlines. Perhaps that is why there is nothing exceptional about the first edition of Pakistan International Film Festival (PIFF), which kicked off in Karachi last week with actor-director Nandita Das, screenwriter Anjum Rajabali, filmmaker and music composer Vishal Bhardwaj and actor Vinay Pathak slated to participate in sessions.

Film and ideology

The festival had made some noise in India with the news of the screening of Baahubali, which has been accused of promoting a specific ideology here in India. The decision to screen it, while films such as Dangal and Naam Shabana – that promoted “India” – were banned, was being lauded as a step in the right direction.

One of the sessions at the festival was titled “Collaborations across borders: Possibilities and Future Directors”. Intriguingly enough, just a few days ago, a new Rahat Fateh Ali Khan song, Tab bhi tu, from the coming Shoojit Sircar film October, featuring Varun Dhawan and Banita Sandhu, seemed to have been the perfect precursor.

While on the one hand, these developments might seem like artists from across the border are once again welcome to collaborate and participate, on the other hand it makes the whole debate — whether Pakistani artists should be allowed to work here while their country seems to be more than involved in attacking India at every possible front — pointless.

There is little doubt about the degree of intrigue within India’s local news cycle when it comes to Pakistani actors. Every other day there is news of Mahira Khan dancing to a Hindi film song at some wedding or Filmfare honouring Fawad Khan with Best Cinematic Icon award at its Dubai launch and such. When questioned, the film industry is quick to point out that the Government of India does not stop issuing visas to Pakistanis, or take away the “Most Preferred Nation” for trade status given to the neighbour.

But does the film industry have the bandwidth to understand that a nation’s foreign policy is not that simple or uncomplicated, and needs to factor in a multitude of components, unlike some of the screenplays it prides itself on?

Policy outcomes

In an essay on a way to judge how successful a foreign policy was, Stephen M Walt commented that most policy outcomes are shaped as much by each country’s own decisions as they are by the presence and participation of other actors, including non-state. In this aspect, Bollywood’s decision to engage with talent from Pakistan is an indirect action but nonetheless has a significant impact on how India’s foreign policy plays out.

In 2010, Newsweek had called Pakistan the “world’s most dangerous country”, and if India took an all-out hard stand, the chances of the situation between the two countries getting worse are very high. The process of peace is also as important as the end result, and somewhere, Bollywood is right in extending its hand beyond the border. However, it needs to ask itself, at what cost?

Hindi films are a potent soft power tool and an equally dynamic instrument in ensuring the efficacy of India’s foreign policy. There is always a battle with uncertainty in foreign policy and it becomes more difficult as no one knows how any initiative would be greeted or our actions perceived by other societies.

Obvious answer

Therefore, the manner in which the government of India is trying to deal with Pakistan, such as trying to engage with the elected government despite a call for talking directly to the Army gaining momentum, continuing trade so that a large segment of society there doesn’t probably “tip over” to an anti-India stance, allowing people to visit each other even though cross-border infiltration bids continue to claim Indian lives, need to be aided.

So, when those engaged with Hindi films find expressing solidarity with the soldiers on the border and creatively engaging with artists from a nation that has a policy to kill them is nothing but high whataboutery. Pakistan is many things to many people and because of our joint pasts, maybe our futures cannot be too independent.

In such a scenario to have to come up with a feasible, practical plan for the road ahead is enough to make any foreign policy-maker go mad. Dealing with Pakistan when it comes to foreign policy reminds one of the fine art of preparing and eating a Japanese delicacy Fugu, or blowfish. This fish is more poisonous than cyanide and the smallest mistake in its preparation could be fatal, yet people throng to have it.

While one is not against the presence of talent from across the border, there is much more to it than what meets the eye and principally there ought not to be a dilution of our stance as a nation when it comes to security and safety. For Bollywood, the question is straightforward and the answer obvious.

(Courtesy of Mail Today)

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