Theorising cult cosmopolitanism: the transnational reception of Bollywood as cult cinema

Abstract

Despite India’s status as one of the leading centres of global film production, and the passion for Bollywood exhibited by fans worldwide, it is notable that Indian cinema very rarely features within lists of cult films compiled by scholars or fans in the West. Unlike the popular cinemas of Hong Kong and Japan, which have built up a significant transnational cult following, Bollywood has been relatively absent from the established canons of cult cinema. In recent years, however, a number of websites and fan publications have started to frame Indian cinema as an object of cult interest and this is therefore an opportune moment to explore the cultural politics of this burgeoning form of transnational reception. In proposing that we theorise this as ‘cult cosmopolitanism’ – designating the cosmopolitan embrace of cultural difference through cult reception practices – this article considers the implications that this phenomenon has for our understanding of the transnational circulation of Indian cinema and global popular cinemas more generally.

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