With American cinema facing intense technological and financial challenges both at home and abroa... more With American cinema facing intense technological and financial challenges both at home and abroad, and with Indian media looking to globalize, there have been numerous high-profile institutional connections between Hollywood and Bombay cinema in the past few years. Many accounts have proclaimed India’s transformation in a relatively short period from a Hollywood outpost to a frontier of opportunity.
Orienting Hollywood moves beyond the conventional popular wisdom that Hollywood and Bombay cinema have only recently become intertwined because of economic priorities, instead uncovering a longer history of exchange. Through archival research, interviews, industry sources, policy documents, and cultural criticism, Nitin Govil not only documents encounters between Hollywood and India but also shows how connections were imagined over a century of screen exchange. Employing a comparative framework, Govil details the history of influence, traces the nature of interoperability, and textures the contact between Hollywood and Bombay cinema by exploring both the reality and imagination of encounter.
Hollywood’s experiences in South Asia reflect a dramatic encounter between the practical realitie... more Hollywood’s experiences in South Asia reflect a dramatic encounter between the practical realities of industry and the imaginative possibilities of alterity. This entanglement of finance and fantasy stretches back to global Hollywood’s early heyday. In the 1930s, for example, Hollywood’s imperial adventure films sought to engage South Asia as actual territory and narrative theme, following up on the popularity of ‘sepoy stories’ in the 1910s. Among the most popular of the 1930s films was The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935), which was also one of Adolf Hitler’s favourites, elevated by his belief that the film’s embrace of colonial and racial superiority could be instructive for the SS (Faber, 2008). Der Führer would be surprised to know that it was actually the Indian rebel’s threat in the film – ‘we have ways to make men talk’ – that would live in infamy as Hollywood’s preferred performance of despotic cruelty. Usually rendered in an exaggerated mock German accent – ve haf vays of m...
... the audience Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (p. [371]-431) and index Subjec... more ... the audience Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (p. [371]-431) and index Subject Motion picture industry -- California -- Los Angeles Motion picture industry -- Economic aspects -- California -- Los Angeles Motion picture industry -- Social aspects -- California -- Los ...
... the audience Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (p. [371]-431) and index Subjec... more ... the audience Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (p. [371]-431) and index Subject Motion picture industry -- California -- Los Angeles Motion picture industry -- Economic aspects -- California -- Los Angeles Motion picture industry -- Social aspects -- California -- Los ...
This article examines Hollywood’s attempts to curtail print duplication piracy in Bombay during t... more This article examines Hollywood’s attempts to curtail print duplication piracy in Bombay during the 1920s. The Thief of Bagdad, starring Douglas Fairbanks, was a massive international success for the Hollywood studio United Artists and their newly established Asian distribution network. Perhaps the most famous Hollywood release in India, Thief catapulted its star, Douglas Fairbanks, into the pantheon of Indian screen legends. In the late 1920s, United Artists discovered that Thief was being illegally distributed and exhibited in India and filed a series of legal actions in the Bombay courts. This article examines the extensive legal record of these cases—alongside letters, memos, and other studio correspondence—in order to reveal the topography of international distribution and its legal and non-legal circuits. We argue that Hollywood’s problems in curtailing the so-called “Bombay piracies” demonstrate the contradictions of international intellectual property enforcement at a critical early juncture in media globalization.
nation must come together to unite " (Bush 2001). was quickly enshrined in the lexicon of pr... more nation must come together to unite " (Bush 2001). was quickly enshrined in the lexicon of presidential yuk-yuks by his detractors on the US political left. It would soon become clear, however, that there was some method in his malapropism (if not in his mad-ness). After September 11th of the same year, Bush's tautological reasoning would frame the project of a resurgent American self-justification, where the nation served to both describe the state of social col-lectivity and prescribe the role of the state in securing its formation around the world. Read against the cur-rent geopolitics of military intervention, where effects are manufactured to precede causes, Bush's flaunting of rhetorical convention in order to justify the open jurisdiction of American unilateralism reminds us
Magni passus extra viam - yasadigimiz her gecen gun- icler acisi bir ilerleme halinde karsimiza c... more Magni passus extra viam - yasadigimiz her gecen gun- icler acisi bir ilerleme halinde karsimiza cikan film sanati ve endustrisinin gunahi ve ahlak bozuklugunu gosteren sahneler icermesi nedeniyle derinden ofkeliyiz... Her gun milyonlarca insanin bu filmleri seyretmeye gittigini soylememize bile gerek yok; bu sinema salonlari uygar ve yari-uygar ulkelerde her gecen gun daha da cogaliyor; bu filmler yalnizca zenginlerin degil fakat toplumun butun siniflarinin bos zamanlarina sunulmaktadir ve sapkinligin en populer bicimini olusturuyorlar." -Papa XI. Pius, 1936- "Hollywood, dunyadaki ABD'nin en guclu silahi ile 400 milyonluk halkin boylesine kulturel olarak dollenmesi isini ustlendi. Film ustune filmler, iki savas boyunca Hindistan'a gonderildi - filmler bize rumba ve samba yapmayi ogretti. Filmler bize kumrular gibi sevismeyi ve kur yapmayi ogretti. Filmler bize oldurmeyi ve calmayi ogretti; filmler bize 'Hi' ve 'Gee' (merhaba ve hay Allah anlamlarina...
With American cinema facing intense technological and financial challenges both at home and abroa... more With American cinema facing intense technological and financial challenges both at home and abroad, and with Indian media looking to globalize, there have been numerous high-profile institutional connections between Hollywood and Bombay cinema in the past few years. Many accounts have proclaimed India’s transformation in a relatively short period from a Hollywood outpost to a frontier of opportunity.
Orienting Hollywood moves beyond the conventional popular wisdom that Hollywood and Bombay cinema have only recently become intertwined because of economic priorities, instead uncovering a longer history of exchange. Through archival research, interviews, industry sources, policy documents, and cultural criticism, Nitin Govil not only documents encounters between Hollywood and India but also shows how connections were imagined over a century of screen exchange. Employing a comparative framework, Govil details the history of influence, traces the nature of interoperability, and textures the contact between Hollywood and Bombay cinema by exploring both the reality and imagination of encounter.
Hollywood’s experiences in South Asia reflect a dramatic encounter between the practical realitie... more Hollywood’s experiences in South Asia reflect a dramatic encounter between the practical realities of industry and the imaginative possibilities of alterity. This entanglement of finance and fantasy stretches back to global Hollywood’s early heyday. In the 1930s, for example, Hollywood’s imperial adventure films sought to engage South Asia as actual territory and narrative theme, following up on the popularity of ‘sepoy stories’ in the 1910s. Among the most popular of the 1930s films was The Lives of a Bengal Lancer (1935), which was also one of Adolf Hitler’s favourites, elevated by his belief that the film’s embrace of colonial and racial superiority could be instructive for the SS (Faber, 2008). Der Führer would be surprised to know that it was actually the Indian rebel’s threat in the film – ‘we have ways to make men talk’ – that would live in infamy as Hollywood’s preferred performance of despotic cruelty. Usually rendered in an exaggerated mock German accent – ve haf vays of m...
... the audience Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (p. [371]-431) and index Subjec... more ... the audience Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (p. [371]-431) and index Subject Motion picture industry -- California -- Los Angeles Motion picture industry -- Economic aspects -- California -- Los Angeles Motion picture industry -- Social aspects -- California -- Los ...
... the audience Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (p. [371]-431) and index Subjec... more ... the audience Bibliography Includes bibliographical references (p. [371]-431) and index Subject Motion picture industry -- California -- Los Angeles Motion picture industry -- Economic aspects -- California -- Los Angeles Motion picture industry -- Social aspects -- California -- Los ...
This article examines Hollywood’s attempts to curtail print duplication piracy in Bombay during t... more This article examines Hollywood’s attempts to curtail print duplication piracy in Bombay during the 1920s. The Thief of Bagdad, starring Douglas Fairbanks, was a massive international success for the Hollywood studio United Artists and their newly established Asian distribution network. Perhaps the most famous Hollywood release in India, Thief catapulted its star, Douglas Fairbanks, into the pantheon of Indian screen legends. In the late 1920s, United Artists discovered that Thief was being illegally distributed and exhibited in India and filed a series of legal actions in the Bombay courts. This article examines the extensive legal record of these cases—alongside letters, memos, and other studio correspondence—in order to reveal the topography of international distribution and its legal and non-legal circuits. We argue that Hollywood’s problems in curtailing the so-called “Bombay piracies” demonstrate the contradictions of international intellectual property enforcement at a critical early juncture in media globalization.
nation must come together to unite " (Bush 2001). was quickly enshrined in the lexicon of pr... more nation must come together to unite " (Bush 2001). was quickly enshrined in the lexicon of presidential yuk-yuks by his detractors on the US political left. It would soon become clear, however, that there was some method in his malapropism (if not in his mad-ness). After September 11th of the same year, Bush's tautological reasoning would frame the project of a resurgent American self-justification, where the nation served to both describe the state of social col-lectivity and prescribe the role of the state in securing its formation around the world. Read against the cur-rent geopolitics of military intervention, where effects are manufactured to precede causes, Bush's flaunting of rhetorical convention in order to justify the open jurisdiction of American unilateralism reminds us
Magni passus extra viam - yasadigimiz her gecen gun- icler acisi bir ilerleme halinde karsimiza c... more Magni passus extra viam - yasadigimiz her gecen gun- icler acisi bir ilerleme halinde karsimiza cikan film sanati ve endustrisinin gunahi ve ahlak bozuklugunu gosteren sahneler icermesi nedeniyle derinden ofkeliyiz... Her gun milyonlarca insanin bu filmleri seyretmeye gittigini soylememize bile gerek yok; bu sinema salonlari uygar ve yari-uygar ulkelerde her gecen gun daha da cogaliyor; bu filmler yalnizca zenginlerin degil fakat toplumun butun siniflarinin bos zamanlarina sunulmaktadir ve sapkinligin en populer bicimini olusturuyorlar." -Papa XI. Pius, 1936- "Hollywood, dunyadaki ABD'nin en guclu silahi ile 400 milyonluk halkin boylesine kulturel olarak dollenmesi isini ustlendi. Film ustune filmler, iki savas boyunca Hindistan'a gonderildi - filmler bize rumba ve samba yapmayi ogretti. Filmler bize kumrular gibi sevismeyi ve kur yapmayi ogretti. Filmler bize oldurmeyi ve calmayi ogretti; filmler bize 'Hi' ve 'Gee' (merhaba ve hay Allah anlamlarina...
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Books by Nitin Govil
Orienting Hollywood moves beyond the conventional popular wisdom that Hollywood and Bombay cinema have only recently become intertwined because of economic priorities, instead uncovering a longer history of exchange. Through archival research, interviews, industry sources, policy documents, and cultural criticism, Nitin Govil not only documents encounters between Hollywood and India but also shows how connections were imagined over a century of screen exchange. Employing a comparative framework, Govil details the history of influence, traces the nature of interoperability, and textures the contact between Hollywood and Bombay cinema by exploring both the reality and imagination of encounter.
Papers by Nitin Govil
Orienting Hollywood moves beyond the conventional popular wisdom that Hollywood and Bombay cinema have only recently become intertwined because of economic priorities, instead uncovering a longer history of exchange. Through archival research, interviews, industry sources, policy documents, and cultural criticism, Nitin Govil not only documents encounters between Hollywood and India but also shows how connections were imagined over a century of screen exchange. Employing a comparative framework, Govil details the history of influence, traces the nature of interoperability, and textures the contact between Hollywood and Bombay cinema by exploring both the reality and imagination of encounter.