Oct 13, 2025
We HAVE to export Indian Culture to a Non-Diaspora Audience
Exporting Indian Culture & establishing soft power is the key to India’s dominance in the next 50-100 years.
Note: Indian Diaspora, in this discussion, incorporates Indians (living in India) and NRIs both, not just Indian Diaspora in the conventional sense.
We've all enjoyed consuming American Media, be it laughing at Sheldon’s idiosyncrasies or geeking over Rick & Morty’s edgy humor.
We have absorbed American culture unknowingly, and idolized it. Holding it on a pedestal, a level above our own.
We look down upon Indian Awards, and salivate at the thought of firangiyo ki validation.
This is not just soft power. It's a superpower that countries like America have.
They have always been at the center of the cultural zeitgeist, dictating trends, validating individuals, and leeching talent from around the world, and regurgitating it as its own.
While we have our breakout, blockbuster movies like Animal, Kabir Singh, DDLJ, SOTY, GoW, the audience primarily consists of the Indian audience; residents & diaspora.
This is heavily contrasted by American Cinema, which is watched world-wide in almost equal proportion to the American diaspora & rest of the world.
We've all experienced, or atleast heard of franchises like Mission Impossible, Transformers, Fast & Furious, and whatnot, but can we say the same for our cinema being consumed by a non-Indian diaspora audience?
No, we cannot.
Soft power like this pushes a narrative of a country. It's built over years, by constant repetition of a coherent message.
Singapore = Rich. America = Technology. Dubai = Ultra Wealthy. France = Fashionable. China = New Technology Torchbearer.
This image, whether backed by the “truth” or not, was built over decades. Crafted with utmost detail.
Cinema is one gem in the gauntlet known as soft power.
We need that Parasite, we need that Slumdog Millionaire (however controversial it was), to push-away the mistique and build the right narrative of what India fucking is.
India isn't JUST poverty. India isn't JUST Bhandara.
India is a superpower.
We just need to push the right narrative to an audience which we have not tapped yet.
To push this narrative, language is not the biggest constraint; rather, it's the narrowminded nature of film makers.
Parasite is a Korean Film, yet we watched it, didn't we?
European shows like ‘How to sell drugs online' have such excellent dubbing, thus reaching a wider audience.
Transformative & authentic pieces of art like GoW, DevD, Gully Boy, etc, they have the potential to charm the fuck out of the world. But why don't they?
Why do Indian Media Personalities not appear in Western Content, be it podcasts, Advertisements, etc, yet we call foreign media Personalities to spruce up our marketing collaterals?
The world is our oyster, yet we choose to sit comfortably in our cushioned echo-chambers catering to only the Indian diaspora audience, and that sucks.
I'm tired of only seeing Western Content hailed as the pinnacle of cinema, Western artists as world-wide superstars, while our artists being relegated to being JUST national super-stars.
We do not lack talent. We lack the right audience.
Why are my stories not being told on a global stage? Why do I know of the American High School Culture while they know jackshit about the Indian schooling culture?
I'm confident that shows like Panchayat, Little Things, etc, would do wonders with a non-Indian diaspora audience, and trust me, language isn't the barrier.
K-dramas is a genre, with age-agnostic audience. Even my mother watches K-dramas.
Why are we okay with hailing SRK as India's Biggest Superstar, but someone like Brad Pitt, Ton Cruise, as the world's biggest superstar? Why are we okay with that? I fail to understand.
India has not invested in culture as much as it should, which is fine, considering that we needed to sort out the basic problems of Kapda, Gaadi & Makaan.
We have been stuck on the starting two tiers of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, to secure the fundamentals first, and that's fine. We're a very young country.
Anaecdotal Experience
As a member of Tier-1 GenZ India, here are some of my behavior traits, which are a constant in this target audience I belong to:
Bollywood is frowned upon, considered low-brow. Elitist mentality.
Indian universities are a sure-shot way of killing your personality & burying your passions.
Problems (in gist)
“Un-cool” & low-brow association by the Indian Elite & Tier-1 Audience.
Lack of capital investment by Government Bodies & Non-profit.
Lack of infrastructure to showcase art.
Solutions
Make Indian Tier-1, HNIs & Elite be torchbearers & advocates of Indian Culture. This will trickle down through the Economic Stratas.