Hindu-Muslim Relationship in Bollywood in post 26/11: A Content Analysis of Movies (2008-2018)

This study investigates the representations of Hindu-Muslim relationship inBollywood movies from 2008 to 2018. It is assumed that after 2008 Mumbaiterrorist attacks, which are known as 26/11, conflicts between Hindus andMuslims have escalated. Since Indian people are extreme fans of movies,especially Bollywood movies, in this regard, it is expected that media could playa significant role in increasing or alleviating the conflicts by influencing people’sattitudes and opinions. This research seeks to examine the extent and modality ofthe representation of Hindu-Muslim relationships in Bollywood after the 2008Mumbai attacks. The study was conducted through a content analysis of 11Bollywood movies, which were selected from 70 Muslim-characters-basedmovies. Favorable, unfavorable, neutral and unclear were the four factorsthrough which the movies’ contents were analyzed. The overall analysis of thesefactors indicate that 66.17% of the scenes were favorable, 14.70% wereunfavorable, 2.94% were neutral, and 16.17% presented unclear images ofHindu-Muslim relationship in Bollywood movies. The results also indicate thatBollywood is not only depicting a positive image of this relationship, but alsotries to tighten the bonds of the two religions, and in a broader sense, ties the twoneighboring countries, Pakistan and India.