Bollywood filmmaker says Islamophobia has spread into Indian cinema
Tigmanshu Dhulia says anti-Muslim prejudice in wider Indian society has entered film industry as filmmakers also increasingly fear legal action over their work
NEW DELHI, India (MNTV) — Prominent Bollywood filmmaker Tigmanshu Dhulia has said growing Islamophobia across Indian society has seeped into the country’s influential film industry, acknowledging concerns over anti-Muslim prejudice in an industry that has historically projected India’s religious and cultural diversity.
Dhulia, an acclaimed director, screenwriter and actor, made the remarks while delivering the keynote address at the Editors Guild of India’s Rajendra Mathur Memorial Lecture in New Delhi last week. His address examined the state of India’s media and film industry amid concerns over censorship, political influence and declining creative freedom.
Asked by veteran journalist and former Economic and Political Weekly editor Paranjoy Guha Thakurta whether Islamophobia had entered Mumbai’s film industry, popularly known as Bollywood, Dhulia said cinema could not remain insulated from prejudices spreading through wider society.
“Islamophobia spread across the whole society; the film industry isn’t isolated on Mount Everest,” Dhulia said, adding that filmmakers, as supposedly more sensitive members of society, should have been less susceptible to such prejudice.
Bollywood has faced growing criticism over the portrayal of Muslims in an increasingly polarized India.
Several commercially successful films in recent years have been accused by movie critics, scholars and Muslim groups of depicting Muslims as terrorists, invaders or demographic threats while presenting Hindu nationalist narratives as historical fact. Some politically charged films have also received public endorsements and tax concessions from governments controlled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party.
Dhulia noted that Bollywood once helped create a common cultural language through “Hindustani,” blending Hindi and Urdu words that could be understood across India’s linguistic and religious divides.
Dhulia also linked the changing film environment to growing pressure on creative expression.
Asked whether fear of police complaints and legal action now influences what filmmakers write, he acknowledged practicing self-censorship.
“If I got an opportunity right now and instinctively thought, ‘Hey, let me write this dialogue,’ I would have to think twice,” he said.
Dhulia also criticized the increasing corporatization of Bollywood and argued that commercial considerations had weakened storytelling, while maintaining that political ideology alone could not make successful cinema.
“Pictures don’t run on ideology; they run on craft,” he said.
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