Globalization has two components, a)”foreign” investment in completely indigenous products and markets, and b)some degree of homogenization or internationalization of products so that the same feature set can be offered to various markets with minimal adaptation. Think cars!

Companies such as Nissan, Hyundai, Ford, and others are heavily engaged in both aspects of globalization without drawing any criticism from the cultural nationalists of any country. No “pucca” Indian would demand that Mahindra not sell a vehicle as grotesquely American as the Jeep, which, incidentally, is one of the few vehicles capable of negotiating the tough terrains that pass for roads in my beloved country. I am waiting for some reverse brain drain when Tata’s “one lakh car” is sold by the truckload to Americans as the ultimate high-mileage, easy-to-park eco-friendly automobile for two.

Entertainment, however, tends to be visceral in nature, and one does feel betrayed, if not downright violated, by its rampant globalization. I find Ennis’s concerns quite understandable. But what is remarkable about the entertainment industry is that it has been global long before the term was even coined.

Since intellectual assets are easily portable and invisible to customs inspectors, Indian music, movies and books have freely absorbed and even plagiarized American and western content. Kishore Kumar, the absolute king of Bollywood music, sang literally hundreds of Rock n’ Roll and Latin tunes set to Hindi lyrics with great skill, and he is no less Indian for it. “Eena, Meena, Deeka” is still a fun Hindi song to me, just as “Omkara” is an absolutely riveting Hindi movie and, quite candidly, very different from the original, the great Bard’s “Othello.” Going back in time, Pankaj Mullick, the great singer from the Forties, broke musical ground by using the piano as his accompaniment. Piano must have sounded as strange to Indian ears in the Forties as sitar must have to western ears in the Sixties. Thanks, Beatles.

Therefore, what is unprecedented is not the globalization of content but rather the sheer magnitude of it facilitated by technology and travel in modern times. The question still remains. Is that good for a country’s artistic sensibility? Is that healthy for a people?

Obviously, human beings have limited time, energy and resources to devote to entertainment products, and the influx of more global content will definitely displace some traditional Indian content. You can feel that in Indian pop music already. Less and less Hindi songs these days are set to raag, bhajan, qawaali and geet, the traditional musical forms of India, (though historians would argue that many raagas and qawaali have “foreign” origins), and whatever classical music is tried in the name of innovation by the likes of A. R. Rahman, is as amusing as fusion cuisine. On the other hand, thanks to the same evil technology responsible for the so-called rape of Indian art forms, one can now enjoy classical Indian music in India 24X7 on satellite radio, and the stock of classical CD’s in the bazaars of India is growing exponentially. So it cuts both ways.

There is another point in defense of Disney besides the long tradition of globalization. Indian children today have the necessary awareness of western mores, primarily due to television and the internet, to accept a Disney product as quite naturally their own, just as my dad’s generation grew up on tea and mine on coffee, a highly western drink at least in the Northern India of my days. Aside from coffee, we had very little verbal or visual connection with the West, and a simple western nursery rhyme like “Georgie Porgie pudding and pie, kissed the girls and made them cry” was absolutely horrifying to us. What depravity! Yet, these out-of-cultural-context nursery rhymes were forced upon us. That is no longer the case with Indian children consuming a diet of Disney and Harry Potter.

There is one aspect of globalization in the entertainment industry I purposely did not address – “Foreign Direct Investment” (FDI) in the Indian entertainment industry. It is coming. The latest Sanjay Leela Bhansali film, “Saanvariya,” is a Sony product just like the Playstation. To the multinationals, a Bollywood movie is just another product with a target market and, hence, just another investment. Their money is probably a lot cleaner than the ill gotten gains poured into Bollywood by the likes of Daood Ibrahim.

If my comment seems to be pro-American, it is not by design, Entertainment is one industry where American capital and technology enjoys a distinct advantage over others for numerous reasons, most of them obvious. Expect more Americanization of content all over the world, just like you can expect a lot of Indianization of global IT, global CRM (customer relations management), global finance, and global medicine. Let Americans have their little mouse. We are going to operate on their hearts, replace their knees, build their networks and manage their customers. Happy?

The threat is overstated. If there’s one thing that’s NOT in short supply in India, it’s vacuous women on-screen

But you could be onto something. Has anyone noticed the increase in white stripper-esque backup dancers in bollywood productions these days? Do our local girls no longer aspire to the bright lights and stardom of being in the background of big bollywood productions?

It’s a pity that this noble profession is no longer held in the same high regard by our girls and that the field is slowly being encroached on by under-qualified foreigners.

Much in the same way as Disney muscled out Japan’s animation industry, I think they will try to steam roll Bollywood with their unscrupulous marketing machine and vacuous Hillary Duff clones.

…I always wondered why my little cousins in India were so obsessed with this stuff and it just clicked, Walt Disney is commanding them from beyond the grave to have horribe taste in music.

too funny…

although I find Disney in India to be sort of fascinating phenomena… my little cousin actually cried when they started dubbing “Lizzie McGuire” in Hindi and then promptly refused to watch it. but then again… when they dubbed “The Lion King” into Hindi she loved it… i guess she had issues hearing fluent Hindi come out of a 12 year old Hilary Duff’s mouth.

who knows?