Politics of Linguistic, Cultural Recovery and Reassertion

SPECIAL ARTICLE 

Politics of Linguistic, Cultural Recovery 

and Reassertion 

Bhojpuri Migrant Population and Its Films 

Kumool Abbi 

This paper is a study of the particular challenges posed 

by the speakers of dominated or submerged mother 

tongues to the hegemony of the officially recognised 

Hindi language in North India. It deals with the 

subversion of Hindi language in the cow-belt through 

the medium of cinema, particularly popular Bhojpuri 

cinema, which is also linked to the processes of internal 

migration and formation of identity. It does so by 

analysing two popular Bhojpuri films – Deshdrohi and 

Ek Bihari Sau Pe Bhari. 

Kumool Abbi (abbikumool@yahoo.co.in) is with the Department of 

Sociology, Panjab University, Chandigarh. 

54 

This paper is an attempt to understand the linkages 

between the processes of migration across state or 

national boundaries, and their relationship with the 

politics of linguistic as well as cultural recovery and reassertion 

in north India. In particular, the challenges posed by the 

speakers of dominated or submerged mother tongues to the 

hegemony of the officially-recognised Hindi language. These 

mother tongues have thus come to be recognised as dialects 

of the Hindi language and as such inferior. Their speakers 

too are deemed as rustic and culturally less sophisticated. 

To seek the above understanding, the paper mainly focuses 

on the medium of popular cinema to which the migrants 

not only extend patronage in large numbers, but 

which also gives dignity and recognition to them as something 

very close to their hearts. In the process the paper also 

highlights how the culturally unsophisticated poor in their 

search for entertainment learn to cross linguistic and cultural 

barriers with critical implications for cross-language 

communication, which is as yet hardly identified and understood. 

Needless to add, the paper explores an unconventional 

and difficult-to-study topic across different mother tongues 

along with spoken language variants presenting difficulties 

of linguistic communication, cultural idioms and accessibility. 

However, I feel this is a rewarding area to explore to understand 

change and competition for space not only in cinema, 

but also for local, regional and national politics. Grierson’s 

massive linguistic survey, according to Paul Brass, identified 

two major branches of the Hindi language area – western and 

eastern. Each comprising numerous mother tongues, some of 

them are with developed literature. Bordering the Hindi areas, 

there are three other distinct groupings, similarly having many 

mother tongues. These Grierson identified as Rajasthani, 

Bihari and Pahari (Brass 1992: 152). 

The advocates of Hindi as “regional standard language of 

north India” have sought to bring all these mother tongues, and 

others, including Punjabi under its extended umbrella. Except 

in relation to Punjabi, this quest has met with a large measure 

of success, especially since 1881 when Hindi replaced Urdu as 

the sole official language of Bihar province. This status has 

again been confirmed by the Bihar State Official Language 

Act, 1915. While Hindi thus began to enjoy state patronage, the 

interests of the other mother tongues, parti cularly of those 

Grierson termed “Bihar group”, suffered neglect (Brass 1992: 160). 

August 17, 2013 vol xlviii no 33 EPW Economic & Political Weekly

Despite being the official language, only a minority 

(43.3%) of the declared speakers in 1961 Census named Hindi 

as their mother tongue, while 35.39% opted for “Behari”, a 

term referring to several mother tongues, including Bhojpuri 

(about eight million declared speakers), Maithali (about five 

million) and Maghai (three million). While educated Bhojpuri 

and Maghai speakers accepted their mother tongues to be 

dialects of Hindi. The Maithali speakers insisted on their 

language being distinct from Hindi and emphasised the right 

of their children to be taught in Maithali. Here the exceptions 

were “many if not most middle and lower caste groups... 

who accepted Hindi, as their language”. But Maithali protests 

do not appear to have produced any significant result 

(ibid: 160). 

Some scholars (Mukherjee 1994; Oommen 2002; Ghosh 

2006) are surprised by such ready or subdued acceptance of 

Hindi domination in Bihar and other Hindi heartland states, as 

it represents a reversal of trends in other parts of India, where 

similar circumstances have given rise to nationality formation 

in terms of local and regional identities. Moreover, the nationality 

formation process has also led to certain local and regional 

redefinitions, validating Silverstein’s assertion “Local 

language communities do not exist in a state of nature; the 

very concept of locality as opposed to globality presupposes a 

contrastive consciousness of self other... a cultural product of 

groupness” (1998: 405). La Dousa succinctly states how John 

Gumperz’s study of the Benares Hindi region locates the 

standard within a three-tier model underlying the hierarchical 

gradation of mother tongues in the region. Of these the main 

features are: 

(1) A more or less unified phonological, morphological and 

syntactic system constituting a standard; 

(2) More regionally delimited languages within the area of the 

standard; and 

(3) Phonological distinctions within single villages (Gumperz 

1958, 1961, 1964). 

Educational domains and occupations for which schooling 

is required banish non-standardised linguistic varieties 

(Gumperz’s second and third tiers). In turn, knowledge and 

standardised forms appropriate in educational domains far 

exceed institutional boundaries (La Dousa 2002: 461-62). In a 

related term, the association of standardised forms with official 

contexts can “erase”, in the parlance of Gal and Irvine 

(1995), “complex pragmatic phenomena made possible by the 

dual use of standardised Hindi and languages like Bhojpuri” 

(La Dousa 2002: 462). This clearly implied that particularly 

“the regional language of Bihar was placed in a relation of 

direct subordination vis-a-vis Hindi” (Ghosh 2006) leading to 

“subjugation and repression of other linguistic groups and nationalities...” 

(Saxena 1997: 269). 

Keeping in view Ahmed’s assertion (cf Islam 2005; 2006), 

culture is not a “finished common possession”, but a “field of 

contestation and conflict” among social forces struggling for 

supremacy, I have attempted to understand the resurgence of 

Bhojpuri cinema in the context of challenges posed by submerged 

mother tongues to the long-standing hegemony of 


Hindi cinema and language. Besides the Bhojpuri cinema, 

some other cinemas which have recently come up with their 

own developmental specificity are also similarly challenging 

Hindi supremacy. These include Haryanvi, Garhwali, Pahari, 

Khariboli, Chhattisgarhi, etc. A comparison of these may yield 

significant insights into the ongoing stru ggle for supremacy 

relative to cinema as well as language in north India. 

Being mindful of the decline of Urdu in the context of the 

extinct “Muslim social” (Akbar Khan’s film Taj Mahal being 

the latest example), I have attempted to understand the 

relationship of language, following Foucault, to the exercise 

of power in the use of language and explore its relevance to 

the resurgence of regional identities in popular cinema, 

both as resistance and value commitment. Here if we take 

due note of Bourdeiu’s contention (1977, 1991) that “the nature 

of linguistic practices arises across domains of use, a 

‘market’ for that language exists” (La Dousa 2002: 217), this 

study acquires a wider, cultural linguistic and political 

significance. 

Bhojpuri Cinema: Struggles, Setbacks and Success 

The story of Bhojpuri cinema is not only a story of struggle 

against linguistic and cultural dominance, but also of resourcepoor 

filmic ventures against well-established Hindi cinematic 

enterprises with experience, skill and all necessary facilities. 

In such an unequal struggle, the very survival continually 

faces threat. Bhojpuri films made their debut in 1963 with 

Kundan Kumar’s Ganga Maiyya Tohe Piyari Chadhaibo, which 

was an instant success. A “few success stories and hiccups 

followed” (Tripathy 2007: 149). However, the cinema continued 

to thrive with such significant films as Laagi Nahi Chhute 

Ram, Saiya Se Neh Lagaibe, Hamar Sansar, etc, adding to its 

popularity. But by the end of the 1960s, a decline set in 

largely due to the films losing sight of their social objectives 

and the entry of new producers not adequately familiar with 

Bhojpuri culture. 

The cinema resurfaced again with Bachubhai Shah’s Dangal 

(1977), starring character actor Sujit Kumar and Prema 

Narayan. The film became popular for its chartbuster song 

Kashi hile, Patna hile. It was followed by Dilip Bose’s Ganga 

Kinare Mora Gaon which ran for almost 30 weeks in Patna’s 

Apsara theatre (Ghosh: 2007). A number of more modestly 

popular films produced in the 1970s and 1980s such as Badka 

Bhaiya, Paan Khaaye Saiyan Hamaar, Balam Pardesia, Ganga 

Hamar Mai, Bhaiya Dooj, Dharti Maiyya, Tulsi Sohe Hamaar 

Angana did intermittent business, but were unable to stem the 

impending slump. So by “the 1990s Bhojpuri cinema was dying 

like a character from Hindi films reluctantly but inevitably” 

(Tripathy 2007: 149). 

In 2001 Saiyyan Hamar made a star out of drama graduate 

Ravi Kissen, who along with such other outstanding stars as 

folk singer Manoj Tiwari and Dinesh Lal Niharua jump-started 

the industry once again. In 2005, Manoj Tiwari’s film Sasura 

Bada Paisewalah ran for more than 50 weeks in Varanasi and 

Kanpur in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and 25 weeks elsewhere. Though 

made with a modest budget of Rs 30 lakh, it grossed a 

Economic & Political Weekly EPW August 17, 2013 vol xlviii no 33 55


stupendous Rs 13 crore. Manoj’s other film Daroga Babu I Love 

You earned Rs 4 crore and Bandhan Toote Na more than Rs 3 

crore. A string of successive hits that followed in the next few 

years gave Bhojpuri cinema an enviable reputation of high 

profitability with low capital investment. A Bombay film 

trade journal analyst, for example, remarked how “simple it 

was to take back 10 times the original investment in a 

Bhojpuri film” (Neelkanthan 2006). While in a similar vein 

Tripathy (2007: 49) noted that a good film could make a profit 

of Rs 10-12 crore. 

Investing in Bhojpuri films “makes good business sense as 

these films sell in Bihar, UP, parts of Punjab and Maharashtra” 

(Jha 2006) says the producer-cum-director, Rajan Kumar 

Singh. As “it is well known that the Bhojpuri film industry is 

now estimated to be worth Rs 100 crore, caters to about 200 

million with core audiences in Bihar and eastern UP and offers 

employment to about 30,000 people (Ghosh 2007). 1 Bhojpuri 

films have been doing much better “here than any big star cast 

Hindi film”, says producer Sanjay Mehta: “So much so that 

even the video rights for these modest films are going for as 

high as Rs 20 lakh: You can call it the “Laloo phenomena of 

cinema” (Joshi 2005). The successful mantra for Bhojpuri films 

is “tight budgets and disciplined film-making. The budget is 

normally in the range of Rs 30-40 lakh with the bigger films 

getting made in about Rs 60-80 lakh. The production also gets 

wrapped up in three months flat” (ibid). As graphically put by 

Ravi Kissen, “there are no star tantrums on the sets, no indiscipline, 

no waste of time, no juices and sandwiches from five 

star hotels. We mean business” (ibid). However, with the recent 

spell of success the budgets are getting a lot more liberal, 

Kab Hoi Gavna Hamaar was shot with Rs 1.5 crore, huge by 

Bhojpuri standards. The Bhojpuri film industry, says producer 

Rajan Kumar Singh, is now “estimated to be worth Rs 100 

crore, caters to about two million with core audiences in Bihar 

and eastern UP and offers employment to about thirty thousand 

people” (Ghosh 2007). 

Buoyed thus with success, the Bhojpuri film industry takes 

steps to enlarge its production base and diversify. Included 

among these are (1) dubbing of popular English and Hindi 

films into Bhojpuri such as Pirates of the Carribean, Spidereman 

3, Amitabh Bachchan’s Namak Halal retitled as Babua 

Khiladi, Dadua Anadi; (2) extending its compass to satellite 

markets with Star and Sahara Televisions showing “Bhojwood 

films” regularly because of their acceptability to audience in 

Hindi heartland; (3) instituting its own film awards (Kissen 

2006; Ghosh 2007). In addition, there is an exploration of links 

with Bhojpuri diaspora in Mauritius and elsewhere, both as a 

possible profitable market and matter of cultural and linguistic 

affinity. One such example is a Bihari Hindi film singer Udit 

Narain’s first film production Kab Hoi Gavna Hamaar shot in 

Mauritius. The film goes back 150 years and depicts the plight 

of Bhojpuris in Mauritius as sugar cane plantation workers 

working for British planters. 

Narain was inspired to make the film when he saw a “small 

India” in Mauritius and felt it “good to see how the people who 

were long ago taken as slaves to this place kept the Bhojpuri 

56 

culture alive”. 2 The success of the film, which was running to 

packed houses for almost two months in Punjab and Delhi, 

inspired Narain to produce some other films shot in London, 

including Babul Payare, Dil Deewana Tohar Ho Gail. The market 

for Bhojpuri cinema has now spread all over the northern region, 

particularly in the urban centres along the Grand Trunk Road, 

where Bhojpuri migrant labour has settled in large numbers: 

Jammu and Kashmir, Jalandhar, Ludhiana, Panipat, Kurukshetra, 

Delhi, Noida, Gurgaon to name a few (Joshi 2005). 

A New Life 

An additional important factor which indirectly helped this 

spread was the granting of industry status to the Hindi film 

enterprises in 1988 which set in motion a significant upscaling 

of the cost of film viewing. With multiplexes getting a 10-year 

tax holiday, they began to spring up everywhere and started 

pricing out low income viewers, while charging Rs 100 for a 

ticket. Anticipating a substantial revenue gains from multiplexes, 

Hindi films began to bypass single screen theatres having 

ticket prices of Rs 20-30. It was “the arrival of Bhojpuri 

films that saved many such theatres pulling in people who had 

abandoned film going due to the price and intimidating and 

glitzy atmosphere of the multiplexes” (Neelakanthan 2006). 

These “decrepit cinemas like Delhi’s Moti, Raj, Gagan, 

Swaran would have been long defunct”, but for Bhojpuri films 

reviving them by attracting droves of regular viewers” (Joshi 

2005). Sasura Bade Paisawala, for instance, “played at Delhi’s 

Satyam cinema (houseful) for three months”, while at halls 

like Noida’s Alka, Moti, Aakash and others it attracted so much 

crowds that the film became not just a “hit” but “trendsetter” 

(Islam 2006). Neelakanthan (2006) graphically describes the 

atmosphere of a theatre displaying Bhojpuri films: 

It is an early monsoon day at Sheetal a single screen theatre in Kurla in 

central Bombay. An animated audience, part of a growing population 

of migrant workers from Bihar and UP overflows the theatres’s seats at 

the weekend screening of Ravi Kissen’s film. Dancing to the catchy 

songs, clapping at snappy dialogue, whistling and joking, the crowd 

shows its appreciation for the nice and naughty versions of Ravi Kissen 

then in the first ever double role in a Bhojpuri film. 

Similar delirious responses enliven the Moti theatre at 

Chandni Chowk where the “cinema hall attracts the cartpullers 

and rickshawallahs, who all work in the Kashmiri Gate, 

Chawri Bazaar, Sadar Bazaar and Khari Baoli business areas”. 3 

In fact, in all cities with sizeable Bhojpuri migrant population, 

one can witness similar reclamations of space by people who 

do not feel entirely at home outside the theatre which virtually 

becomes their home away from home. 

The popularity ratings and commercial profitability of Bhojpuri 

films in the region north of Delhi is no different as testified 

by certain distributors and other knowledgeable people 

with professional interest in films. According to a distributor 

from Ludhiana (which accounts for about 60% of the regional 

collection largely contributed by thousands of migrant hosiery 

workers from Bihar and east UP): 

Earlier Bhojpuri films were only shown in a couple of Ludhiana halls 

like Swaran and Nirmal, now they are also screened in theatres like 


Arora Palace, Basant, Society, Deepak, etc. Even Naulakha theatre 

(more reputed) shifted strategically to Bhojpuri films recently. 

As film distributor, Ajay Bhanot admits, “For some single 

screen theatres on the verge of closure, Bhojpuri films have 

acted like oxygen”. 4 Another producer, Jagjit Singh, says “Punjab 

is now a regular and popular circuit for Bhojpuri films”. 

The biggest superhit of 2007 was Dinesh Lal Yadav’s film, 

Niharua Rickshawala which even left behind Sasura Bada 

Paisewala. 

An average of 8-10 Bhojpuri films are released in the Punjab 

region and they earn Rs 4 to Rs 7 lakh in a week. Film 

distri butors in Jalandhar say that they get a share of Rs 8,000 

to Rs 15,000 from each cinema hall, where these films are 

distributed. 5 These films run longer, eight weeks for the film 

Panditji Batai Na Biah Kab Hoi as against hardly two weeks 

for Hindi or Punjabi films. 6 According to Ajay Bhanot of 

Jalandhar, who distributes Bhojpuri films across 35 cinema 

halls in Punjab, the Manoj Tiwari starrer Dhartiputra 

smashed Ludhiana box office records in 2007, leaving behind 

Akshay Kumar’s Garam Masala and Sanjay Dutt starrer 

Shadi No 1. 

Such popularity of Bhojpuri films did produce some social 

tensions. In 2007, a bomb blast occurred in Shingar Cinema, 

Ludhiana during a screening of Bhojpuri superstar Manoj 

Tiwari’s film Janam Janam ka Saath. This prompted a visit by 

the superstar himself who declared, “I sympathise with the 

victims but it appears to be a plan to attack the most vulnerable 

migrant population and destroy Bhojpuri film business 

in Punjab”. 7 Sociologically no less important though not as 

spectacular is the emerging social process identified by distributor 

Bhanot. He asserts that “about 5% of the Bhojpuri 

genre audience is Punjabi. Some young Punjabis watch these 

films for fun. A section is of local labour class, which 

interacts with the migrants and develop familiarity with 

the language” (Ghosh 2007). This seems pregnant with 

possi bilities for cross-linguistic and cross-cultural communication 

channels, both at the state and higher regional and 

national levels. 

Emerging Analytical Themes 

Intrigued by the spectacular rise of the Bhojpuri films, analysts 

have tried to make sense of it in terms of a complex mix 

of socio-economic and cultural factors. A major factor invoked 

is the discarding by Hindi films of traditional middle 

ground as “cinema of mass sensibility” (Neelakanthan 2006) 

which enabled its appeal to spread widely across classes and 

regions. Neelakanthan calls it Hindi cinema’s historic turn 

away from the masses and Ghosh terms it the explosion of 

feel-good cinema, where the village, the ageing and the 

underprivileged were all eased out of the frame (Ghosh 2007; 

Neelakanthan 2006). Director Dhananjay Mishra from Bihar 

explains it as “Indian elites’ embrace of modernity and 

globalisation” and asserts Bhojpuri films provide space for 

those left behind; a “segment of the population [which] includes 

not just the Bhojpuri peasantry, but also capitalist merchants 

used to an old style of doing business” (cf Neelakanthan 


2006). This is also corroborated by the film director Amit 

Singh from Benares, who refers to independent financiers 

unable to compete with corporate financing and joint 

ventures dominating the Hindi film industry who move to 

Bhojpuri films where a film can be made for Rs 45 lakh (ibid). 

Another significant factor stressed is that Bhojpuri cinema is 

not about money, industrial structure or finance, but about 

values which producer Mahender Nath Pandey of Benares 

cited in Neelakanthan (2006) and Ghosh (2005) and which 

the film star Ravi Kissen (Kumar 2006) emphasised. The values 

stressed, however, vary somewhat and refer to both those 

depicted positively in Bhojpuri films and those avoided or denigrated 

but often glamourised in Hindi films. For producer 

Mohinder Nath Pandey, for instance, Bhojpuri films are all 

about the web of social relations, the extended family, family 

friendship, neighbourliness, respect for women and hospitality 

– all that urban westernised India seems to have lost. 

Neelakanthan (2006), likewise, laments: “There is a “cultural 

gap” which makes high society Hollywood and Hindi films incomprehensible 

to people in rural districts and small towns”. 

Further, he is appreciative of the audiences and film-makers 

who view the prevalence of western style gender relations, 

scantily-clad women, urban settings, English dialogues and 

the absence of the extended family as alienating factors in 

Hindi films. In a similar vein, Ravi Kissen debunks the city media’s 

criticism of Bhojpuri cinema as “loud and obscene”. 

Rather, he praises Bhojpuri films as “propagating values that 

are long lost in Hindi cinema, like respect for bhabhi, the relevance 

of ghoonghat…even rivers like Ganga are part of our 

lifeline” (Kumar 2006). 

For a realistic appreciation, however, of the filmic preferences 

of Bhojpuris or other similar disprivileged people, the 

following allusive reference to the interplay of ethnicity, value 

commitment and economic deprivation seems to be particularly 

relevant. 

In 2005 there were two remakes of Roman Polanski’s Death and The 

Maiden, Siskian and Dansh: can you imagine watching Roman Polanski 

in a common theatre with the stench of urine, buzzing flies, paanstained 

wall and one working fan, neither can I. 8 

It appears as if the “audience seems to be telling mainstream 

Bollywood: we want our own smells and sights in the movie” 

(Ghosh 2005). What happened after Mandal Commission recommendations 

were implemented is now happening in the entertainment 

industry. “As in politics, the entertainment industry 

too has been stratified. Forget what is good or bad, the 

issue is: I need my own cinema that suits my own aesthetics” 

(Neelakanthan 2006). This “own aesthetics” embraces an urge 

to see in films such popular folk features as fairs and festivals, 

nautankis, acrobatics, travelling musicians and courtesans, 

among others. 9 Contrarily, Hindi cinema has alienated itself 

from such rural areas and small-town aesthetics, leaving a 

vacuum to be filled by Bhojpuri and other kinds of cinema 

coming up (Akhtar 2006). 

Another crucial factor having a bearing on Bhojpuri films 

relative to new Hindi cinema is the form of Hindi used by 

the latter. As one article in Tehelka says, “The very core of 



Hindi cinema has moved away from Hindi, Hindustan and 

Middle India to the Punjabi Hindi of Delhi and north-west India; 

down to the themes, characters, idioms and lyrics” (Sahi 2008). 

To show how Bhojpuri films manage to fill the above gap in 

the regional or broader contexts, some analysts offer selective 

comments on the aspects of Bhojpuri language, rural culture, 

value commitments of film-makers and socio-cultural change. 

Neelakanthan, for instance, feels that values of the rural poor 

are a major factor fuelling commercial and social success of 

Bhojpuri films. Besides, their education and social and technical 

sophistication notwithstanding, many of the Bhojpuri filmmakers 

believe “the rural culture of Bihar and UP has values 

worthy of emulation, values lost to the large minority that constitutes 

metropolitan India being catered to by the new crop of 

Hindi films” (Neelakanthan 2006). 

This also has implications for the life-world of film professionals, 

who have to rough it out in rustic rural surroundings 

with little or no modern amenities. A case in point is popular 

Bhojpuri actress Sahiba Sheikh, renamed Rani Chatterjee, the 

tallest female star of Bhojpuri films who unlike the mainstream 

Rani Mukherjee, spends 25 days in a month away from 

her Mumbai home, busy shooting in places seldom heard of in 

the film circles like Mathura, Gonda and Etah. “She has given 

us Sasura Bade Paisewala, the Bhojpuri film that did not only 

do better business than Black and Page 3, but also set Bhojpuri 

as the flavour of the season” (Ghosh 2005; Islam 2005). Indeed, 

in “the difference in the fame and fortune of the two 

Ranis lies the untold story of the two disparate worlds: India 

Shining and India Invisible” (ibid). 

Breaking Stereotypes 

That Bhojpuri films make good money is now generally 

acknowledged, yet there is a strangely condescending attitude 

among film distributors towards the audience of those films. 

They are viewed as “invisible masses” (ibid) and as “third class” 

and “C grade”, both reflecting “morally inflected descriptions 

of economic status” (Neelakanthan 2006). Indeed, it is generally 

felt that Bhojpuri films have taken up the space of low 

budget Hindi movies in several areas. The combination of 

new markets and the decentralisation of cinema has replaced 

“C grade films” with pulp regional cinema (Ghosh 2008). 

In an insightful comment, Neelakanthan highlights the 

significance of feudal accent in Bhojpuri culture and its linkages 

to melodrama, and particularly to family melodrama 

which is a “virtual staple of Bhojpuri films”. As he points out, 

“the allegorising of social conflict as romantic and familial 

drama is inherent to melodrama, and a common feature in 

societies with feudal remnants” (2006). Further, he feels that 

an inherent contradiction between lived poverty and feudal 

values “entails a certain balancing act on the part of filmmakers 

keeping in mind that the “masses” who currently 

view these films are at the lower end of the socio-economic 

hierarchy”. This may come down to the way the film presents 

“the play of difference between poor people and rich people” 

according to Bhojpuri film-maker Sanjay Sinha (cited in 

Neelakanthan 2006). 

58 

Migration-induced changes in Bhojpuri culture and their selective 

bearing on Bhojpuri films have attracted the attention 

of some analysts. They have pointed to shifting preferences 

among Bhojpuri cinema audience 10 based on exposure of 

migrant labourers (mainly male) to different cultural environments 

in Punjab, metropolitan Bombay and possibly other settings. 

However, they differ with regard to the extent they emphasise 

culture, class or age. Ashok Bhanot, a Punjab producer 

says, “the audience in Punjab prefer a different kind of 

Bhojpuri film. Back in Bihar and eastern UP the core Bhojpuri 

audience wants clean family socials. But the viewership here 

is made of younger single men who prefer spicier stuff” 

(Ghosh 2007). 

Likewise a Mumbai producer emphasises “what sells is fighting, 

chest thumping and action” (Neelakanthan 2006). This 

“significant contradiction”, as Neelakanthan puts it, “is driven 

by male labourers who migrate from eastern UP and Bihar”. 

However, the revenue generated in Mumbai (25%) is far less 

than (40%) in Bihar. Ravi Kissen explains the way how this 

kind of cultural contradictions may be partly smoothened, 

“We can’t show cleavages and kisses, but we can play with 

words” (Jha 2006). Despite such care some middle class women 

in UP and Bihar love his “antics” and find him “hot”. The star 

himself adds, “My wife gets insecure about it but now she 

understands I have no appetite for the naughty stuff” (ibid). 

Tripathy marvels at the “richness” of Bhojpuri films and contrasts 

it with the “unproductiveness” of the region, which he 

terms as “cultural wasteland” afflicted by a number of 

socio-economic dead ends. He includes among these declining 

agricultural productivity, decades of deindustrialisation, serious 

rupture of law and order, internecine conflicts generated 

by some social mobility since 1970 of the middle and lower 

rungs of the rural population, inducing both upper and lower 

end of socio-economic hierarchy to migrate to seek relief (Tripathy 

2007: 146). This huge migrant population with their 

complex love-hate relations, diverse attachments, relative to 

places of origin and destination, have paradoxically turned 

out to be the most loyal audience of Bhojpuri film industry 

(ibid: 146-47). In terms of sectional representation, these loyalists 

appear to be composed of the following segments: 

migrants from the lower rung of the middle castes and semiliterates 

and illiterates from small towns in the native region. 

“Add to it a sprinkling of dalits (untouchables) and the relatively 

uneducated and economically under-privileged and 

your profile of the Bhojpuri audience is complete” (ibid: 2007: 

148). Further, Tripathy feels that the rise of the Bhojpuri cinema 

is accompanied by a certain “commonality and resonance” 

in the region of eastern UP and Bihar (ibid: 151). This 

together with “compounding into a single whole”, the diverse 

experience of rural and urban migration and above all the 

every-day experiences of audience as citizens in this part of the 

country have given a push for regional consolidation (ibid: 151). 

Another significant factor for consolidation of the cinema 

and the region relates to the very nature of Bhojpuri, which 

is a flexible dialect with a huge embrace. Bhojpuri, in actual 

experience ranges from being seen as a style of Hindi (bhaiya 


or Bihari) to a large cluster of dialects spoken natively in 

Bihar, eastern UP and parts of MP. Thus Bhojpuri cinema 

constantly has to seek a balance that would ensure viewership 

in the entire region (ibid 2007: 151; Tiwari 2003). There 

is hardly any need to point out the explosive regional or 

national potentialities of such a consolidation. The remaining 

important aspect which needs to be highlighted relates 

to the cultural revival generated by the migrant bourgeoisie. 

This, as we shall presently see, is fully reinforced by the nostalgic 

memories of ordinary migrant viewers of Bhojpuri 

films. Besides fairs and festivals like Chatth articulate 

regional pride and identity formation. 11 A major step in this 

direction was the starting of Bhojpuri channels, beginning 

with the inauguration of Mahua TV in 2008, popular for the 

progammes “Bahubali” and “Ke Banega Crorepati”. This was 

followed by other channels like Hamar TV, Maurya TV, Purva 

TV, Magik TV, Sangeet Bhojpuri, Mahua News, etc, garnering 

viewership for a “small town middle-class” and “lower 

middle-class Bhojpuri migrant” (Ghosh 2010 cf Rathore 

2010) population, 12 this surging popularity has made the 

Hindi general entertainment channels do a rethink and 

prepare programmes with Bhojpuri flavour (Talwar 2010). 

In addition, there is a deluge on the net of different websites 

which serve to reinforce the link between the local, regional 

or national and the global. The prominent among these are 

Bhojpuri Sansar: a global network of Bhojpuri professionals 

with members active in the United States, the United Kingdom, 

Qatar, Singapore, Trinidad, Tobago, etc, that gives the latest 

news of places like Chapra, Aara and Gopalgunj. Hellobihar. 

com, Chaurichaura.com, Bhojpurigellata.com, Anjori.com – 

the first exclusive Bhojpuri portal – discuss matrimonials, 

cinema, festivals, photos, cuisine – Bhojpuria.com has an online 

shopping provision, as do Bhojpuriadukan, Littichoka. 

com, 13 etc. All these pointing to a highly complex relationship 

between migration, globalisation and technology. 

Aspirations of Bhojpuri Migrant Population 

As pointed out earlier in this paper, it is the Bhojpuri migrants, 

their yearning for home and familiar surroundings, their 

memories of day-to-day minor or major joys of life back home 

and their cultural pride and sense of human dignity which 

are often exposed to deliberate or careless hurts in their alien 

socio-economic environment. Their steadfast display of loyalty 

to Bhojpuri films regardless of dirt and discomfort of the 

theatres screening them is to be seen in this context. It is this 

that transformed the fortunes of Bhojpuri cinema. From a 

depressed backward poor relation, it became the envy of a 

more established Hindi cinema as a more popular and greater 

profit-making performer. It becomes, therefore, imperative to 

ascertain the perceptions and responses of the migrant viewers 

not only to understand the monetary success of the Bhojpuri 

films, but also the satisfaction the people derive both as 

a socio cultural entity and as human beings with feelings, 

desires and wants. 

For the above purpose, I mainly depend on the interview 

data I personally collected from the migrant workers and 


some other selected persons who have knowledge about 

cinema or having access to Bhojpuri workers or film viewers. 

The study included about 60 daily wagers from Ludhiana, 

Patiala and Chandigarh. They were contacted after work 

when they were relaxed and quite communicative. Bhojpuri 

films on the screen, so to say, transported them out of the 

harsh-lived realities of an alien desh (country) to imaginatively 

recreated spaces like hamar gaon (my village), hamar 

desh (my country), hamar bandhu (my relative), hamar ghar 

(my home) with its familiar sights and smells and apnapan 

(intimacy). There the food tastes better than anywhere else: 

the choka prepared at home, the chutneys and even red chillies 

from home they carry with them, keeps the taste of 

home physically alive. In much the same way, Bhojpuri films 

not only symbolise home life but recreate it as a life pattern 

in motion. 

There is a boastful identification with such lifestyle characteristics 

as smoking a “beedi”. As one viewer put it while 

parodying a popular advertisement “hum pataka bidi peene 

walon ki baat hi kuch aur hai” (there is something quiet distinctive 

about us beedi smokers). Similarly, as another commented, 

our patras (characters) chew on the katha and 

supari and spit it in a unique style, it parallels no one”. The 

other significant aspect is yaad – the memory of “home”, the 

days spent in shared delight of togetherness which comes on 

you, off and on: 

After a hard day’s work, you are putting up your legs and sitting on the 

seat watching the film, you remember the hassi-majak with your sister-in-law, 

what happened during gauna and so many little things 

related to home. All these things make you forget your suffering and 

make the next day bearable. 

The other aspect relates to the assurance of a better future 

after returning home: “We may be sleeping huddled together 

on the pavement out in the cold but we conserve the money 

to go back one day”. Another migrant genralises: “The bird 

which flies away from the nest always wants to go back to it 

and always wants the nest to remain as it was left”. Meanwhile, 

it is the mehak (the smell), of “my” land which these 

films give the viewer. Further, there is a feeling of vicarious 

pride about such popular Bhojpuri actors as Pramod Tiwari and 

Ravi Kissen, “hamara bitwa bhi hero ban sakta hai” (our son can 

also become a hero), and also “hamara desh kisse se kam nahi” 

(see our country is no less than any other). Additionally, some 

of those with land back home and feeling the status loss: “ aisa 

hai hamara khet, ham bhi desh mein zamindar hain” (our fields 

are also like that, we too are zamindars in our own land). 

Deshdrohi 

Thus, Bhojpuri films not only symbolise, but also recreate 

before their eyes live images of facets of Bhojpuri society, providing 

both a sense of identification and pride. The fact that 

heroes of Bhojpuri films are frequently idealised by Bhojpuri 

young men who face hardship, humiliation and injustice but 

keep struggling till they reach their goal, these heroes tend to 

mirror migrant predicaments. 14 Space considerations allow me 

to discuss only one example that of Kamal Khan’s Bhojpuri/ 



Hindi film Deshdrohi (2008). The discussion on migrants and 

natives and the identity of the migrants is the most important 

theme of Deshdrohi which was released in 2008 amidst lots of 

protests. The film opens with the end of a train journey, shots 

of Bombay, the fast traffic and the skyscrapers and the sight of 

a lost man, Raja, a migrant from Bihar trying to find his feet in 

a cold unfeeling place. As he hungrily approaches a vada-pao 

stall, he is rudely handed over the dish despite having paid for 

it. Yet the man at the vada-pao stall again asks him for payment. 

Raja protests and swears kasam Ganga maiya ki to emphasise 

his honesty. He is rudely pushed away and rebuked, 

“Why do you unemployed Bihari youth come to Bombay?”, 

yells the vada-pao seller. “If you remove one brick, one finds a 

milkman, if the second brick is removed it is a newspaperwallah, 

you have made amchi Mumbai an orphanage”. 15 Amidst 

the skyscrapers and cold environment, Raja desperately tries 

to find his friend Shekar, who is supposed to be a “big man in 

Mumbai”. The film shifts in a flashback to the village, where 

Shekhar has just returned from Mumbai and purchased a 10 

bigha orchard from “Thakur Sahib”. Shekhar professes to be 

rich and prosperous in Mumbai, having “cars and servants”, 

and he also declares if there is any money it is only in Mumbai, 

“it rains money in Mumbai”. 

Raja who is studying in college has come to Mumbai to fulfil 

his dreams of becoming a police officer after being thrown 

out of the house by his father. He is on the lookout for his 

friend to help him. A Muslim fruit seller advises him to go to 

Jogeshwari, where people from Bihar and UP reside. Raja 

boards the bus, he hands over a Rs 100 note to the conductor, 

who insists on a Rs 10 change. Raja pleads, “Bhaiya, I don’t 

have change”. The use of the word bhaiya leads to an uncontrollable 

fury, 

How dare you call me a bhaiya. You may be a bhaiya, your father could 

have been a bhaiya. I am from Mumbai. I am a Marathi Manoos. If you 

call me a bhaiya. I will beat you to pulp, till you forget your father. It is 

because of you all that people don’t get a place to sit in buses and 

trains. You have made Mumbai a pigeons “den”. 

When Raja protests about his legal rights even the driver 

aggressively orders him to be thrown out “we should name 

BTC as Bhaiyya Transport Corporation. Throw out these beggars. 

Now they are going to teach us law”. 

Raja suddenly discovers Shekhar standing outside a big bungalow 

as a watchman. Shekhar is embarrassed about his low 

status and says stoically 

We came to Mumbai with big dreams, we should know English to fulfil 

our dreams. Even to become an office boy, one needs to know English. 

Our politicians do not understand it…Bombay is a harsh reality and 

one has to accept it as a part of life. 

Raja begins to work at a fruit stall and seriously attempts to 

pursue his dreams. However, fate decides it otherwise. He unwillingly 

kills a goonda, while trying to save Sonia Patil, who 

is always protecting him like a guardian angel. Her regional 

and caste status are clearly articulated and is a source of resentment 

for her intimacy with Raja. The goonda who has 

been killed happens to be the brother of Rajan Nayak, who 

gives a supari for Raja’s killing to encounter specialist Rajesh 

60 

Sharma, who incidentally is also a bhaiya. While running 

away from the police, Raja again encounters a scene where a 

“bhaiya” is being beaten up. The aggressors are yelling “beat 

this man to pulp seeing him, all bhaiyas will be forced to leave 

Mumbai”, when Raja intervenes in the fight he too is mocked, 

“you too are a bhaiya from UP or Bihar, just get lost”. Raja is 

able to put down the aggressor, gives a speech on the unity of 

India. He proclaims, 

The amount of hatred you have for us, the same amount of love we 

have for you. Come down to UP and Bihar and see how a guest is given 

the status of god. 

As Raja tries to avoid the police, he comes under the clutches 

of the food minister Sanjay Shrivastva, the leader of north 

Indians, Uttar Bhartiyas in Mumbai. Sanjay Shrivastava exploits 

Raja’s soft corner for the plight of north Indians and tries 

to manipulate him to kill the deputy chief minister, Kulkarni. 

However, as Sanjay Shrivastava’s nefarious designs are 

exposed, Raja brings into the open the way politicians exploit 

regional sentiments for their selfish ends and says, “they are 

the real desh drohi”. A series of situations involving Rajan 

Nayak, Baba Kadam, Daya Mathur, Sanjay Shrivastava and inspector 

Rajan (married to Raja’s college sweetheart) expose 

the way sentiments are whipped up to exploit the feelings of 

the common man. In the process the real truth about Raja’s 

friend, Shekhar also comes out in the open. It is found out 

that he is none other than Kaalia, the famous sharpshooter of 

the underworld. In the beginning Kaalia follows his selfish 

agenda and attacks Raja. Then his sentiments and love for 

his friend and village mate overcome his monetary calculations. 

Kaalia dies saving Raja and requests him to tell the 

people back home in the village that he was a good man. Raja 

resolutely resolves Kasam Ganga Maiyya ki…kasam apne gaon 

ki mitti ki”, I will leave for Hardwar only after making the land 

of Mumbai pure”. 

The film brings the issue of bhaiya identity into the open 

and exposes the relationship between it and the migratory 

experience of Bhojpuri people, including sociocultural discrimination, 

economic hardship and personal indignity and 

exploitation. Indeed, migrants themselves assert that these 

films are linked to their pehchan (identity), astitva (existence). 

Further, the entire ritual of going to see Bhojpuri films 

with others like them (here subregional differences are submerged 

into a regional commonality) feeling relaxed and 

secure, watching together, cheering or hooting at the scenes. 

All these give a feeling of well-being, self-respect and dignity 

as common ethnic group, self-recognised and recognised by 

other communities. Here in the imaginaries (Jacces) an incipient 

imagined (Anderson) homeland is created which is 

completely related to the viewer’s migratory experience. Cinema 

halls where Bhojpuris congregate in large numbers and 

make a public expression of their identity and dignity have 

been subjected to a few vandal attacks 16 (Ghosh 2008) by local 

people who resent their presence amidst them in growing 

numbers. Some time back, in response to statements of Raj 

Thackery on migrants, Thane’s Chitralaya cinema in Boisar 

area has been ransacked by Maharashtra Navanirman Sena 



workers. The hall was screening the latest Dinesh Lal Niharua 

blockbuster Ek Bihari Sau Pe Bhari. The activists objecting 

to the title of the film vandalised the cinema hall and 

beat up the audience. 17 The film had a release with Salman 

Khan’s Ek Tha Tiger and was released in 55 cinema halls in 

Bihar with a record opening profit of Rs 40 lakh. 18 The film in 

a stirring manner eulogised the history, geographical locations, 

famous personalities and characteristics of the people 

of Bihar: Bihari matlab bagawat ki chingari or jaisan lakdi, 

vaisan aari, dushman ke ghar me ghus ke maari, and finally, 

saat janam le dushmani. 19 Another popular film Bhoomiputra 

(2009) too was similarly self-adulatory in myth-making. The 

protests ultimately worked and the distributors forced the 

film to change its title to Ek Nihurua Sirfira. 20 

Despite their yearning for home and repeated assertions 

to themselves and others to return home soon, migrants with 

skill, hard work or other distinctive qualities tend to develop 

economically and socially advantageous local links and begin 

to see a reason for postponing their departure for home. 

They, instead, bring their families and other close relatives 

to the place of their employment. Thus, their local roots tend 

to multiply and tie to the native homes get progressively 

attenuated. Each person has, of course, his own reasons and 

circumstances to stay put, but the fact remains the number of 

those staying on is multiplying. Although the number of 

those actually settling down is not available, Smita Gupta 

provides an estimate of total poorvanchali or bhaiya population 

relative to natives in certain states. The migrant population 

from UP and Bihar is a very sizeable one, in Maharashtra 

out of a population of 6.69 crore, 50 lakhs are from UP and 

Bihar, similarly out of Delhi’s 1.3 crore population 38 lakhs 

are migrants from UP and Bihar. In Punjab out of the states’ 

2.4 crore population, 40 lakhs are migrants from UP and Bihar, 

while in Assam out of the state’s population of 2.6 crore, 

migrants from UP and Bihar are around three lakhs. This 

large number of male migrants constitutes the viewership of 

Bhojpuri films (Gupta 2008). 

It is clear that the number is a sizeable and a growing one, 

but whether or not the migrants constitute a frequent or visible 

source of tension depends on their relations with various 

sections of the local population, particularly the bulk of the 

unskilled and skilled workers and those at a somewhat higher 

level of skill and education, but poor job prospects. While in 

a booming economy and more easy employment situation, 

migrants were by and large seen as providers of much-needed 

services and taking over jobs that local people were reluctant 

to undertake. But, since the last decade or so, due to technological 

and other reasons, both in agriculture and industry, 

there has been a very considerable reduction in the creation 

of jobs per unit of output, and consequently, competition for 

jobs has been intensified. In these circumstances, the relation 

between native population and migrants has become more 

competitive and even conflictual in many areas. The former 

see the latter as not only taking away their jobs, but also as 

an imposed burden on their scarce civic amenities such as 

housing, public transport, medical and sanitation services. 

Migrants face administrative bias too, such as social and 

cultural discrimination and even hostility by sections of the 

local population. They are beginning to feel the need to assert 

their rights as citizens and workers, who shore up the local 

economy by providing essential labour at competitive rates. 

Conscious of their growing numerical strength, they use their 

local proportions at places as organised pressure groups to 

meet their social and community needs. Further, instead of 

serving as scattered vote banks to local politicians, they are 

beginning to emerge as organised ethnic groupings influencing 

wider political arenas. A case in point is the formation, in 

2002, of the Poorvanchal Nav Nirman Morcha in Delhi for 

which 36 organisations joined together with the slogan, “Bihar 

mein baadh sukhar, dilli mein jhopdi ujjar (we flee Bihar 

because of flood and famine, only to have our huts destroyed 

in Delhi) (Gupta 2008). This organisation is now spreading to 

places like Ludhiana 21 and Bangalore. Similar groupings are 

also emerging in Assam, Bengal, Maharashtra and elsewhere, 

each with its own ethnic agenda relative to respective regional 

space. A potential confederation of such organisations should 

have interesting implications for Indian polity, especially in 

respect of recognised linguistic and state boundaries. 

Conclusions 

The paper has brought to attention grass-roots level social 

and linguistic currents which have intrinsic relations to linguistic 

and cultural changes and the film industry. It may, 

however, carry important interstate and intra-state implications 

for social and political changes. In particular, it has implications 

for not only officially recognised Hindi at national 

or state levels and other dominant cultural languages such as 

Urdu, but also other officially recognised state languages 

where the present hegemony of the officially recognised state 

language may come under a challenge from submerged 

mother tongues now treated as dialects. 

This is not to say that this phenomenon poses a disruptive or 

conflict generative potential only. It could also lead to an 

accommodation and enrichment of language and culture of 

particular states, wherein different dialects may flourish 

adding vitality both at the linguistic and cultural level. It is, 

however, clear that migration across boundaries does add to 

India’s notorious cultural diversity and provides a further 

potential for change. In some cases this phenomenon might 

also fuel agitations for further reorganisation on linguistic or 

cultural basis. 

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Notes 

1 A Bhojpuri sleeper hit Kab Aibu Aanganwa 

Hammaar proved to be one of Hindustan 

Levers best marketing gambit in 2007. In the 

film Shweta Tiwari who plays the female lead 

and is behind the hero Manoj Tiwari’s rise as a 

successful singer from a country bumpkin is 

referred to as “Wheel Smart Shrimati” in the 

film. Even a song based on her Mil Gayili 

Humka Ek Smart Shrimati became very popular 

and a film sequence featured Active Wheel 

and though exact results were not given but 

UP and Bihar, clocked impressive growths 

and are still continuing the momentum, 

(Khandekar 2008a). 

2 “Bhojpuri Report”, Screen, 5 July 2009. 

3 Ghosh (2005); “Even Delhi’s Second Largest 

Single Screen Theatre Supreme in Shahadra 

has Started Showing Bhojpuri Films”, The 

Indian Express, 1 May 2009. 

4 Ghosh (2007a); see also “Regional Movies Script 

Success”, The Times of India, 15 July 2009. 

5 The Tribune, 29 October 2009. 

6 Ibid. 

7 Ibid. 

8 “Bhojpuri Bituwas”, published on 22 December 

2005 in Comedy, India and Pop Culture. Posted 

on The Bong Selection Part 1/Random 

Thoughts of A Demented Mind/Color me Bad 

available at http:// greatbong.net/2005/12/ 

22/bhojpuri-bituwas/ 

9 Conversation with producer Amit Singh and 

see Neelakantha (2006). 

10 Interestingly, the most popular and hot-selling 

songs are those that relate to the encounter between 

the migrant and modernity in the form 

of the educated upper-class city girl. The most 

significant among them are: Ghumme moped 

pe sawar, shehar ki titli..giri bijli (this city butterfly 

goes romping in the city on her moped 

sending waves of lightning), dabua shehari 

ladki se tuni dur rah (keep away from these city 

girls); the raunchy Lehenga uthai dem remote se 

(pick up the lehenga with the remote) or the 

even more suggestive: Back mar le front mar le, 

ei ladki high voltage wali current maar le (back 

or front this high voltage girl sends a current); 

Goria tu raas leela karo, tani sa jeans dhila 

karo(hi girl, perform raas leela, just loosen 

your jeans a bit); Ladki lage ki atom bomb dekh 

ke lo pagal se reh gaye hum, haath mein mobile, 

inke hoton pe smile …baby beer pi ke naache 

chamak chamak (is it a girl or an atom bomb, 

seeing her has made me lose my balance, carrying 

a mobile and a smile on her lips, this girl 

dances after taking a swig of beer). These reflect 

interesting possibilities for further study. 

11 The recent celebrations of Bihar Day and 100 

years of Bihar articulate this consolidation. 

Those who articulated focus on these issues 

were Nitesh Kumar, Shiela Dixit and Raj 

Thackery (“Migration Behind Crime Surge”, 

Asian Age, 23 January 2013). 

12 TAM research has shown that while the viewership 

of Bhojpuri channels is only 3.1% in 

Bihar a sizeable proportion of people watched 

Bhojpuri channels in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata 

and UP (Rathore 2010 and TAM research 2010). 

13 Littichoka is also a group which joined facebook 

on 6June 2009. It has 302 members and 

almost 2,886 likes. Recently, the surging popularity 

of Litti Choka and dahi chwida as a 

matter of cultural assertion has been highlighted 

in popular international and national 

newspapers and magazines (Soofi:Livemint. 

com 25 February 2012, India Today: 17 January 

2012). 

14 See Tiwari 2006 c f India Today, 16 January, 

“Action in the Cow Belt” and Ghosh (2007a). 

15 A similar version of this assertion circulates in 

the form of a joke in Punjab: Ek Bihari, sau 

bimari; do Bihari, ladai ki tayari; teen Bihari, 

train hamari; chaar Bihari, sarkar hamari; 

paanch Bihari, Punjabi hi hamari; chuk de 

fatiya bhaiyya bhajao, Punjab bachao (Outlook, 

3 October 2008). 

16 Those attacked earlier included Thane’s Pratap 

Talkies and Nasik’s Madhukar hall among 

others. 

17 www.jagran.com, 5 September 2012. 

18 “Ek Bihari Sau Pe Bhari Gets Record Opening”, 

The Times of India, 24 August 2012, “Ek Bihari 

Sau Pe Bhari Making Huge Profits”, The Times 

of India, 30 August 2012 and also see CinemaBhojpuria.in 

19 Ibid: The Times of India, 30 August 2012. 

20 www.firstpost.com, 8 September 2012. 

21 The clash which took place at the industrial 

hub of Dadrikalan in December 2009. Dadrikalan 

is a strech of about six kilometers home to 

important industries: Heroes, Avon, Bhogal, 

A S Autos, Montecarlo, etc. 

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