Bollywood and its profound influence on intangible cultural heritage

Bollywood has seriously and substantially impacted Bharat’s intangible cultural heritage, both by constructively contributing to it and by influencing it in complex and challenging ways. Its impact has altered how traditions are remembered, practiced, transmitted, and even invented in contemporary Bharat.

Intangible cultural heritage (ICH) comprises living expressions such as traditions, knowledge systems, performing arts, social practices, rituals, festivals, languages, and collective memories that communities recognise as part of their cultural identity.

Intangible heritage survives through practice and transmission, not through archives. Bollywood, with its mass reach, has become a dominant intermediary between tradition and society. For many urban, rural, and diaspora audiences, cinema has become the primary source of cultural learning rather than community elders or practitioners. As a result, cinematic representations increasingly define what is perceived as “authentic” cultural practice.

Bollywood has emerged as one of the most powerful modern agents shaping, transforming, and transmitting intangible heritage. Since the early twentieth century, it has actively influenced, reinterpreted, and sometimes redefined how intangible heritage is perceived, practiced, and consumed across generations and geographies.

Some notable examples include:

•Karva Chauth, once a region-specific ritual, became a nationalised symbol of romantic devotion due to films like ‘Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge’ and ‘Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham’.

•Wedding practices across the country now mirror Bollywood choreography, music, sequences, and aesthetics, often overriding local customs.

This is a clear case of cinema creating new cultural norms rather than merely reflecting existing ones.

Bollywood often compresses India’s vast cultural diversity into a single “pan-Indian” aesthetic by converting folk dances into stylised visual spectacles, stripping them of ritual meaning. Local music forms are remixed into generic “Bollywood folk,” weakening community ownership. This homogenisation risks erasing micro-traditions and local knowledge systems.

Bollywood has also deeply influenced spoken Hindi—its idioms, metaphors, and emotional expressions. Iconic dialogues increasingly replace traditional storytelling and oral wisdom in everyday speech. At the same time, the decline of poetry and classical lyricism in contemporary cinema has weakened older oral-literary traditions that films once helped sustain.

Sacred traditional music, classical dance, and bhakti symbolism are frequently repackaged for entertainment. While this increases visibility, it often detaches these practices from their philosophical and spiritual roots.

The impact, however, is not entirely negative. Bollywood has revived interest in classical dance (‘Devdas’), textiles (‘Padmaavat’), and folk music; sustained cultural memory through historical narratives (‘Lagaan’, ‘Swades’); and enabled global dissemination of Indian cultural expressions. In several cases, cinema has prevented traditions from fading into obscurity.

At the same time, Bollywood has created challenges for cultural literacy, making it difficult for audiences to distinguish between symbolic cinema and lived spiritual tradition. Living traditions are increasingly converted into consumable “content,” aligning heritage with market logic rather than community continuity.

Bollywood has created and established new gods (stars and characters), new rituals (cinema-inspired practices), and new miracles (visual faith). While this has expanded emotional engagement with belief, it has also diluted spiritual depth and disrupted traditional modes of transmitting intangible heritage.

Bollywood has been particularly successful in transforming myth into socio-cultural reality through repetition, emotional conditioning, and visual authority. It has influenced how faith, miracles, and sacred authority are imagined and practiced in contemporary India.

Traditionally, the Puranas, kathas, kirtans, and temple rituals transmitted sacred narratives. Bollywood has replaced many of these with cinematic storytelling. Films do more than depict divinity; they create devotional frameworks complete with iconography, miracles, and moral codes.

Actors portraying deities or saint-like figures often transcend their roles. Film representations have led to mass devotional followings shaped more by cinematic imagery than by scriptural sources. This mirrors how oral traditions once transformed human figures into divine legends—a process now accelerated by mass media.

Bollywood has also institutionalised rituals that previously did not exist or were marginal. Visiting temples after watching devotional films has become common practice. Specific songs are played during weddings, vrats, and festivals, functioning as ritual soundtracks. Cinematic fasting, prayers, and vows—especially for marriage, children, or success—are often performed following film templates.

Bollywood repeatedly portrays miracles as visual proof through instant divine intervention, physical manifestations of blessings, and dramatic punishments and rewards. Such depictions simplify complex spiritual philosophies into cause-and-effect faith transactions. This has encouraged expectation-based devotion (“If I do this ritual, I will get this result”) and faith driven by spectacle rather than sadhana or ethical living. This marks a shift from dharmic inquiry to cinematic superstition.

Bollywood has also directly contributed to human deification. Actors are worshipped with temples, garlands, aartis, and milk abhishekas. Film dialogues are treated as moral truths, and fans imitate clothing, behaviour, and even life choices as acts of devotion.

This phenomenon resembles hero-cult worship, where charisma replaces spiritual authority. The “god” is accessible, visual, and emotionally responsive—unlike the abstract, metaphysical divine traditions of India.

Many Bollywood narratives present a cinematic version of dharma: simplified binaries of good versus evil, emotional sacrifice replacing philosophical discipline, and redemption through spectacle rather than inner transformation. These constructs often override nuanced spiritual traditions that emphasise karma, self-realisation, and inner discipline.

The growing integration of faith with creative and economic activity has made devotion increasingly accessible through organised markets. Merchandise, pilgrimage tourism, and film-inspired themed temples have expanded how people engage with spirituality. Music albums have introduced devotional expression to wider audiences alongside traditional bhajans and kirtans. Devotion is also expressed through visually rich floral decorations and generous offerings, reflecting heightened public participation and enthusiasm.

(The writer is a Creative Economy Expert)