The Fearless, Daring, Mischievous Lion: Analyzing the Depiction of the Police Officer in Post-2010s Bollywood Films

• In Event: Intersections in Narrative and Visual Criminology: The Stories We Tell

Abstract

Made on a budget of $3.5 billion, the four films in Indian film director Rohit Shetty’s ‘Cop Universe’ have made the box office collection of $10.73 billion, becoming a huge success - a testament to Bollywood or Hindi movie audiences’ appreciation and acceptance of action-crime dramas that revolve around the figure of a male police officer. The ‘Cop Universe’ that started in 2011 has now become a shared media franchise with famous Bollywood actors portraying high-ranking police officers. These movies follow similar tropes and plots - following the tried and tested ‘Bollywood formula’, the hypermasculine policeman’s journey effortlessly blends romance and violence. Justice, for these protagonists, is not achieved by following procedure but becomes revenge as they resort to extra-judicial actions with impunity. The paper will use the content analysis methodology to understand the depiction of the policeman in the ‘Cop Universe’ as well as the ‘Dabangg’ movie series which is another successful police-centric movie series started in 2010. This paper aims to explore how these policemen are turned into likable protagonists even as they break the rules with impunity, especially at a time when the police forces in India are facing complaints from civil society activists about their violence against minority communities.

Author

• Sukanya Bhattacharya, University of Tennessee, Knoxville