ABSTRACT
The term "soft power" was coined by the political analyst Joseph Nye in the 1990s to describe what he saw as the increasing emphasis put on the "power of attraction" in international foreign relations rather than the "hard power" of "coercion or payments", focusing in particular on the role of America, at the time the world's only superpower. The growing importance of the Chinese market for Hollywood, as well as the broader shifts in the global geopolitical landscape signalled by the rise of wider Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS) grouping, has had a range of knock-on effects for global film culture. The Hindi film industry, known around world as Bollywood, produces around 1,000 feature films annually, attracting in excess of a billion spectators at home and across Indian diaspora. The Indian film industry, as well as the size of global audience that wishes to see films produced, is hugely significant for the nation's soft power appeal.
