ABSTRACT
This study explores the Indian film industry through the lens of the fourth and fifth filters of the propaganda model. It finds that there is a symbiotic dependence between Bollywood and the Indian government, where the former provides soft power – i.e. propaganda – for the Indian state while the latter provides tax breaks and a host of opportunities to increase the profits, reach and influence of the film industry while threatening flak as a powerful mechanism of control. Hence, the film industry consistently produces content in consonance with the position of the Indian government. Herman and Chomsky claimed the fifth filter affecting media output was an ideology of anti-communism and later anti-terrorism as key mechanism of control over media and culture. This study posits the existence of an anti-Pakistan fifth filter in Indian media, in particular, the Indian film industry.
