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Biography
I am a Leverhulme Early Career Research Fellow working on the project "Firangi Bollywood - International cinema workers in the Hindi film industry" in the Department of Cultural, Media and Visual Studies. I have degrees in International Relations, Indology and Comparative History from Hungary, and I obtained my PhD in 2021 from Birmingham City University with a thesis looking at the transnational journeys of British Asian musicians into the Bollywood music industry.
I worked as an Associate Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University, as a project coordinator for the AHRC-funded "India-UK Creative Industries at 75: Opportunities and Challenges" project at BCU, and as a research assistant for the PGR Studio at BCU.
Expertise Summary
Most of my research focuses on questions of migration, identity, gender and culture. Currently, I am very interested in labour conditions in the creative industries. I am especially intrigued by how ideas of foreignness and processes of globalisation and migration influence these.
Around my PhD years, most of my research focused on questions related to the representation, creation and perception of Punjabiness in Indian popular culture, especially Bollywood. I also looked at Indian diasporas, with a particular focus on the British Punjabi diaspora. I published three book chapters and two journal articles based on this work.
For my MA thesis at the Central European University, I looked at the cinematic representations of borders. I have published articles on the representation of Pakistani characters in Hindi cinema and the perception of Kashmir in Bollywood.
I also did work on the language of Bollywood film songs, female political leaders in South Asia, and wrote a book about the representation of Hinduism in digital media.
Research Summary
Firangi Bollywood - international cinema workers in Hindi cinema
Why do non-Indian actors, cinematographers, colourists, stunt masters, make-up artists and hair stylists take up jobs in the Bollywood creative industry? Why do Indian filmmakers employ them? What do these transcultural labour practices tell us about the status and perception of the Bollywood industry within and beyond India? And what does it mean to be a "foreigner" in India in the 21st century?
Mumbai, the financial and entertainment capital of India is a city of dreams for many Indians - and for an increasing number of non-Indians too. It is a cosmopolitan metropolis, home to the lucrative Bollywood entertainment industry, whose products have been shaping the image of India both in the country and abroad. Many of the above-mentioned foreigners, also called firangs in Hindi, work in front and behind the cameras in Bollywood. Standing where processes of globalisation and sentiments of nationalism intersect, international cine workers are involved in creating stories that deeply influence Indian national identity.
In what ways do their foreignness impacts the products of the Hindi film industry? What do these experiences tell us about contemporary Indian national identity in a globalising world? This project sheds light on international cine-workers' motivations, journeys and career trajectories, while looking at questions related to the interplay of Indianness, foreignness and the role of exoticism, colonialism and transcultural capital.
Recent Publications