ShakespeareIndia · Shakespeare and Indian Cinematic Traditions

Shakespeare and Indian Cinematic Traditions

Working with expert in global Shakespeare, Professor Mark Thornton Burnett of Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), experienced researcher, Dr Rosa García Periago (RGP), has undertaken a fellowship that has comprehensively examined for the first time the role of Shakespeare in Indian cinemas, with a focus on regionalism, diversity, locality and gender. The fellowship has directed attention to the variety of expressions of Shakespeare in different Indian film industries, languages and diasporic contexts, the majority of which have been critically neglected. Integrally important to the fellowship’s recovery mission was the centrality of women not only as subjects of representation but also as filmmakers and creative practitioners. The fellowship, then, has produced original research while generating local and international impact and supporting the career development and mobility of the experienced researcher. The fellowship makes an original and timely contribution to critical debate in global Shakespeare studies, mainly regarding the particular utility of Shakespeare for addressing gendered preoccupations on the Indian screen. All these films make us think anew about Shakespeare. Formal objectives of this Marie Skłodowska Curie Action (MSCA) have been to (a) To establish a database of the hundreds of Shakespeare films in India, including films that adapt major Shakespearean plays or substantially cite Shakespearean plays. The objective was to assemble a comprehensive and representative list of examples that reflects the depth and diversity of the place of Shakespeare in Indian cinematic traditions.; (b) To devise new methodologies and terminologies for the study of Shakespeare and Indian cinematic traditions which would encourage discussion of a fuller range of examples and explicit reflection on the place of region, diversity, locality and gender inside national engagements; (c) To identify the chief characteristics of Indian cinematic Shakespeares, not simply in ‘Bollywood’ but across the spectrum of Indian film industries; d) To produce academic outputs jointly reflective of shared research priorities: a journal article and a co-edited volume; e) To support involvement in film and intercultural theatre production practice that sits alongside the acquisition and demonstration of academic knowledge; f) To publically disseminate the fellowship findings: these would take the form of a public-facing workshop/film festival, three public- facing lectures and an exhibition at Belfast’s oldest public library, the Linen Hall; g) To launch a project website allowing for optimum accessibility and traffic.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union