Kamal Ghorui
West Asia has for decades held a special fascination for Indian films, particularly the crop from Maya Nagari, Bollywood. This has been turning concrete, with stars such as SRK and Mammootty buying palatial houses there, with gorgeous penthouses. What is more, given the insane Rs-$ exchange rate, production houses have been slowly shifting their stories and shots from snow-clad European destinations, or Amsterdam’s fairytale windmill scenario, to places like Dubai and Abu Dhabi. These two cities have even managed to recreate European landscapes for our film folks, in specially created enclosures.
However, during the past few years, the Gulf has ceased to offer the kind of attraction it once did for Indian producers. One important reason is our cinema stories being considered “offensive” to Gulf culture. Administrations, therefore, have been somewhat wary about extending shooting permission to cinema producers.
Films such as Airlift , which spoke about the evacuation of Indian nationals from Kuwait, and others with anti-Pakistan or anti-terror themes, have run afoul of govts in the Gulf. The 2020s have seen several Indian movies, including Fighter , Bell Bottom , Beast , Samrat Prithviraj , and Article 370 , banned or heavily censored in Gulf nations, because they depicted politics, homosexuality, and the military.
When films with “anti-Pakistan” narratives or depictions of terrorism, including Border 2 and Dhurandhar , have faced roadblocks in securing theatrical release in the region, they have suffered huge financial losses. Ranveer Singh starrer Dhurandhar (2025) lost an estimated Rs 90 crore. Border 2 may have lost around Rs 60crore because of the ban.
And now the ongoing Gulf War – which has turned utterly safe havens like Dubai and Abu Dhabi into war zones, with Iranian bombs, missiles, and drones rattling the two cities – has come as the proverbial last nail in the coffin.
Indian movies, with their songs and dances, not to forget glamorous heroines and He-Men heroes, have been a hot favourite not just with the Indian diaspora, but also the locals in the Gulf. But wars have always destroyed culture. As seen in the excellent The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society ,which is about how cultural activity struggled to survive, during World War II. Or in The Sound of Music , which finds the golden period of music ending in Austria, with Hitler’s invasion. Now, a Gulf war may end up being devastating for Indian cinema too.
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