A ‘New India’ for the Arab World
Brands Bollywood and Modi in the U.A.E
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12955447 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Ada Petiwala (0000-0001-6429-0586, New York University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 16 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 153-172 |
| Publication date | 2023-05-12 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Middle East Journal of Culture and Communication (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1873-9857 • E-ISSN: 1873-9865 |
| Publisher | Brill (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1163/18739865-01602006 |
| OpenAlex | W4376645361 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 7 |
This article investigates the formations of ‘Brand Modi’ and ‘Brand Bollywood’ and their strategic and overlapping foray into the United Arab Emirates, considering it a pivotal moment in contemporary transregional media production. Two branding campaigns form the basis of my analysis: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s highly mediatized 2015–2018 U.A.E. visits and Shah Rukh Khan’s 2016–2019 ‘#BeMyGuest’ campaign for Visit Dubai (the Emirate’s official tourism brand). Attending to questions of branding techniques, diasporic identity and historical imagination, I examine how these campaigns play on notions of the common man or aam aadmi and the upwardly-mobile and cosmopolitan ‘New Indian’ through the celebrity personas of Modi and Khan. I argue that this creation of a ‘New India’ for the Arab world seeks to efface down class connotations of India and Indians in Arab imaginaries by re-framing India as a key diplomatic and cultural-infrastructural partner of the Emirates
Advertising · Art · Business · Framing (construction · Humanities · Media studies · New delhi · Persona · Political science · Politics · Prime minister · Sociology · Tourism · World class · Engineering · History · Law · Philippine History and Culture · South Asian Cinema and Culture · South Asian Studies and Conflicts
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |