that happened in India
in 2016,
from assertive brides to the world’s largest beach
cleanup.
2016 has been rough.
With the clampdowns on everything from food to free speech, as well as the loss of some of our favourite pop culture icons, it’s no surprise everyone is counting down the days till the year is over.
But let’s look on the bright side: 2016 was also marked by some amazing achievements made by Indians in every field, from space missions and Olympic sports to women’s rights and environmental conservation.
Here’s Quartz’s pick of the top 50 things that made 2016 in India not so bad after all:
- 23-year-old Dipa Karmakar converted a whole nation into fans of gymnastics with her daring moves at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in August. Though the Tripura native—and the first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for the games—didn’t win a medal, she established herself as a name to remember by being one of the few gymnasts in the world to execute the Produnova vault, otherwise known as the “vault of death.”
- Two other Indian women also grabbed the spotlight at this year’s Olympics. 21-year old badminton star PV Sindhu from Hyderabad became the first Indian woman to win a silver medal at the games, as well as the youngest Indian to ever win a medal. And 23-year old Sakshi Malik from Haryana proved that wrestling is a sport for women, too. With her bronze medal, Malik became the first woman wrestler from India to win at the Olympics.
- At the Summer Paralympics in Rio de Janeiro, Indian athletes continued their winning streak, even as television channels back home decided not to broadcast their feats. Devendra Jhajharia, Mariyappan Thangavelu, and Deepa Malik overcame immense odds to take home medals for javelin, high jump, and shot-put, respectively.
- Eighteen-year-old Aditi Ashok became the youngest golfer to participate in the Olympics when she played at the Rio games in 2016. Ashok, who hails from Bengaluru, is currently ranked 112nd in the world, and became the first Indian woman to win a Ladies European Tour title in November.
- The Indian football club Bengaluru FC made history in October by reaching the finals of the AFC Cup. It was the first time an Indian team had made it that far in the prestigious tournament.
- Ravichandran Ashwin, the world’s number one bowler, helped India secure its fifth consecutive Test series win earlier this month. There’s real science behind his technique and that has made him one of the most effective bowlers in the game.
- In November, the Indian women’s hockey team beat China in the last minutes of the finals match to win the Asian Champions trophy.
- India continued its craze for quirky Guinness World Records in 2016. In September, a team of 20 people from an Andhra Pradesh sweetshop cooked up the world’s largest laddu, weighing in at 29,465 kgs.
Actress Priyanka Chopra arrives at the 68th Primetime Emmy Awards in Los Angeles on Sept. 18, 2016. (Reuters/Lucy Nicholson) - Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra established herself as a force to reckon with in Hollywood, too, appearing on the cover of W magazine and presenting an award at the Emmys. And all her hard work has paid off (literally): Chopra ranked 8th on Forbes’s 2016 list of the world’s top 10 highest-paid TV actresses, earning an estimated $11 million in the 12 months ended in June.
- Actress Deepika Padukone also did her bit to smash Indian stereotypes by playing a leather-clad badass with a realistic Indian accent in the Hollywood action movie xXx: Return of Xander Cage.
- In September, India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, introduced the Reliance Jio service with the world’s cheapest data rates and free voice calls, changing the game in the country’s telecom market.
- This was also the year Indians in search of a new show to binge-watch became spoiled for choice. Netflix finally came to India in January, giving viewers a chance to (legally) watch everything from old favourites like Gilmore Girls and That ’70s Show to originals such as Master of None and Jessica Jones. And in December, Amazon followed suit, introducing its video streaming service priced at Rs499 for a year.
- Meanwhile, India overtook the US in terms of internet users. At 227 million people, India’s internet user base is now the second largest in the world after China.
- India’s economy performed pretty well in 2016, too. With a GDP growth forecast of over 7%, India is expected to maintain its position as Asia’s fastest-growing major economy.
- Urban Indian shoppers were rewarded in 2016 with the entry of even more foreign brands, from Spain’s fashionable Massimo Dutti to Japan’s minimalist Muji.
- As the world contended with a Zika outbreak, Bharat Biotech, an Indian company, became the first to file a patent for a vaccine against the virus, proving that local firms can also be path-breakers in scientific research.
- In a big step forward for new parents, India is seeking to expand the legal provision for paid maternity leave to six months. What’s more, some private companies have even extended the benefit to new dads. Deutsche Bank, for instance, now offers six months off for fathers who are the primary caregivers of their infants.
- The Indian government decided to stop building coal plants, at least until 2027, and to encourage the development of renewable energy sources instead, a strong move in the battle against climate change.
- In September, the Adani Group unveiled the world’s largest solar power plant, located in Tamil Nadu. The project took eight months to complete and can produce 648 mw of power.
- In a bid to boost green cover and combat climate change, India embarked on a drive to plant millions of trees in just one day. On July 11, a group of volunteers in Uttar Pradesh planted 49.3 million tree saplings.
- The Indian government meanwhile has earmarked over $6 billion to create new forests, with a plan to increase India’s green cover to 33% of the total land mass, up from 21.34%.
- In January, Sikkim became India’s first organic state, producing crops such as maize, paddy and cardamom that are free from harmful pesticides and fertilizers.
- A citizens movement in Mumbai culminated in August with the world’s largest beach cleanup, ridding Versova beach of over four million pounds of trash.
- One of the hottest beverage trends in the West had Indian origins this year. Hipsters from Sydney to San Francisco discovered one of India’s favourite home remedies: turmeric milk, otherwise known as haldi doodh.
- India’s Supreme Court finally ruled that temples can’t ban women or restrict their entry. The landmark decision was targeted at the Sabarimala Ayyappa Hindu temple in Kerala which doesn’t allow women aged between 10 and 50 to enter because of the stigma associated with menstruation.
- Google and India’s Ministry of Urban Development tried to make things a little easier for locals looking for a public toilet in 2016. Google Maps now provides the locations and opening hours of over four thousand communal and public restrooms as part of an effort to boost access to sanitation.
A tapestry depicting Mother Teresa of Calcutta. (Reuters/Stefano Rellandini) - In recognition of her work for the poor in India, Pope Francis declared Mother Teresa a saint in September. Born to ethnic Albanian parents in 1910, Mother Teresa went on to establish the Missionaries of Charity sisterhood in India in 1950, caring for the destitute in Kolkata’s slums, and garnering both praise and criticism for her methods.
- Despite India’s conservative attitude to romantic relationships, startups came up with ideas to make life easier for unmarried couples in 2016. New Delhi-based StayUncle tied up with hotels to help couples rent rooms for just a few hours without any judgment or moral policing. Later, Oyo Rooms followed suit, offering access to “couple-friendly” hotels.
- Incidentally, India is now one of Tinder’s top five growing markets in the world, drawing 14 million swipes a day as Indians step up their search for hook-ups, casual dates and even love online.
- India’s space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), had a great year, with some 34 satellite launches. In September, ISRO launched 20 satellites into orbit on a single rocket, the highest number it has ever sent at a single time.
- ISRO also tested a prototype of a reusable space shuttle in May, which reduces the cost of space missions by a tenth.
- On Dec. 26, India’s nuclear prowess was displayed when it conducted the fourth test launch of the Agni-V missile, a nuclear-capable, intercontinental ballistic missile.
- Asia’s third-largest economy surpassed Russia and Saudi Arabia when it came to defence spending in 2016, making India one of the top five defence spenders in the world.
- Even in the Indian Ocean, India is flexing its muscles. From 2011 to 2016, the country’s naval voyages across the Indian Ocean have increased by 300%. This was partly an attempt to strengthen its presence in a region where China is increasingly asserting its influence.
- An Indian film about women wrestlers from Haryana, traditionally a patriarchal state, made a blockbuster opening this month with a collection of Rs100 crore over three days. Dangal—produced by actor Aamir Khan—is based on the story of Geeta and Babita Phogat, two wrestlers who went on to win international medals for the country. The movie shows how their father, Mahavir Phogat, pushed back against gender stereotypes that restricted the sport to men.
- Arundhati Roy, who won the Booker prize for The God of Small Things in 1997, announced that she would publish a new novel after twenty years. Titled The Ministry of Utmost Happiness, the novel is expected to release in 2017.
- Sushma Swaraj, India’s external affairs minister, ruled Twitter in 2016. Swaraj paid close attention to every request sent to her on the microblogging site and even rescued several Indians stuck abroad.
- It’s also been a great year for Indian music lovers with everything from the trippy electronic rock on The F16s much-awaited new album to the sun-kissed sounds of the pastel-suited duo, Parekh and Singh (Wes Anderson-approved!) And after all of Chris Martin’s expressions of love for India (including that godawful video), Coldplay finally took to the stage in Mumbai.
- Tesla’s Elon Musk said he wants to open a Gigafactory in India to produce the lithium ion batteries required for electric cars. If it works out, it could mean a big boost to India’s manufacturing sector.
- India’s net neutrality activists won their fight against differential pricing for internet-based apps and services in 2016. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) in February barred telecom providers from charging different prices for different services, effectively blocking Facebook’s Free Basics plan.
- The number of Indian unicorns—startups valued at $1 billion or more—went up to eight in 2016 with the addition of Shopclues, an e-commerce platform, and Hike, a messaging app.
- American company Hyperloop Transportation Technologies (HTT) said it is in talks with the Indian government to bring its ultra-fast rail system to the country.
(Reuters/Lucas Jackson) - Nineteen-year-old Reshma Qureshi proved that acid attack survivors can be powerful advocates for social change. Qureshi walked the runway at New York Fashion Week this year, making a strong statement about beauty and style, as well as promoting the #EndAcidSale movement.
- Narendra Modi continued to travel across the world with a push to strengthen India’s foreign policy. In all, the prime minister travelled to at least 17 countries in 2016.
- This was also the year Indian production companies invested in original video content online. From Better Life Foundation to Ladies Room to Tripling, Indian web series took over YouTube, giving viewers a chance to discover homegrown talent.
- This year, Indian women spoke up for their rights, pushing back against the stereotype of the docile, submissive wife. For instance, a Bengaluru woman turned down a marriage proposal because her fiancé didn’t like her dog and wanted her to get rid of it after the wedding.
- In another case, a woman in Kanpur refused to get married because her would-be groom’s house did not have a toilet.
- India’s perennially loss-making airline, the government-controlled Air India, managed to make operational profits after nine years. In 2016, the airline made Rs105 crore in operating profits for the first time since 2007. India’s other domestic airlines, too, have posted profits after more than five years of losses.
- India’s lawmakers approved the country’s biggest tax reform since Independence, the Goods and Services Tax (GST). The GST will replace at least 17 state and federal taxes and bring them under one unified tax structure.
- And finally, India ambitiously pushed forward in its dream of going cashless, despite the flawed execution of its demonetisation drive. Prime minister Modi wants 1.3 billion Indians to go cash-free and use digital payment services instead. If successful, that could increase transparency in the Indian economy and keep people from evading taxes.
Dear Apple, here’s what you need to do to succeed in India in 2017
The year 2016 started off on a promising note for Apple in India.
In May, CEO Tim Cook paid his maiden visit to the country. Not only did he meet with prime minister Narendra Modi but Cook also wooed the public by visiting temples, attending Bollywood parties, and watching cricket matches.
The company also struck a deal in October with Reliance Jio, an LTE mobile operator in India, which plans to roll out 4G coverage in 18,000 cities and 200,000 villages across the country in October. Apple is also setting up a distribution center on the outskirts of India’s commercial capital, Mumbai, so its products are “rarely sold out at the retail level” and they can achieve “common pricing for offline and online sales.”
But the technology giant’s efforts in India have been inconsistent.
After finally getting the much-awaited permissions to set up shop in the country, the Cupertino-based company is being elusive about when its first retail store in India will open its doors. Although iPhone sales climbed up 50% in India from the year prior, the share of iOS devices was sliced almost in half in the second quarter, down to 2.4% from an already small 4.5% a year earlier. Competition from low-cost Android alternatives is pushing the iPhone maker out of the running.
In 2017, Apple first needs to recognize the myriad India-specific challenges holding it back, and then it needs to make a more deliberate play to fix them.
Cost and competition
Despite its desirability, Apple’s unaffordable price tags remain a huge deterrent for India’s price-sensitive consumers. The iPhone’s latest model retails at around $1,000, much more than other high-end brands. The average smartphone in the country costs only $158, according to Mary Meeker’s 2016 Internet Trends report.
To make matters worse, Indians pay more than the rest of Asia for Apple’s products—the iPhone 7 costs nearly $200 more in India, compared to Japan.
Apple considers India its next frontier for growth after China but India is a tougher market to crack. The South Asian country has a much lower per capita income of $1,598 compared to China’s $8,028.
“In China, [Apple was] in the right place at the right time,” Anindya Ghose, director of New York University’s Center for Business Analytics, told Quartz. “They didn’t have any major competition from the likes of Huawei or Xiaomi.”
But in India, these two brands, as well as other China-made phones—Oppo, Vivo, Gionee—have launched a slew of low and middle-priced options. Local players, such as Micromax and Lava, and South Korean giant Samsung also pose a threat to Apple’s business.
When the brand tried to combat high prices by selling cheaper, refurbished iPhones in Asia’s third-largest economy, the government shelved those efforts. India is concerned that Apple’s devices will add to the country’s abundant e-waste problems. In 2015, a proposal to import used iPhones and iPads was denied by the environment ministry’s technical review committee for the same reason.
And cheaper phones are only a partial solution. Apple needs to differentiate its product from other low-priced models consumers already have access too. The product will only have value if it is “Indianised,” said Vivek Wadhwa, a fellow at Carnegie Mellon University. He suggests making local language keyboards a standard feature on a stripped-down version of the current iPhones, as well as adding localised apps and services. “You still have the Apple logo and the elegance of the Apple [device] but at much lower price points.”
The language barrier
Indeed, if Apple wants to grow its user base beyond the upper echelons of Indian society, who are well-versed in English and aware of American brands, it needs a plan to knock down language barriers.
Siri speaks Mandarin, French, Arabic, and more but she can’t converse in Hindi—an option Google Assistant offers. “[Adding language support] would be a challenge, too, considering the diversity,” International Data Corporation research manager Kiranjeet Kaur said, referring to the fact that less than 40% of Indians speak Hindi. The solution? The company would have to focus efforts on over 20 spoken languages in the 1.3 billion strong country—like Google and Facebook are doing—especially if it wants to capture an audience beyond the country’s 125 million English speakers.
The largest domestic smartphone manufacturer, Micromax, sells regional-language-enabled devices to tap into rural India, which comprises 70% of the population. Apple, meanwhile, doesn’t even feature in the top five smartphone vendors in the country.
Misplaced efforts
Globally, services such as iTunes, Apple Music, the App Store, iCloud, and Apple Pay offer the promise of growth. In the fourth quarter of 2016, Apple’s revenue from services climbed up 24% from the year prior, raking in $6.3 billion. But in India, there has been no aggressive push for services.
“The onus falls on Apple to build a local ecosystem to cater to Indians and it doesn’t look like Apple is moving in that direction,” Kaur points out.
Apple Maps’ launch in 2012 was a botched job due to a lack of testing and erroneous data. The company set up a new office in Hyderabad this May to focus on Maps development. In mid-December, the citizens of India finally got access to live traffic data, which was already available in several markets for years.
When the company launched Apple Music in India in July 2015, it appeared serious about courting the market. What typically costs $10 per month for individual accounts—and $15 for a “family” of up to six people to share in the US—was retailing at Rs120 ($2) and Rs190 ($3) respectively. Still, local alternatives had Apple beat in India—music streaming apps like Saavn, Gaana, and Hungaama are all cheaper and they got a headstart in the Indian market before Apple’s 2015 launch.
Ghose recommends that Apple should “partner with some of the local app developers so that the content and features are customized to the Indian market” and take a page out of Amazon’s playbook to license deals with major movie and music studios for digital content.
In a year where Apple lost its grip on China, India’s open market could offer Apple new hope—if it just learns to compete fiercely.
Get the Quartz Daily Brief in your inbox:
Prohibition to demonetisation: How India’s liquor companies lost the buzz in 2016
India’s booze business was a rather dry affair in 2016.
After reporting sluggish sales growth of just 0.2% in 2015, the slowest rate in a decade, the market for alcoholic beverages struggled with even more hurdles in 2016. Though most companies are yet to announce their earnings for the current year, the industry’s battle with regulatory and political challenges suggests good news may not be on the horizon.
The big blow to liquor companies came in April with Bihar’s decision to impose a state-wide ban on alcohol. And by November, the ruling government’s move to stop the circulation of high-value currency notes further dented the market.
Here’s a round-up of the struggles liquor makers faced in India throughout 2016:
Bihar ban
Early in the year, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar called for a state-wide ban on liquor as part of an electoral promise to please women voters. After Kumar won, he followed through with this, despite the fact that it would lead to a loss of around Rs6,000 crore in tax revenue.
The country’s largest liquor maker, United Spirits (USL), reported a 3% net impact on sales on account of prohibition in the first quarter of the year. “USL has had to stop bottling at its Bihar plant; hundreds of employees have lost their jobs,” Abanti Sankaranarayanan, business head for luxury and corporate relations at United Spirits, said in October.
The ban also resulted in companies reporting a loss of existing inventory and raw material.
“We were hoping to start the new financial year with a bang and look at what has happened,” Deepak Roy, vice-chairman at Allied Blenders and Distillers, which makes Officer’s Choice whiskey, told the Business Standard newspaper. “We have crores worth of material at godowns, for which excise has already been paid. All this will become redundant with the ban.”
The move forced liquor companies such as beer maker Carlsberg and USL to reconsider their investments in the market. After Bihar’s move, more states, such as Tamil Nadu and even Goa, made public their intention to go alcohol-free to various degrees, causing concern among companies, though none of these states have implemented a ban yet.
More recently, in a bid to prevent road accidents, India’s Supreme Court has barred liquor shops from opening up across the country’s highways, starting from April 1, 2017. That’s another roadblock for liquor companies.
The move is like a “partial prohibition being enforced on the people of India,” said Roshini Sanah Jaiswal, promoter of Jagatjit Industries, which sells the Aristocrat brand of whiskey. She added that the ban would negatively impact the industry in 2017.
Taxes and higher prices
India also remains one of the most regulated countries in the world when it comes to the sale of liquor. The tax on alcohol is a state subject, which means that the country’s 29 states get to levy taxes on alcohol sales to bolster their revenues. And taxes on alcohol increased in 2016, forcing companies to pass on higher costs to consumers.
In July, for instance, Maharashtra re-introduced a local state tax on alcohol and products containing ethanol, raising the prices of alcoholic beverages. The move “negatively impacted the bottom line in the second quarter,” USL said in an earnings statement in October.
In April, Haryana hiked taxes on the sale of beer and Indian-made foreign liquor (IMFL) by increasing the value-added tax, or VAT, by 2%. And in the capital city of New Delhi, the state government halted the issuance of new liquor licenses to bars and restaurants, citing an over-supply of existing licenses.
The only bright spot was in Kerala where the newly-appointed chief minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, signaled a reversal of the partial prohibition implemented in 2014, saying it wasn’t effective in reducing the state’s problem of widespread alcoholism. Vijayan batted for abstinence instead of a complete ban.
For beer makers, the market remained stagnant as higher raw-material costs and increased taxes stalled growth. Sales of beer, which constitutes less than 8% of the overall alcohol market in India, remained flat in the first six months of the year (pdf).
Demonetisation
If all that wasn’t enough, liquor makers also felt the pinch of the ruling government’s decision to wipe out high-value currency notes starting from Nov. 09. With less cash to spare, consumers bought smaller packs of liquor or switched to cheaper brands.
The festive months of November and December, which typically see high growth for liquor companies, witnessed a decline of 20-25% in the IMFL category. In rural areas, the sale of country liquor was down by 30%, according to Jagatjit Industries’ Jaiswal.
“It really was the final nail in the coffin,” said Samar Shekhawat, senior vice president, marketing, at United Breweries, which makes India’s largest-selling beer brand, Kingfisher.
Indian football’s 2016 match report: The good, the bad and the ugly
In recent years, Indian football has descended to such an unimaginable low that it’s very hard to go further south. From such a position, even a few steps in the right direction look like a significant improvement, an effort worth lauding.
If we look back at 2016, this is exactly how the year panned out: decent overall, but compared to the last three or four years, excellent. While there are a number of aspects that need to be taken into account in this year-end review, the performance of the men’s national team has to be at the top of the agenda.
The year started on a victorious note as Stephen Constantine’s men lifted the South Asian Football Federation Championship, defeating Afghanistan. In a few months’ time, they lost two World Cup qualifiers, ending up with just three points from their eight games.
Mixed bag
Even after finishing at the bottom of the group, they got the chance to appear in the play-offs, where they steamrolled Laos 7-2 over two legs, including an impressive 6-1 home victory. The best win of the year, though, came in a friendly against Puerto Rico, who at 114, were ranked 38 places above the Blue Tigers.
Sunil Chhetri and company won the match 4-1, with four different players scoring against a higher ranked opponent—a rare incident in the nation’s football history.
The captain for the Puerto Rico match, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, went on to make some history of his own when he became the first Indian to play in the Europa League, for FC Stabaek.
After that tie, India didn’t play any more friendlies, much to the ire of the fans. But as Scroll.in had first explained, it was a well calculated move by the governing body.
India now finds itself in pot 2 of the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification round draw, which means they are much more likely to be grouped with easier opponents in the next round. Having started the year with a ranking of 166, they have signed off at 135th, a 31-step improvement.
Gurpreet wasn’t the only Indian-born player to make a mark in Europe, as Bengaluru-born Ishan Pandita became the first Indian to sign a contract for a La Liga club, with CD Leganes. Pandita was followed by Ashique Kuruniyan, who signed for Villarreal FC on a loan deal.
Plight of the clubs
A number of youngsters also established themselves as regulars in the national colours. While the All India Football Federation (AIFF) fared brilliantly in handling the national team, it was shambolic in dealing with the problems of club football in the country.
Three Goan clubs pulled out of the country’s top-flight league, but the hierarchy continued with their wrong line of defence and putting the entire blame on the clubs. This was also the year when the word “merger” entered the lexicon of football fans, as various stakeholders struggled to find a way of merging the Indian Super League and the I-League into a year-long competition.
Even after endless meetings, pressers and behind-the-door discussions, a solution doesn’t look imminent.
Nonetheless, the pinnacle of club football this year was Bengaluru FC’s journey to the AFC Cup final.
This was the first time an Indian club had reached that far in the continental stage, though it must be noted that never before has an I-League club enjoyed the luxury of avoiding West Asian clubs until the summit clash.
The south Indian club, which won its second league title in the first half of the year, has established itself as the benchmark of professionalism for other outfits. The ISL continued to attract stars this year too, most notably former Uruguayan striker Diego Forlan, but got off to a slow start before recovering with late goal-fests. Eventually, the ISL silverware, once again, went to Atletico de Kolkata, even though the vociferous audience in Kochi remained the highlight of this edition.
Women short-changed
The administrative preparations for the 2017 U-17 World Cup continued in full swing, even though the squad failed to eke out any memorable win when poised against fellow Asian nations.
However, they notched up a number of impressive victories against foreign clubs during exposure tours. With nine months still in hand, it can be hoped that they will be able to come up with something big on the global stage.
The U-16 and U-18 I-Leagues ran in full throttle, with 55 and 36 teams participating respectively, which means that a lot of young prospects got a platform to showcase their talent.
The women’s team, though, were not that lucky and got to play their first game of the year on December 27, that too against the same old SAFF nations. The AIFF finally managed to start Women’s I-League, but forgot to arrange for any friendlies for the national team—a routine failure in the last couple of years. The team is now ranked 54th in the world.
Meanwhile, a number of famous football personalities—notably former national team coach Amal Dutta and member of India’s 1956 Olympics squad Syed Abdus Salam—passed away.
In all, it was a mixed year for the nation in the beautiful game, but overall the positives outweighed the negatives by a small fraction.
This post first appeared on Scroll.in. We welcome your comments at ideas.india@qz.com.
A Bollywood actor explains why he agreed to play an Indian buffoon in an American sitcom on Netflix
Many of the actors of South Asian origin now on US television have made a point of avoiding the ethnic stereotypes that prevailed for years—the convenience store owners like Apu from The Simpsons, the kooky cab drivers, the mystics full of ancient wisdom.
In one episode of his show Master of None, comedian Aziz Ansari’s character does not get a callback for the role of an “Unnamed Cab Driver” after refusing to fake an Indian accent—a stance the actor and writer has taken in real life. Priyanka Chopra, the star of Quantico, traveled to America only with the promise of playing full-fledged, ethnically ambiguous characters. “I didn’t want to do a big fat Indian Punjabi family, that’s so expected from a Bollywood actress,” she told Daily News & Analysis. Actor-writer-producer Mindy Kaling set out to “create what is a totally original character” in her sitcom The Mindy Project, and “show diverse talent” rather than pander to existing stereotypes.
But Omi Vaidya, a Bollywood star who shot to fame as Chatur Ramalingam, aka “The Silencer,” in the blockbuster hit 3 Idiots, hasn’t shied away from Indian characters—even buffoonish ones. He says he hopes to make them less caricatured and more real.
Vaidya stars in Brown Nation, a slice-of-life comedy about an Indian-American family in Queens, NY:
The ten-episode series follows the life of Hasmukh, a miserly Gujurati owner of an IT consulting firm who lives with his struggling artist wife and nagging, hypochondriac father-in-law.
Vaidya plays Balan, a first-generation Tamil-Brahmin Indian immigrant office manager, complete with a thick South-Indian accent, Salman Khan obsession, smelly lunches, and plans for an arranged marriage.
In real life, Vaidya has no such accent. Born and brought up by his Indian immigrant parents in Yuca Valley in rural California, the comic actor had short-lived roles playing South Asians in popular American sitcoms, including The Office and Arrested Development, prior to his breakout hit in India.
Vaidya, whose parents are Maharashtrian, auditioned for the goofy South Indian role in 3 Idiots during a trip to India, and got the part. Acting alongside the Bollywood giant Aamir Khan, Vaidya emerged from the hugely popular movie a well-known face in India himself. His journey was turned into a documentary, Big in Bollywood, releasing on Netflix on Jan. 1.
In a conversation with Quartz, Vaidya explains that he sees some merit in playing to—and against—stereotypes.
The interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
Q: After returning to America, why did you agree to play Balan, a South Indian character with an unusually heavy accent, despite the glaring stereotypes associated with him?
Omi Vaidya: Although there are Indian tropes and all that, Brown Nation was more sophisticated than much of the comedy that I was seeing in India. And it was a character where I could really see the thought, rather than the typical taxi driver, convenience store owners, Indian doctors that you constantly see on American television.
My character is supposed to be an idiot but he works extremely hard and improves the business even though he makes many mistakes along the way. You think he’s going to be this stereotypical character, but you really start feeling for his issues and wants and needs. Once you start doing that, all of that cookie cutter type of stuff that we think of when we think of a South Indian goes out the window, and he just becomes a person that you care for.
Q: How do you get the balance right between making ethnically-charged jokes that could be funny to an American and global audience, without ridiculing Indians in the process?
OV: There was a show like this maybe five years ago, Outsourced, but that show was fabricated by a studio and it was directly appealing to all American audiences. They shot a show about an Indian call center in LA and faked it. They had to use a lot of jokes that South Asians found offensive at times. We don’t want to do that.
If you’re used to your typical American television show, you’ll still be able to enjoy our show because there’s typical family issues—what to get your wife for your five-year anniversary and so on. But you can also enjoy this new realm of characters you may not be familiar with, other cultures and identities that you may not be familiar with. Like, Fresh Off The Boat is about Chinese immigrants living in America, but their struggles are something that Americans can relate to.
Similar to FOTB and Modern Family, Brown Nation shows the struggles of daily life, daily work. These are things that people can relate to. Now, showing a different culture while you’re doing that—I think you can get away with that and still succeed.
Q: So why screen it on Netflix? Why not get it a slot on mainstream American TV like the other shows you mentioned?
OV: Just look on the screen, man. Majority of the roles—they’re white, they’re Caucasian. It’s difficult and disheartening when you see that, but at the same time, it is slowly changing. Ultimately, we need to get to a place where we are a “Greg.” And maybe once they cast us, they’ll give us an Indian name, of course. I would hope so.
The writers have to really think about us. When I did The Office, my role, he’s a Sikh guy. They didn’t care whether I had a beard or a kadda [religious bangle], and I really had to bring those items with me. And they gave him a Muslim name, Sadiq, so they didn’t really do their research. I think actors really have to be active themselves and help get to the next level. And I think we will, with Aziz Ansaris and Priyanka Chopras—and also Brown Nation, hopefully.
Q: How come a show like Empire, with a non-white cast, can live on American television but Brown Nation can’t enter that space?
OV: [Empire] is not about African immigrants, it’s about African-Americans in the music industry. There’s a lot of Caucasians that may not even know black people but they listen to rap. You have BET, you have channels from 20 years ago that have broken ground, so that a show like Empire can really succeed in the mainstream. I don’t think we really have that with South Asians—we don’t have our own mass media channel that non-Indians are watching.
Q: It’s great that you embrace your Indianness, but don’t you want to be able to play something more than a South Asian comic trope?
OV: Growing up, I was the least Indian person you knew. I hid my identity and just tried to be like anyone else. But I found out that I wasn’t like anyone else. So ultimately, I found my identity as an Indian and I started valuing those things that I had run away from. And when I did that, I was appreciated more. I think that of course there’s always a level of assimilation we need to do as Americans in a global society, but at the same time, we also need to stand up for who we are and be proud of it.
Q: Actors such as Priyanka Chopra, Aziz Ansari, and Mindy Kaling look for roles that are not explicitly bound by ethnicity. Are you not?
OV: Yes, the actors you have mentioned have done a great job in developing characters that don’t have to be Indian. But there is also great value in showing and explaining one’s culture to an audience outside of your community.
I believe, in these times when nationalism is rising in much of the world, it’s important to display ethnic cultures in a friendly and non-abrasive way, so people can understand and enjoy “the other” and see there’s nothing to be alarmed about.
Maybe some viewers will find that “the other” isn’t that much different than themselves.
Hindustan Unilever brings out the roots, herbs and shrubs to battle Ramdev’s Patanjali
India’s largest consumer goods company is going all out to counter Patanjali Ayurved.
Hindustan Unilever (HUL), the local arm of the Anglo-Dutch multinational, plans to launch 20 new natural and herbal products under its Ayush brand in a bid to win back consumers who flocked to Patanjali’s ayurvedic soaps, skin creams, and shampoos.
“Ayurveda is a growing trend…” Sandeep Kohli, executive director, personal care at HUL, told The Economic Times newspaper. “Ayush is designed to attract and retain consumers with authentic Ayurveda-based offerings.”
Mumbai-based HUL is a Rs31,987 crore behemoth known for household essentials such as Lux soaps, Dove shampoos, and Surf Excel washing powders. But with Patanjali reviving the business for products made with medicinal plants and herbs, HUL is stepping up its investment in the Ayush brand, which was first launched in 2001. To compete with Patanjali—which reported a turnover of Rs5,000 crore in 2016—the new range of products will be sold at mass-market prices between Rs30 and Rs130.
This move comes after HUL bought ayurvedic hair oil brand Indulekha for Rs330 crore in December 2015 in another attempt to edge out Patanjali by growing its portfolio in the natural and herbal products segment. It has also been revamping other existing brands, for instance, introducing an ayurvedic version of its Fair & Lovely fairness cream.
HUL isn’t the only multinational alarmed by the rise of Patanjali. Earlier this year, Colgate said it would launch a herbal toothpaste, Vedshakti, to counter Patanjali’s Dant Kanti. And in June, French beauty company Loreal brought back its Ultra Doux range of shampoos, which is being promoted as an organic brand.
HUL’s move to boost the Ayush brand could definitely help the company claw back market share, particularly in the toothpaste business.
“…In toothpaste, wherein HUL has been losing share, Ayush will help in regaining some share as the natural segment is growing at a faster pace compared to the normal segment,” Abneesh Roy, research analyst, institutional equities, at Mumbai-based brokerage Edelweiss Securities said in a note this month.
But ultimately Indian consumers will decide who does it best.
No Thanks:)
ReplyDelete