Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

THE ROLE OF POPULAR NARRATIVES IN STIMULATING THE PUBLIC DISCOURSE ON HIV AND AIDS

2005; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 3; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/14746680500118533

1474-6697

Arvind Singhal, P. N. Vasanti,

Substance Abuse Treatment and Outcomes

Abstract The purpose of the present article is to analyze the role of a popular Hindi film, Phir Milenge (We Will Meet Again), in stimulating the AIDS‐related public discourse in India. Starring mega‐actors and directed by an award‐winning director, the Bollywood Hindi film Phir Milenge exemplifies what is commonly referred to as the entertainment‐education communication strategy. We discuss the entertainment‐education strategy in HIV/AIDS prevention, including the role of popular mainstream feature films in stimulating the public discourse on HIV and AIDS. Our multi‐pronged research design to gauge Indian audience responses to Phir Milenge is described, and the results presented. Our findings suggest that popular, mainstream films starring megastars can help break the silence about AIDS, and move the discussion of HIV/AIDS from the personal‐private to the public‐policy sphere. Acknowledgements We thank the following co‐researchers of the Centre for Media Studies, New Delhi, India for their assistance in data‐collection: Alok Srivastava, Dipti Kulkarni, and Kalpana Bindu. We also thank Revathy, the Director of Phir Milenge, and Professor David Gere of the University of California in Los Angeles for their encouragement in researching art initiatives to combat HIV and AIDS. Notes Much like Hollywood, Bollywood has been gun shy of producing issue‐based feature films. In recent years, Bollywood had produced, as a rare token, films dealing with gay issues such as Mango Souffle and Bombay Boys, and a film dealing with female sexuality called Girlfriends. Another Bollywood film, Nidaan, tried to tackle HIV/AIDS but not with the kind of megastars that Phir Milenge had.