{"id":139734,"date":"2022-05-04T16:13:31","date_gmt":"2022-05-04T14:13:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=139734"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:26:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:26:16","slug":"how-a-bollywood-blockbuster-led-to-tourism-in-iceland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2022\/05\/04\/how-a-bollywood-blockbuster-led-to-tourism-in-iceland\/","title":{"rendered":"How a Bollywood blockbuster led to tourism in Iceland"},"content":{"rendered":"

How a dancing scene in a Bollywood blockbuster led to a rise of Indian tourists to Iceland. Apoorva Nanjangud wrote her dissertation on media tourism and Bollywood: Finding Bollywood. A Comparative Analysis of Bollywood Tourism in a Transnational Context<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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Apoorva Nanjangud is writing her name on the wall at the day of her PhD Defence.<\/span><\/p>

\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLevien Willemse<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

Congratulations! How was your PhD defence?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThank you! Well, I hoped that we would have a Covid-free ceremony, with all committee members present in person. Unfortunately, one by one, three of them tested positive. Then the same happened with three photographers, the last of whom called in sick the moment my car entered the university couple hours before the defence. I already had accepted there would be no pictures, until I realised I could ask the photographer of EM. Maybe it was meant to happen this way.\u201d<\/p>

That almost sounds like a movie!<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYes definitely. My father taught me his philosophy that whatever happens is for the best and whatever doesn\u2019t happen is also for the best.\u201d<\/p>

What is your dissertation about?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThat is an interesting question to ask, especially after the defence. I\u2019m still having these aftereffects, like thoughts while doing home chores, about how I would answer a certain question. I have to remind myself: it\u2019s over. Looking back my dissertation is about media tourism in the context of Bollywood. Generally, the research on media tourism has been mostly about Western cases, like Game of Thrones or Harry Potter. I attempted to diversify this research field by focusing on Hindi cinema, from different angles. One is for instance the film format itself, with certain routines, like song and dance, and how that mobilises people to go on a trip.\u201d<\/p>

How do Bollywood songs inspire people to go on a trip?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cBollywood films have dance- and song sequences, very often, say every 30-40 minutes. They\u2019re used to make a narrative leap or depict a dream sequence and have a fundamental role in the Bollywood movie format. In one of the cases I looked at, the lead couple enter a dream and land up in in Iceland instantaneously. The songs are very popular within the wider Indian media landscape and therefore, they tend to also shape the destination images and potential travel flows. An example of this is the increase in visitors from India to Iceland following 2015, when the song video Gerua<\/em> (from the movie Dilwale<\/em>) was released, so much so that there was a direct flight introduced from New Delhi to Reykjavik.\u201d<\/p>

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