Fourteenth Global Studies Conference

Abstract

From dominance by the public broadcaster, Doordarshan, to national deregulations that opened the India media market to foreign direct investment, mergers, and multi-year partnerships, the commercialization and consolidation of media in India was dramatic and sudden. In the mid 1990s. Reliance Media, part of the Ambani Brothers conglomerate that produces industrial, aerospace, construction and other commodities, became a major player within a decade. Reliance benefitted from the Indian deregulations, forming partnerships with CBS and Bertlesmann, among others. Fox, Sony, and Disney also found national partnerships, with Disney eventually purchasing UTV, now the second largest TV network, while Reliance, Essel, and other Indian media corporations expanding their partnerships regionally to Malaysia, Indonesia. Reliance bought 50% of DreamWorks, an iconic US media giant, and has since partnered with Steven Spielberg, Participant One, and China’s Alibaba in Amblin Entertainment, a global film leader. Recently, Reliance/DreamWorks has established joint ventures in the opening Chinese media market. In a nation of 1.2 billion, transnational media (Reliance, Amblin, Sony, Fox, others) continue to expand, shift alliances, collaborate, and compete with other national and TNMCs. An overview of the dominant themes in Indian action movies illustrates collaboration with transnational media and the sharing of consumerist and market values.