Why isn’t there a Kannadiga character in Bollywood films?

A panel discussion on the nature of Bengaluru at BIC addressed a wide range of issues, from why Kannadiga characters are absent in Hindi film and what constitutes the city’s cosmopolitanism to which is the best dosa in town.

Shoba Narayan says that watching the 2023 Bollywood hit Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani left her wondering when a character hailing from Karnataka would appear in a mainstream Bollywood film. “We all know Bollywood is full of Punjabi characters because, for a long time, they were the producers and directors,” says the Bengaluru-based journalist and writer, adding that, more recently, Bengali and even Tamilian characters have entered the world of Bollywood.  

“But why is a Kannadiga character not rising up to the national consciousness,” she asks at a recent talk titled Glimpses of Namma Bengaluru: When a City Becomes a Character at the Bangalore International Centre in Domlur before offering a theory. “Bengaluru is (simply) not a Bollywood film. It is a Karnataka film,” believes Shoba before going to announce the other three panellists at this discussion, singer M.D. Pallavi, food expert Kunal Bysani aka Ghatotkatcha, and historian P.L. Udayakumar. 

Decoding the character of the city and its people, something Shoba has already attempted in her recent book, Namma Bengaluru: The Soul of a Metropolis, became one of the major themes at this session, with Shoba delving into her craft, process and characters while the other panellists offered their expert take on the city’s music, food and history.  

Shoba starts by asking Pallavi, who has sung all over the world, about what makes the audience and music of Karnataka so different. According to Pallavi, the one thing that has always struck her about performing in Karnataka is how lovely the people are. “There’s so much hospitality, such warmth, always,” she says, recounting her experience of singing at a big jatri in North Karnataka around the time of Sankranti.  

The concert, part of a 3-day festival, which had farmers coming in from over 20-25 villages, took place on a hill surrounded by many more hills, says Pallavi, adding that almost 6-7 lakh people ended up camping at this site, cooking in large community kitchens and sleeping under the open sky. “I can’t even explain what a feeling it was to sing and to see an endless number of people listening to your music,” says Pallavi, who still remembers how warm, welcoming and hospitable every person there was. “There was not a single bad moment,” she says. 

She also talks about the diversity of music available in Bengaluru, specifically from Carnatic to Hindustani to jazz, pop, rock and Indie music. “It is like a melting pot,” she says, something Shoba echoes.  

Inhabitants of Bengaluru, many of whom are migrants to the city, often assume that the old part of the city is the Pete area while the swanky, happening bits such as Electronics City, Indiranagar and Whitefield are newer. Nothing could be further from the truth. “The core of the city — Chikpete, Balepete and all of this — is probably the newer portions of the city,” says Udayakumar, pointing out that these are only four or five hundred years old.