India contributed 2.5 million soldiers to WWII, forming the largest volunteer force of the war. Over 90,000 of them died, thousands were wounded or went missing, and they fought across North Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Burma. Yet in most popular WWII movies, Indian soldiers are either completely absent or reduced to nothing.
For something called a “world war,” cinema has done a great job pretending huge parts of the world never existed.
by Effective_Bluebird19
48 Comments
They also help to defend Malaya during the war which the commonwealth force garrisoned there was mostly consist of Indians and they participate most of the major engagements with the Japanese during the Malaya campaign.
Show literally any front that isnt The Pacific Island Hopping campaign or Western Europe after D-Day
Movies aren’t made (with some few exceptions) to be historically accurate or fair. They are made to make money. There are almost no movies in the west that even display the Soviet Union (and even fewer that are any good).
I mean, Bollywood is the world’s second largest movie industry. If they aren’t making those, probably the market isn’t there.
You’d be lucky this days if they present the Soviets or the French ngl
Sometimes the British presence is also weird like they are there but there is only a single character that is British and that’s like his whole deal.
There have been pleasant surprises however It’s not something like a rule but usually happens to occur on mediocre movies about the war. Good or even just average movies don’t usually have that issue.
**Battle of Normandy — Yay**
**Battle of Imphal — “What even is that?”**
If you consider the fact that there were anywhere between 60 to 75 million deaths as the result of the war, 90,000 Indians isn’t really such an astounding figure.
Not everything has to be about you
Dont yall have bollywood? Couldnt you do it yourselves?
Would actually love to see that part of the war portrayed on the screen. Those people fought a forgotten war and it’s really sad.
We have the 2nd biggest Movie industry in the world (along with other huge regional industries)
Yet there are no movies which show Indian Soldiers and the horrors they faced in both World Wars
I know it’s WW1 but I liked in 1917 when Schoffield gets picked up by men heading to the front and theres a sikh soldier on the truck.
Small steps but at least some recognition
Don’t ask Hollywood, ask Bollywood!
“The English Patient” is a notable counter example.
I always loved the detail in the movie 1917 that when the main character gets picked up in the truck there is a Sikh man (possibly Indian) who even has an India pattern of his rifle, different from the rest of the british soldiers. Love little details like that
Bad take. USSR/russia generally made movies about their part of WWII, same goes for US/UK/French industries.
Nothing stops Bollywood/Tollywood/Kollywood from making their own WWII cinema.
I mean how come Bollywood doesnt make something for themselves?
So why don’t Indians make such movies? They have a strong movie industry, but if they prefer to churn out soaps and Bollywood stuff that doesn’t resonate with western audiences that’s really on them. There is literally nothing preventing them from making a movie about WW2 Indian theater made in a way classic or at least popular WW2 movies are made. But if they’d rather make Bollywood style movie that we’ll simply laugh at because of how stupid and bad it is then that’s their choice but shouldn’t complain that part of WW2 is neglected.
An Indian made Saving Private Ryan. Would love to see that.
“We shall dance on the beaches, we shall dance on the landing grounds, we shall dance in the fields and in the streets, we shall dance in the hills; we shall never surrender dancing.”
The film Bednobs and Broomsticks did more to acknowledge Indian soldiers than any war film Ive seen. And that seems kinda sad
its all about supply and demand
The only piece of media that I’ve ever seen represent Indians’ sacrifice in the world wars is Battlefield 1. And even then, they were only in the multiplayer.
India are more than welcome to make movies about Indian soldiers in WWII.
Performative outrage.
Honestly, that’s an incredibly low death rate. Good for them, but I am shocked that they had around as many service members as the USA and 1/3 of the losses.
Britian is still yet to be properly served by a film not made in britain i think indians are gonna have to wait a while
People tend to make historical movies about events from their country. If you want a movie about indians in WW2, you gotta take that up with Bollywood. That being said, a Bollywood WW2 movie would be pretty epic
To be fair, British WW2 movies all but completely ignore their campaign in Asia with the only notable exception I can think of being Bridge Over The River Kwai.
It’s not the job of western nation’s movie studios to make movies about everyone else’s part in the war. If Indians want a movie about their part in the war, they have a the studios to make one.
Seems like a pretty good market for Bollywood to enter into, assuming they haven’t already.
always remember netflix made a movie about black ladies sorting mail
Is India even in the top 10 casualties in world war 2? I don’t think so. Poland, Balkan States, Gypsies, they all had a lot of casualties and no movie about them. Not to mention Nanking
also canadians
I’d be very interested in seeing them represented in WWII films. Maybe a nice love story amid the carnage between an Italian woman and an Indian infantryman.
The English Patient features a Sikh clearing mines.
Maybe a film about the Azad Hind?
I think the closest you’ll get is one scene in 1917
Not just Indians though, same goes for the Balkans. Seriously, there are more movies about the Western, Eastern, and Pacific fronts of WW2. But no movies about the Balkans fighting Nazis..
Just show any colonial peoples, Canadians, Africans. Hell most world war 2 movies don’t even show the FRENCH
I mean. Hollywood is an American institution. It cares about American stuff. The same way, the French, Neerlander, Danish, Polish, Russian cinemas are concerned with stuff that happened to them or their country. I’m sorry, but there were no Indian contingent fighting for these countries during WW2. I’d like to point out that the only positive character in the English Patient was Kip Singh, the honorable and brave Sikh lieutenant.
Now, UK was more concerned with what happened in India, as it was its real estate. Well, look at that, they did several movies, tv shows and documentaries about the topic. I know people got riled because Chris Nolan didn’t show any Indians in Dunkirk, but at the same time, there were less than 600 Indians involved in that operation out of 400’000 allied soldiers implicated.
Bollywood now got a lot of movies about Indians during WW2. I understand that it may cause some frustration that western audiences don’t pay a lot of attention to them, but they… Uhhhh. Don’t really cater to Western audiences do they?
So, with respect, your beef is stupid.
Ya anit white you anit getting your movie bro, but enjoy seeing a couple of extras in the background or maybe some scenes of them being racially abused while the white main character feels bad
I presume any accurate depiction of the Chinese front would be non-broadcastable
Doesn’t India have Bollywood? Hollywood makes them about America, for obvious reasons. There’s a lot of money involved and they don’t want to make flops that can’t make a return because the audience wouldn’t care. You don’t see many made about the Soviets or China either despite doing most of the dying. Or even many about Korea or WWI for that matter because most of the audience isn’t interested in non-mainstream history in general.
Let’s talk about WWI too.
Dudes were shipped to Northern France in the winter with no cold weather gear
2.5 million volunteers, literally the largest volunteer force in human history and they still can’t get a speaking role in a $200 million blockbuster.
Remember when some right winger lost it over a Sikh soldier being shown in the movie 1917?
Indians and other non-white soldiers don’t deserve any recognition for their contribution to ww2 , it’s solely reserved for American’s and brits.
show Seize of Leningrad for fish market’s sake… that sh!t is the most brutal chapter of WWII
Fronts that people seem to miss:
Italy (Operation Husky, etc)
Northern Africa
Southern France (Operation Dragoon, etc)
Nordics (Operation Weserübung, Operation Kilpapurjehdus, etc)
China
Burma
Siam
Anywhere in Asia that isn’t the island-hopping campaign, Midway, Pearl Harbour, or the Doolittle Raid.
Edit: Balkans (Operation Margarethe, etc) + Middle East (Operation Countenance, etc) too