Mapped big-budget patriotic Bollywood films (2001–2026) against Indian Lok Sabha and major state election dates. Looking at the timeline, several big-budget patriotic releases cluster in the 6-month windows ahead of Lok Sabha 2014, 2019 and 2024, and ahead of major state polls in 2017, 2022 and 2026.
Is this a genuine pre-poll pattern, coincidence, or simply a function of release-calendar economics (Republic Day, Independence Day, long weekends, IPL gaps)?
Critique of scope welcome.
Three-row swim-lane timeline (2001 → 2026):
– 🔵 General Elections: 5 Lok Sabha polls (2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2024)
– ⚪ State Elections: 28 major assembly polls
– 🟠 Patriotic Films: 40 big-budget Hindi releases
**Source & tools (Rule 3):**
– Film list: Box Office India + Bollywood Hungama trade-press archives (2001–2026); 40 titles meeting the patriotic-theme + top-quartile-budget criteria.
– Election dates: Election Commission of India (ECI) notifications for Lok Sabha 2004, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2024 and 28 major state assembly polls.
– Data preparation: Python 3.12 (pandas)- Visualization: Matplotlib (swim-lane / scatter timeline)- Editor: VS Code on macOS; figure exported as PNG at 300 dpi
by Latter-Friendship635