“Main-streaming” the Northeast India

The Northeast region has remained largely absent from India’s national cultural imagination. And whenever it did receive some representation, it was mostly mediated by a visual regime—films, photographs, and news coverage—than by lived experience or meaningful encounters. These mediated images, therefore, hold enormous power. Bollywood offers a telling example. For decades, films rarely acknowledged the Northeast, except through passing references, violent landscapes, or stereotypical portrayals. The few moments of visibility came in fragments: the insurgency-ridden landscapes of Dil Se (1998), the conflict narrative of Tango Charlie (2005), or the biographical symbolism of Mary Kom (2014). However, recent trends in Bollywood films, such as Anek (2022) and Bhediya (2023), as well as web series like Paatal Lok season 2 (2025) and Family Man season 3 (2025), indicate a noticeable shift. Whether this marks a substantive change in Bollywood’s imagination remains an open question.

“Main-streaming” the Northeast

The anti-racism mobilization following the brutal killing of Nido Tania, a young student from Arunachal Pradesh, in Delhi in 2014, prompted the Ministry of Home Affairs to establish a twelve-member Bezbaruah Committee to investigate the concerns of Northeastern people living in metropolitan India. The Committee’s recommendations sought to bridge the “gap of hearts and minds” between the nation and the Northeast through a multi-layered strategy of “mainstreaming.” This included increasing Northeastern visibility in national media, incorporating substantial content on the region in school textbooks and university curricula, naming public institutions after Northeastern icons, expanding employment opportunities, and promoting sports, tourism, and cultural production. Importantly, the report also emphasized the need to support filmmaking in the region, recognizing the power of cinema to reshape perceptions and influence national consciousness.

In the years since, these recommendations have sparked a small explosion of cultural initiatives: state-sponsored festivals, music events, tourism campaigns, and new media portrayals. Bollywood, long criticized for its narrow North Indian focus, has seized this moment and turned to the Northeast for fresh landscapes and new cultural textures. Featuring Northeastern actors and characters also allows Bollywood to appear responsive to calls for representation while tapping into audiences who have historically been ignored or misrepresented.

The More Things Change, the More They Remain the Same

Earlier films tended to locate the Northeast in the valleys—mainly Assam and, occasionally, Manipur. In contrast, recent productions have begun shifting their gaze to the hill states, especially Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. The hills, long peripheral in national imagination, are now being framed as cinematic frontiers offering untapped aesthetic possibilities.

Compared to the blunt stereotypes of the 1990s and early 2000s, recent films display a greater degree of cultural and political sensitivity. Paatal Lok 2, for example, attempts to represent Naga social worlds with greater nuance; Bhediya incorporates elements of local folklore. Equally important is the growing presence of Northeastern actors in significant roles. Their inclusion marks a shift from earlier decades when Northeastern characters were often played by mainland actors (for instance, Priyanka Chopra as/in Mary Kom), allowing for linguistic authenticity and a more grounded portrayal of the region. Many characters in the recent web series shift their conversations from Hindi to English to Nagamese to their specific local languages. Another important development is the portrayal of religious, ethnic, and tribal identities through key life events and cultural practices. This matters because, for far too long, the Indian state has either underplayed or sidelined the Christian cultural practices of many hill states. Its visible presence in mainstream cinema signals a subtle acknowledgment of cultural specificity.

However, greater visibility does not automatically translate into better representation. Bollywood’s recent engagement with the Northeast often falls into familiar narrative traps. It tends to reproduce development discourse and depiction of the region as a zone of insecurity, frameworks that have long shaped governmental policies towards the Northeast. Both Paatal Lok and The Family Man hinge on the idea of uniting rebel factions and securing peace through initiatives such as the “Nagaland Business Summit” and “Project Sahakar,” portrayed as essential for ushering in development.

This narrative is not new—it is rooted in a longer political history. Under colonial rule, many hill regions were described as “primitive” and “wild” as opposed to “civilized.” They were officially called “backward areas” and later “excluded areas” and were excluded from the normal political process. In the post-independence era, nationalizing the region became an explicit state project, particularly from the 1950s onward in response to the Naga movement and later intensified after the 1962 defeat to China. Development was framed as the primary solution to the region’s political tensions, ethnic movements, and security anxieties. Political scientist Sanjib Baruah reminds us that the language of development not only describes the Northeast as underdeveloped but actively produces that perception. When a region is repeatedly framed as underdeveloped, the state finds it easier to justify intervention in the name of progress.

Further, the attempts to “humanize” the region are shaped by an external gaze. Northeastern characters are positioned as secondary figures within narratives driven by mainland protagonists. Rose Lizo (played by Merenla Imsong) in Paatal Lok, despite her significant role in the plot, speaks barely a word throughout the series. Rose could have spoken more. Similarly, Stephen Khuzou (played by Paalin Kabak) in The Family Man—whose disagreements with his grandfather initially hint at a more complex character arc—ultimately folds into the storyline by collaborating with the security agencies against a drug cartel. Thus, representation remains symbolic rather than substantive.

Way Forward

While Bollywood’s camera is slowly shifting from the valleys to the hills, its narrative imagination has not undergone a comparable transformation. The symbolic move toward Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh, and other hill states marks a significant cultural moment, signaling a broader desire to bring the Northeast into the national frame. Yet this shift often stops at the level of visual curiosity. The landscapes change, but the stories remain tethered to familiar tropes, external gazes, and state-driven narratives. As a result, these emerging representations hover uneasily between aspiration and limitation: aspiring to diversify the cinematic map while still falling short of capturing the region’s lived complexities.

Until mainstream storytelling centers Northeastern stories rather than merely showcasing Northeastern spaces, any change will remain largely cosmetic. This also requires moving beyond state-curated narratives. Writers such as Temsula Ao, through short-story collections like These Hills Called Home and Laburnum for My Head, offer more humane, layered, and deeply lived accounts that model what authentic representation can look like. True transformation demands more than picturesque backdrops or token appearances; it requires listening to Northeastern stories as they are lived, not as they are imagined from afar. Only then can representation move from aesthetic fascination to genuine recognition.