Storytelling is your soft power

Raj Kapoor’s movie Shree 420 released in 1955 and soon went on to become a mega hit. Around the same time, Hinduja’s was a fledgling business group with Indian roots (having its headquarters in Iran) and was looking to grow their profile in the international market. They figured that Hindi cinema would be the perfect way to popularize India in Iran. 
 
Hinduja bought the rights for Shree 420 for Rs 5,000/-, dubbed it in Persian and screened it at Tehran’s Kucha e Lalzar cinema. The movie turned out to be such a hit that when Raj Kapoor visited the cinema hall, he had to be escorted out in a prison car, such were the crowds.
 
Indian cinema had discovered its global appeal through a business empire that wanted to grow its profile. And that is how Hinduja’s association with movies begun. Over time, they turned financiers and were associated with many movies including Bobby and Coolie.
 
Joseph Nye of Harvard University popularized the term Soft Power describing it as the ability to co-opt rather than coerce. The main currency of soft power is culture.
 
1)   Today, not just business but nations and political parties understand and try to leverage soft power in various days. Hinduja’s were clearly the early movers. The Oscars for Naatu Naatu and The Elephant Whisperers are signs of India’s increasing soft power.
 
2)   While content has exploded and gone global thanks to sub-titling and dubbing, we must realize that people have been dubbing content for a long time, before YouTube and Ted Talks and Neflix realized the power of content going global.
 
Indian Content is going global. There are many global brands that do well in India. But very few Indian brands that are truly global. (Air, India, Tata, who else?) Now more than ever, perhaps it is time to think about how Indian origin brands can leverage this soft power for their business.