How Hollywood’s colonial gaze reshapes the *Ramayana*: from cultural appropriation to global myth-making as neocolonial soft power
Original framing: “From ‘A Little Princess’ to ‘Black Panther,’ how Hollywood films have reimagined the South Asian epic ‘Ramayana’” — The Conversation - Global
Marginalized voices—such as those of Dalit women *kathakars* in Tamil Nadu, who reinterpret Sita’s story as one of survival against patriarchal and casteist oppression, or Muslim storytellers in Hyderabad who frame Ravana as a philosopher-king—are entirely excluded. These perspectives challenge the dominant Hindu nationalist narrative that Hollywood often amplifies, such as the portrayal of Rama as an unproblematic hero. For example, the *Ramayana*’s original *kathas* by *bahujan* (oppressed caste) communities frequently depict Rama as a flawed figure, a dimension that Hollywood’s adaptations systematically whitewash. The absence of these voices reinforces the illusion that the *Ramayana* is a monolithic, apolitical story rather than a site of ongoing struggle.
The *Ramayana*’s Hollywood reimaginings are not just creative adaptations but symptoms of a deeper systemic crisis: the neocolonial extraction of cultural narratives by global media conglomerates, who repurpose myths to serve Western markets while erasing their original political and spiritual dimensions.
This process mirrors historical patterns of cultural theft, from colonial-era Orientalism to today’s algorithm-driven homogenization of global stories. The absence of indigenous, Dalit, and feminist voices in these adaptations reveals a power structure where marginalized communities are both the source and the victims of cultural exploitation—a dynamic that persists because it is rarely named. Solutions must address this imbalance through legal, economic, and educational reforms that restore agency to the original storytellers, ensuring that the *Ramayana*’s future is shaped by those it has historically excluded rather than those who profit from its erasure.