How 3 movies capture India's economic safari

Bollywood movies provide mass entertainment. They may even carry a social message. Rarely do they touch on macroeconomic issues. But looking at them through an economic lens gives surprisingly accurate insights about India's development journey.

- Deepa Vasudevan

Consider three movies made and released roughly a decade apart: Dil Chahta Hai (2001), Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara (ZNMD, 2011) and Kho Gaye Hum Kahan (KGHK, 2023). They have much in common. Each is a coming-of-age story. The plots are simple: three friends, all in their twenties, navigate career choices, relationships and life goals on the way to adulthood. The main characters are urban, educated, and upper-middle class or richer. They represent a tiny fraction of India, with the luxury of life choices and the time and energy to ponder over them.

This three-movie arc, spanning two-and-a-half decades, captures the changing aspirations of India's educated, well-off, urban youth.

The biggest shift captured by the films is the transformation of the job market between 2001 and 2023. In Dil Chahta Hai, two of the leads join family businesses in computers and exports, while the third is an artist. This mirrors the actual growth drivers of that time: information technology and exports. The steep growth in software development outsourcing in the mid-90s perfectly matched India's pool of low-cost, educated youngsters.

Most jobs required limited training and institutes like NIIT came to provide "computer classes" for students desperate to ride the tech boom. At the same time, trade liberalization and rupee devaluation pushed up exports, including IT exports. Job creation in exports was strong in the early years - at its peak in 2008, the sector generated 77 million jobs.