Last summer, I posted about my experiences Desi Spotting in Brazil and observed that “despite my lack of desi human spottings, there was no dearth of Indian influence—mostly of the exotic India variety—to be found in Brazil.”
I’m revisiting this topic today, thanks to Sepia reader Vijay, who shot me an email from Rio a couple of weeks ago. “Omg–have you heard of this Brazilian soap opera about an indian family?” he wrote. “A sepia investigation is in order.”
It certainly was! And, here’s what I dug up, with a little help from Vijay.
Since January 19th, Brazilian TVs (approximately 60,000 households just in Sao Paulo) evenings have been tuned to a new telenovela six nights a week. Camhino das Indias (Path of India) “examines beliefs and values that differentiate the Eastern and Western world” and follows the story of a forbidden love between a Brazilan man (whom I understand to be a yoga instructor) and an Indian woman from a conservative family. The drama was filmed with a budget with a mostly Brazilian cast on a budget of $80 million in Jaipur, Agra, Dubai, and Rio (where two Indian towns were constructed for production purposes!).
Backpacking Ninja, a desi blogger traveling through India describes it thus:
With Portuguese actors all dressed in extremely jatak (gaudy) Indian clothes (looking thoroughly North Indian), speaking Portuguese, it’s a total riot. I laughed so much watching one episode. The episode was a wedding….. the background music that was playing in the wedding as they did the saath phere (sacred walk around the fire symbolizing marriage) was Kajra re (one of the most popular songs to play in dance bars in India). It’s almost like playing Shakiras ‘Hips dont lie’ when someone is walking down the aisle in a church. In another scene, the heroine Maya (Juliana Paes) walked over to the buffet table and made eye contact with the hero Bahuan (Marcio Garcia, and trying to be Indian in all ways possible, they showed a dream sequence of them holding hands… not in person.
The opener features Sukhwinder Singh’s “Beedi” and is intended to show off the “cultural diversity that exists in the country,” according to creative director Roberto Stein. I’ll let you be the judge of that. Whatever your opinion (“this exoticizes India yet again” or “this is great for Indian tourism” or “wtf?”), I think that you’ll agree that your eyes will stay glued to it.
For those who want more (I certainly did!), beneath the fold, I’ve added clips from episode one.The show’s creators are going all out with their aim of educating Brazilians about India and her cultural and religious traditions. The official blog features posts on Hindu gods and goddesses and scriptures, the history of India, and Bollywood cinema, as well as recipes (gulab jamun, anyone?)!
Episode one begins on what seem to be the banks of the River Ganga. The soundtrack is a Portugese pop song about sadhus from what I could make out and then, we meet a Portugese-speaking Sadhu type who explains various Hindu traditions to some Brazilian visitors!
In the same episode, the initial meeting of the two lovers (anyone else see a resemblance to Aishwarya Rai in Maya?) takes place at a temple … and you really don’t have to speak Portugese to understand the rest (the Bollywood soundtrack does a lot of the work!)
And, I’ll end with … the kiss that wasn’t.
It’s all funny, but imagine what Indian TV and movies would do to Brazil, caricature and hit the wrong notes all the time. I mean, it’s always weird to see what someone from ‘outside’ does when viewing you through the prism of popular culture.
First. Extremely jatak? Wow, thats taking it to new heights 😀
On another note. I love Brazilian culture, and I’ve never been there. But I love it for the same superficial reasons that desis would probably find this series hilarious or weird or condescending.
I love Brazil because of the romance and beauty of their football, the exoticism and interesting nature of their hybrid culture, the carnival, the music, capoeira, the ‘City of God’ urban poverty-gangster arthouse chic (see Slumdog Millionaire), and, to be frank, the beauty of Brazilian women. So I guess I exoticise the place already.
Two last points. It’s a real shame there is no major Desi presence in Brazil, like there is a massive Japanese community in Sao Paolo. I mean, I reckon it would have been a great fusion, the music, the bhangra, the Indian dharma, of course this is ridiculous because I’ve never been, but would a colourful mandir look out of place on a street corner in Rio De Janeiro?
And also, I reckon Bollywood is missing a big untapped market in Brazil and elsewhere in Latin America. The telenovella melodrama, high emotion, vamps, hunks, and colourful songs, dance sequences. I mean seriously, wouldn’t those movies do well there?
oh there’s a big bollywood scene in latin america (well, at least in peru)…particularly in the black market DVD area. i was in lima 2 years ago, and stayed with a friend of a friend (family of 5 living in a modest 1 bedroom). as soon as he found out that i was “hindu,” he ran and brought bootleg copies of Mera Naam Joker, and a few Hrithik and Shah rukh films. his family kept coaxing me to dance a la bollywood!
This is priceless!!! Think there’s a book waiting to be written on Indian culture in Latin America – Tagore spent a long time in Argentina.
Following up on what meerkat said — here’s an interesting short vid on the bollywood craze in lima, it’s worth checking out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JUGomqDxr8A
srk latino, that is a brilliant, fascinating video.
Golbalisation and the dissemination of culture across the world by technology to the farthest reaches is mind boggling. I just love that kids in Peru are digging it. No cynicism or ‘kitsch’ camp factor like there is in the UK or America sometimes. I mean, they really feel it.
i’ll go with wtf
Lol, when “the hero” is introduced with Azeem-O-Shaan I nearly fell out of my seat laughing. Do you think they got the rights to the music?
This is…I don’t know what to say..incredible would be cliched and trite. It’s not the correctness that matters – it never did. Every time it is narrated it is lived out anew. Traditions are not practiced they are experienced and savoured. I saw a few clips, and was able to get the drift of what was going on – so Indian movie like – so much of expression and feeling, and not too much of dialogue. I am seeing the clips on youtube and they are gorgeous. $80 million? They have taken a lot of care and shown great sensitivity. Awesome!
The actress is hot, maybe we get to see her in bollywood. Coastal South Americans chicks are HOT, just by looking I cant tell if they’re desi or latin.
Speaking of Indians in South America.
I was reading CNN yesterday and a headline said “Indians cannibalize Farmer” and when I clicked on it, it was about Peruvian Indians.
Why are tribe people in Brazil and Peru called “Indians”? Is it because of that whole thing about the 1st white people to come to the Americas, thought it was India so all native Americans are called “Indians”
If so, then why not correct your mistake? It’s like the 1st white people to come here and their present day kin refusing to admit they made a mistake by thinking this is India.
And how come it is always the guy conquering the “ethnic” woman? If it is from a Indian view, then it will be an Indian dude trying to bang a white girl. If it is a white perspective it is a White guy getting some flavor in his life.
It is never the girl getting some from a guy of a different race. It is always the man winning some foreign ass for his people. The one exception being “Bend it like Beckham”, which I thought was hating on Indian dudes. Not because an Indian girl wants a white dude, but because of all the snide remarks made about Indian guys and why a white one would be better.
12 · ShallowThinker said
Lagaan had the woman from the West falling for the man from the East “Radha kaise na jale?” What does it matter? Can we just leave it to the couple concerned? Who the heck are you and me to read what’s not there into it?
In the meanwhile enjoy this charming dance from one of the five best movies of the last 25 years
I’ve wondered the exact same thing. If it’s based on a mistake, why do people still call them “Indians”?
I’ll channel my inner feminist and say that it’s a concern because it reflects a patriarchal notion in which women don’t have their own agency.
Pablo said my thoughts better than I could, I agree on all points- I’d especially like to see more Bollywood-telenovela cultural exchange as a start, and a bigger Desi community in Brazil to follow. Just like Pablo was speakin’ truth to, there’s a cultural synergy between India and Brazil that’s tough to put into words, but any Desi feels it in Brazil. I’ve been to Brazil 3 times, once to Sao Paolo, to Rio and to Recife, and I swear Brazil must be the Desi-est place in the world without having many Desis in it (at least, not yet).
I’m sensin’ that Brazil may start to become a big draw for Indians overseas over the next 10 years- that whole cultural/economic/artistic synergy is just in the blood of the place. Especially as USA and UK continue to hit the skids economically (too much damn debt), Brazil is an increasingly solid place to go. They’re not entirely free of their own financial headaches right now, but when I was there, the place had a surprisingly entrepreneurial beat, innovative as well as rich in natural resources, less dependent on the financial sector, not squandering their treasury on foreign wars. And their President Lula, he has his act together.
FWIW, Portuguese is about the sweetest of all the European languages, I picked up only a few sentences here and there but it’s got style, and it works for technical applications as much as the hummin’ music they have at their festas. And speaking of diversity, they got it in spades- apparently, the most forged passport in the world is Brazilian, because those folks have every hue, every accent under the sun and moon. And I can’t argue with Pablo here, their mulheres are fine.
Funny thing is, I even got to speak my native Kannada when I was in Sao Paolo- turns out there are already small, scattered settlements of mostly South Indians (from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka) plus a good representation of Goans, Gujaratis, Bengalis, even a few from Jharkand and Maharashtra in the shops there. And happily, just as Desis manage to do across the world, they’ve made it out of the favelas and many are already prosperous.
So dhanyavaad for the heads-up, Sandhya. we haven’t historically had much of a presence there, but I’ve long suspected that Brazil’s cultural masala will soon have a heavily Desi flavor to it. The sooner the better.
“I’ve wondered the exact same thing. If it’s based on a mistake, why do people still call them “Indians”?
Old habits are hard to break. Europeans and Americans used to designate American Indians as “Red Indian” to distinguish them from, well, brown Indians, I guess. “Red Indian” was not meant to be insulting, and you’ll still hear older people using the term, or least some did back in the 80s. Nowadays it’s “Native American” but I heard one “native American” spokesman saying that the word “Indian” meant “En Dios” — the early Spanish and Portugese described the new-world natives they found there, to be people “in God, or “en Dios.” The native American spokesman seemed to have researched this and was quite into it, to my surprise. This term probably came from the first missionaries who actually did say stuff like that. They saw fertile ground for their missionary efforts and many of them tried to keep the “Conquistadores” (basically a bunch of gold-hunting mercenaries) from abusing the natives, so they wrote back to the Pope that they had found people “en dios”, meaning human souls who could be baptized and claimed for the Church. Brazil is Portugese speaking because the Pope of the day just drew a line around some territory to stop the haggling going on between the two sea powers of the day, Spain and Portugal.
This post made my day, I love you, Sandhya!! 80 mil for a telenovela is a serious chunk of change and they seem to be recycling all the hit songs. Rajasthan will be even more swamped not that it needs the advert. I hope this works, the guy is def Bollywood hero material, reminds me of a young Milind soman. The intro makes me go wtf. Ganesh idol. Check. Taj Mahal. Check. Princess with 40 arms. Check. Wish Maya had a bindi though.
Maya’s got too much make up one, but she’s really pretty otherwise. But I don’t really see a resemblance with Aish, she has much stronger features than Aishwarya. She actually reminded me more of Freida Pinto.
I love it!!! It’s better than Slumdog
I think this is the clip that Backpacking Ninja was talking about. They managed to put in 4 or 5 songs in there.
Loved the clips. But Maya doesn’t look like Aish at all. She is a lot like one of the pretty Zee TV actresses. How did they miss the bindi I wonder?:)
Thanks for the explanation, Adios. I have tried searching for an explanation but could never find one and that sounds pretty good.
I was waiting for Sepia Mutiny to pick up this story! I saw a clip from the serial in a Brazilian eatery the other night and drove my partner crazy trying to lipread to see if they were speaking any Hindi amongst the Portuguese. It totally blew my mind. Boyfriend and I actually got into a debate about it. His view: it’s no different than what America has been doing forever — implicitly asserting our own cultural hegemony by claiming the right to interpret and portray other cultures through our own lens, and utilize other cultures for our own entertainment value. I read it differently; I think an entire soap opera set in a foreign locale wouldn’t fly on American television, and the fact that north India has become the setting for (a large part) of a Brazilian telenovela represents a bit more interesting than cultural appropriation. Can’t quite figure out what to make of it yet, though. (I’m also racking my brain to think of other examples — say, any Indian shows set primarily in the United States — and can only come up with movies. Anyone?)
Anyway, yeah — the credits are over the top, no doubt. Good soundtrack, though. 🙂
To become truly speechless, you must spend some time in Calcutta during next world cup football. Brazil has more supporters there than in any other city, except Rio and Sao Paulo. During 1982 world cup, a whole generation of kids was nicknamed Zico, including one of my cousins. When Pele came to Calcutta to play for Cosmos against Mohun Bagan in his penultimate match in 1977, the crowd that gathered to take a look at him was unprecedented even by Calcutta’s standard, and much bigger than what Jyoti Bose and Mamata Banerjee combined, at their very best, could have mustered. [link]
Aside from that psychotic intro, which is great all by itself, it doesn’t look like they’re trying to make fun of us. If an American network produced this show, it would be nothing but fish-out-of-water and accent jokes. You know, ’cause we’re different.
And, unlike a lot of Americans, these guys recognize that we have a culture of which we’re not ashamed.
So, please be warm and kind to the Brazilians you meet 🙂
The guy is Hot! The girl looks sooo desi. I can’t understand a word. The title is exotic, rest seems fine. There should be more cultural exchange.
On another note: yes, the use of ‘Indian’ for Native American totally bugs me. Is it ok to correct someone when they are talking about Native Americans as ‘Indians’ in front of me (I am Indian from India) ?
Not that I am his biggest fan, but one of the funniest things Russel Peters has said is
“Postuguese sounds like a deaf person speaking Spanish”
And if you listen to it, it really does sound like a deaf person speaking Spanish.
I know one of you is going to do this.
“What is ‘Postuguese?'”
That is supposed to be “Portuguese.”
Glad to see a post on this but I think you need better Portuguese translators? (I know just a little and am more familiar with Spanish so could be wrong as well):
Bahuan is a low caste orphan boy adopted by the local priest (pandit) from what I can make out in the clips I’ve seen and reading on the website. In the first clip he’s the boy that they make a big deal out of talking to the two little kids. Maybe he becomes a yoga instructor later and goes to Brazil, I don’t know. I just saw that when he grows up, he’s talking about leaving and his adopted dad (pandit ji) is giving him advice or something?
In that first clip those are not visitors from Brazil, they are the Indian sons of the Indian man. Yes, it’s kooky to see Brazilian actors try to look Indian – most don’t quite have the look – and even on YouTube and WikiPedia the Brazilians laugh at this.
Is there a fluent Portuguese speaker who can clarify?
Who cares if the Ganga runs through Rajasthan and Ganesh resides deep within the Taj Mahal– this is gorgeous and not at all patronizing. Better looking than The Darjeeling Limited and Slumdog Millionaire. This is what, the result of all those conferences on climate change?
By the way, NOW I know why my news story over the weekend on the success of this novela got deleted – you were tipped earlier. 🙂 It’s one of the highest rated novelas ever (but not as much as a Arab/Muslim themed one that was done similarly years ago in Brazil).
25 · dipanjan said
Thanks for the tip. I’ve always been dazzled by Rivaldo, Ronaldinho and the other Brazilian soccer stars/footballers (always get flamed by the Brits on their “football” forums when I say “soccer”), but I didn’t know they had such a following in Desiland! You’re right, more synergy than I’d imagined.
Hey lads, keep up. Calcutta belongs to Argentina these days.
It will be interesting to see if the Indian singers/composers raise a hue and cry about this serial using their songs and not getting credited/paid.
I was in Costa Rica and it was funny to see this vegetarian chain of restaurants called Vishnu but the food has nothing to do with Indian. THere is also some Indian chic thing going on with some clothing stores. I spotted a couple with INdian names and indian type clothes and jewelry, but no Indians inside. I am suprised no Indian businessmen are taking advantage of that fad.
Accidental Enlightenment – I was hoping some of you would jump in and clarify my interpretations of the clips I watched. I had a feeling I was misinterpreting things, but since I have no knowledge of Portugese, I couldn’t make out. Funny about the news story you posted – I actually never saw it and have no idea how/why it would have been deleted. Need to look into that.
Meredith – I agree with you. I’m hard pressed to think of an American show set in another culture that is attempting to recreate it and explain it to viewers. The blog for the show is really fascinating if you have a chance to check it out – because there seems to be a real desire to explain India to viewers. And, while watching the clips, I was intrigued to see mannerisms replicated that the directors must have had to watch a lot of films to research – in the clip that Lea posted, for example, sure, the dancing looks kind of robot like, but the way the man “blesses” the young girl is so right on. I can’t even imagine how much work it took to get all these Brazilian women in saris.
On another note: yes, the use of ‘Indian’ for Native American totally bugs me. Is it ok to correct someone when “they are talking about Native Americans as ‘Indians’ in front of me (I am Indian from India) ? “
I’m sure many have been corrected when doing just that. There are worse ethnic eptithets that people all over the place have to deal with. I have a friend who deals with Native American affairs (she was partially raised on a reservation even though she is Jewish; long story) and she say most “Native Americans” are just fine with the word “Indian.” They don’t mind it. Except in some contexts, such as when dealing with the government maybe. I don’t know. It’s the Indians from India who take offense because it was their name first. So sure, you can correct them, but I thought the word “Desi” was supposed to be the new “Indian.” Is “Indian” really what people from India called themselves or was that just a European designation or corruption of the word “Hindu.” Just asking.
If your culture gets exotified by the Brazilians, you might be a desi.
Just a quick note: although the Portuguese language is dying out in Goa, the Portuguese spoken in Goa and Brazil is very similar. I wonder if they’ll tap into that if the series continues.
37 · sandhya said
Actually, except for not knowing how to form mudras, the little girl’s dance is basically a copy of Aish’s movements in Salaam. Later, the family does some of the choreography from Kajra Re too. As I watch more and more, I am really impressed by how much this looks and feels like Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi. They obviously did a lot of research, including the little bits of Hindi and the women’s well-tied sarees. Also, I found this clip where the mother closes the door when she sees a widow walking down the street, which I thought was an interesting addition.
Not just this telenovella. In Brazil, getting a “desi” means going out on to the sunny sands with a full tuft of unpruned thicket.
It’s Sri Ram Sena’s worst nightmare: Brazilian pub-culture colliding with virtuous Indian culture. When I was in Brazil last year, it was a common sight to see gaggles of women out late enjoying themselves in the pubs of Sao Paulo/Rio. Such a sight is still a rarity in Delhi/Bangalore.
The Brazilian interpretation is quite interesting IMHO. The producers attention to clothing is admirable: fully clothed women & men in a tropical climate fundamentally goes against the Brazilian aesthetic.
There are several thousand Desis living in Sao Paulo (many came as English teachers and set up businesses), so there are local resources to draw upon. Tanned Brazilians could easily pass as Indians (esp from Delhi/Punjab).
The Favelas and Dharvis in the big cities also have common characteristics.
As an aside, the Thumb’s Up signal is also quite popular in Brazil.
one of the funny things about this show is that some of the older folks we spoke to in Brazil liked it because they thought it would help teach their younger generation more respect for their elders.
yeah a colleague of mine in brazil told me about this show, apparently its huge…
I am loving this post and the comments it has generated. the cultural synery is soo there.
In Nepal, during the world cups, everybody is rooting for either England or Brazil. my family also roots for germany though, because we have a german uncle.
I am Brazilian and I also realized that telenovela “paths of India” and the image is distorted Indian culture!
is a lástina a soap so full of audience and also as prestigious in Brazil, has such shortcomings that untwist the image of the Indian! But I can not deny that Plaintiff Glória Perez has much talent, and shows a fictitious India, a banned romance between two individuals of Castes totally different!
Great article…didn’t know this about Brazilian-Indian tele-novelas.
Btw, the song “beedi” in the clip shown has only Sunidhi Chauhan’s voice, not Sukhwinder Singh’s.
Maya Meehta is played by the sexy Juliana Paes and in the episodes where she shows her luscious breats and buttock is too too good. So we have the fantasy of desi chick in desi cloths with Brazilian beauty and uninhibited body play, truly the best combination.
Hi,
I am Brazilian from Rio and reading this has been very funny so far.
I’ve immediately wondered the reactions this soap opera would cause. I just imagine how didactic and stereotypical the show had to be to just begin explaining all the complexities of a country like India. But I guess there is no other way; you have to generalize everything into broad categories just try to start explaining. It would be the same thing if an Indian show tried to explain all the differences between Brazilians from Minas, Sao Paulo, Bahia, or Goias — they are the same, but not quite. I can understand the differences in accent, culture, music, etc. because I grew up there, but it’s hard to explain it to a foreigner.
About how Portuguese sounds… You must be talking about Portuguese Portuguese… I mean, as opposed to Brazilian Portuguese. The language is the same (Specially after the approval in the changes in the spelling. Now all Portuguese speaking countries write in the same way) but they sound very different.
Best regards.