Talks
Reel Influence: Teaching and Thinking Through Bollywood

Bollywood Film Poster

Date

Sunday, Nov 9, 2025 14:00

Registration Opens

Friday, Sep 19, 2025 10:00

Location

Level B1,
Eaton Theatre

Admission

Talks - Public: Free Talks - Member: Free

Audience

Adults
Contact us

About

Join Dr. Kajri Jain from the University of Toronto for a talk on the significance of Bollywood as a national and global cultural force. As one of the world’s largest film industries, Bollywood offers a rich lens through which to explore themes of identity, politics, and popular culture. Dr. Jain will examine how engaging with Bollywood deepens our understanding of South Asian histories and diasporic experiences, while also highlighting its value within broader cultural and educational contexts such as the university classroom. The talk will feature selected Bollywood film posters from the Royal Ontario Museum’s collection. An on-stage conversation, along with a public Q&A period led by ROM curator Dr Deepali Dewan will follow.  

Speaker

Kajri Jain, Professor of Art History and Visual Studies, University of Toronto
Kajri Jain

Kajri Jain is Professor of Art History and Visual Studies. Her work on the interface between art, religion, politics, caste, and vernacular business cultures in modern and contemporary India includes Gods in the Bazaar: The Economies of Indian Calendar Art (Duke 2007), on popular prints, and Gods in the Time of Democracy (Duke 2021), on monumental statues. She also writes on contemporary art and on the discipline of art history, most recently in The Routledge Companion to Decolonizing Art History (2023) and How Secular Is Art? On The Politics of Art, History, and Religion in South Asia (Cambridge 2023). 

Dr. Deepali Dewan, Dan Mishra Senior Curator of Global South Asia at ROM.
Moderator - Dr. Deepali Dewan

Deepali Dewan is the Dan Mishra Senior Curator of Global South Asia at ROM, where her work is key to supporting and enhancing ROM’s commitment to South Asian Visual Culture through exhibitions, public engagement, research, and learning activities. Dr. Dewan is also an associate professor in the Department of Art at the University of Toronto and affiliated with the Centre for South Asian Studies. Her research interests span the history and theory of photography, colonial and nationalist visuality, and contemporary art in South Asia and its diaspora.

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Rules & Guidelines

These events are offered in English only.