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more than 100 million, further evidence of both the discursive role of the epics in India and the power of the television medium and the Indian film industry undergirding it.31 There are dhārmik films and there is always dharma in film. In the 1940s the afore- mentioned sāmājik, or social omnibus genre largely subsumed dhārmik and stunt films to become the dominant subgenre. This is what we now know as “the Bolly- wood film”, and rare is the Bollywood film bearing no marks of religion, whether that includes direct references to or depictions of religious beliefs and practices or indirect expressions of religious beliefs and moral systems.32 Reincarnation (Hindi: punarjanam),33 Hindu mythological themes, worship rituals, popular festivals, char- acters and characterizations from the epics34 and devotional tropes are common in Bollywood cinema. For example, darśan, the act of seeing and being seen by a deity across Hindu traditions (and those influenced by them), is implicit in the viewer’s en- counter with the silver screen. All this is to say that while the genre is never referred to as the “Hindu social”, a Hindu worldview is in fact presented. As India’s dominant religious tradition or traditions, the social as Hindu is so pervasive as to be largely unnoticed. Dwyer is therefore right to assert that “Hinduism is the invisible norm, the standard default position.”35 And this is a fact often lost on all but those with other religious commitments. Interestingly, the types of Hinduism presented have changed, reflecting contemporary religious and ideological motifs. The Religious Other, Then and Now The so-called religious Other or religious minority constitutes no less than 300 million Indian non-Hindus. Minority religious representation has never been static since In- dia’s independence in 1947, but some generalities can be made. First, it is a rare Hindi 31 The scope of this essay does not allow for greater explication of the phenomena that were the tele- vision serials Ramayan and Mahabharat. This is done with analytical rigor and insight in such books as Richman 2001 and Mankekar 1999. 32 Dwyer 2006, 139. 33 In Karan Arjun (Rakesh Roshan, IN 1995) obviously draws on the relationship of Krishna and Arjuna in the Bhagavad Gītā, while also evoking the loyal relationship of the brothers Rama and Lakshman of the Ramāyaṇa. In the same film the trope of reincarnation (punarjanam) is employed as a way for dharma to prevail, even as an episode of adharma (in this case the killing of the two brothers for the sake of inheritance) took the lives of the two protagonists. The virtuous brothers are immediately reborn, reunited, and later take revenge on their killer and defend the honor of their first mother; dharma has been reinstated. 34 The Bhagavad Gītā, or “Song of the Lord”, consists of a conversation between the God Krishna, here serving as Arjuna’s charioteer, and Arjuna the warrior, who laments the pending internecine battle on the fields of Kurukṣetra. It is in this context that Lord Krishna explains the nature of dharma and devotion, ultimately revealing his divine, cosmic form to Arjuna. Karan Arjun (1995) draws on the connection between these two figures to demonstrate their significant, death-defying relationship. 35 Dwyer 2006, 136. Dharma and the Religious Other in Hindi Popular Cinema | 83www.jrfm.eu 2020, 6/1, 73–102