Diwali on the Global Screen, From Cultural Curiosity to Mainstream Celebration
The journey of Diwali, the Indian festival of lights, onto the global stage is a fascinating narrative of cultural exchange, often mediated through the powerful lens of popular cinema and television. It is a story that moves from exoticised glimpses in art-house films to becoming a familiar, if sometimes still misunderstood, fixture in Western living rooms. This evolution mirrors the broader diaspora experience and the growing soft power of Indian culture worldwide. The portrayal of Diwali in international media is more than just a thematic episode; it is a barometer of global multiculturalism, reflecting both the progress made and the distances yet to be travelled in the authentic representation of a complex, ancient tradition.
The earliest flicker of Diwali for a global audience, as noted by Atanu Biswas, appeared in Jean Renoir’s 1951 classic, The River. The scene, filmed in Calcutta, presented the festival—specifically its fireworks—through a Eurocentric, almost anthropological lens. Renoir’s description of Diwali as the “Hindu festival of light — hundreds and thousands of little lamps” is poetic yet distant, an outsider looking in on a beautiful, foreign ritual. This framing was characteristic of the era, where Eastern traditions were often presented to Western audiences as exotic curiosities. The significance of this moment, however, is monumental. That a young Satyajit Ray was assisting Renoir creates a poignant link between this early, external gaze and the rich, internal storytelling of Indian cinema that would soon captivate the world. The River planted a seed, but it would take over half a century for that seed to grow into a narrative that the West would engage with on a mass scale.
The true watershed moment for Diwali in Western popular culture arrived in 2006 with the “Diwali” episode of the American version of The Office. Viewed live by 8.8 million people, this episode was a cultural landmark. Its impact did not stem from a deep, nuanced understanding of the festival, but rather from its comedic, and often cringe-worthy, exploration of cultural ignorance. Michael Scott’s infamous reduction of Diwali to “the Hindu Halloween” perfectly encapsulated a certain Western tendency to map unfamiliar traditions onto familiar ones, however inaccurately. The episode masterfully leveraged this ignorance for comedy, with Kelly Kapoor’s own vague explanations adding to the chaotic, misunderstood celebration in the Dunder Mifflin office.
Yet, to dismiss the episode as merely perpetuating stereotypes would be to miss its profound cultural function. The Office was a mainstream American sitcom at the peak of its popularity. By centering an entire episode on Diwali, it performed a powerful act of normalization. It introduced the very concept of Diwali—its name, its association with lights, family gatherings, and festive clothing—to millions of Americans who had likely never heard of it. The comedy was not at the expense of the festival itself, but at the expense of the characters’ cluelessness. In doing so, it made the audience complicit; viewers laughed at Michael’s blunders, implicitly understanding that his “Halloween” comparison was a foolish oversimplification. The episode was a masterclass in using humour to bridge a cultural gap, making a foreign tradition accessible and memorable. It became a reference point for an entire generation, a shared cultural touchstone that, for the first time, made Diwali a topic of watercooler conversation in America.
Following the trail blazed by The Office, subsequent television attempts to portray Diwali demonstrated a gradual, if sometimes halting, shift towards greater cultural sensitivity and narrative integration. NBC’s Outsourced (2010), a sitcom entirely premised on the cultural clash between American management and Indian employees, dedicated an episode to the “Diwalidays.” Here, the conflict was more direct and informed by the show’s core theme. The American manager’s initial refusal to grant holiday leave highlighted a very real tension between Western corporate efficiency and the deep cultural and religious significance of Indian festivals. The resolution of the plot, which saw the manager eventually embracing the celebration, served as a metaphor for the necessity of cultural accommodation in a globalized world. The episode moved beyond mere introduction and into the realm of negotiation, exploring what it means to respect and participate in another culture within a professional, cross-border context.
The representation of Diwali entered a new phase with its inclusion in children’s programming. Disney’s Mira, the Royal Detective (2020) featuring a Diwali episode and an original song was a significant development. Aimed at young, impressionable audiences, this portrayal was inherently educational and celebratory, free from the comedic misunderstandings of adult sitcoms. By presenting Diwali as a vibrant, joyous, and integral part of the show’s fantasy-India setting, it normalized the festival for a new generation. Children growing up with Mira would absorb Diwali as a natural part of a diverse cultural landscape, much like Christmas or Hanukkah are presented in other Western children’s media. This represents a crucial, long-term strategy for fostering cultural literacy from a young age.
However, the path to authentic representation is not always smooth. The 2021 revival series And Just Like That… provided a more controversial data point. The episode, which featured Carrie Bradshaw shopping for a lehenga (which she mistakenly calls a saree) for a Diwali party, was met with criticism. While the show made an effort to include a basic explanation of the festival’s meaning—“light triumphing over dark”—the portrayal felt anachronistic. Critics rightly questioned how a 55-year-old, sophisticated New Yorker could be so entirely unaware of a major cultural event celebrated by a significant portion of her own city’s population. This “blissful ignorance” highlighted a lingering gap. It suggested that even as Diwali becomes a known name, its depth, prevalence, and significance within the Western multicultural fabric can still be underestimated by mainstream media narratives. The episode served as a reminder that visibility alone is not enough; the context and depth of that visibility matter immensely.
The most recent example cited, the 2025 BBC drama Virdee, indicates a further maturation of Diwali’s narrative role. Here, the festival is not an exotic backdrop or a source of cultural clash, but an organic part of the characters’ lives and the show’s setting in Bradford, a city with a large South Asian diaspora. The use of Diwali as a moment for the protagonist to reconnect with his estranged Sikh family demonstrates a more sophisticated understanding. It shows Diwali as a lived experience, a temporal and emotional anchor in the lives of diaspora communities, fraught with the same complexities of family, identity, and tradition that define all human stories. This represents the ideal evolution: Diwali moving from a “theme” to an intrinsic, unremarkable yet rich, element of a character’s world.
The growing recognition of Diwali in Western media parallels its increasing institutional acknowledgment. The fact that New York City declared Diwali a public school holiday in 2023, the same year Carrie Bradshaw was supposedly discovering it, illustrates this dichotomy between lived reality and media perception. The political recognition of Diwali by a major Western metropolis is a monumental step, affirming the festival’s importance to a substantial demographic and validating its place in the American cultural calendar. This real-world progress puts pressure on media representations to catch up and reflect the true embeddedness of such traditions in the Western social sphere.
In conclusion, the portrayal of Diwali on the international screen is a compelling case study in the gradual, often messy, process of cultural integration. From Renoir’s distant, beautiful tableau to Michael Scott’s comedic blunder, and from Carrie Bradshaw’ late-in-life discovery to its normalized presence in a British crime drama, the journey reflects a world slowly becoming more interconnected. The Office remains the pivotal moment not because it was the most accurate, but because it was the most effective catalyst. It used the universal language of comedy to make the unfamiliar familiar. The subsequent attempts, with their varying degrees of success and sensitivity, have built upon that foundation, slowly adding layers of understanding and nuance.
The ultimate goal is a state where Diwali on screen requires no explanation, no clumsy comparisons, and no narrative of discovery. It will simply be—a beautiful, significant, and natural part of the storytelling tapestry, reflecting the reality for millions in the diaspora and the growing cultural curiosity of millions more. The lights of Diwali, once a brief, exotic spectacle in a French film, are now steadily illuminating the global cultural landscape, one episode at a time.
Q&A: Illuminating Diwali’s Journey in Global Media
1. The article describes Jean Renoir’s The River (1951) as having a “Eurocentric view” of Diwali. What does this mean, and how did it set the stage for later representations?
A “Eurocentric view” in this context means that the festival was presented through a Western lens, primarily for a Western audience that was presumed to be unfamiliar with Indian traditions. The portrayal was likely observational and exoticizing, focusing on the visual spectacle (fireworks, lamps) without delving into the spiritual, mythological, or social significance of the festival for the people celebrating it. It set the stage by establishing Diwali as a “foreign” subject for Western consumption. However, its mere presence in a prestigious international film created a precedent, proving that the festival had cinematic and cultural value that could resonate beyond India’s borders, paving the way for future, more integrated portrayals.
2. Why is The Office’s “Diwali” episode (2006) considered such a pivotal moment, despite its reliance on cultural misunderstandings for comedy?
The Office was pivotal due to its massive mainstream reach and its innovative use of comedy. While it used Michael Scott’s ignorance (“Hindu Halloween”) for laughs, the comedy was directed at his ignorance, not at the festival itself. This subtle distinction allowed the show to introduce Diwali to millions of Americans in a palatable and memorable way. It made the audience aware of the festival’s existence and name, and it presented a simplified but positive depiction of celebration, family, and food. It broke the ice, moving Diwali from an obscure foreign concept to a recognizable cultural event in the American pop-culture lexicon, thereby enabling the more nuanced explorations that followed.
3. How does the portrayal of Diwali in children’s media, like Disney’s Mira, the Royal Detective, differ from its portrayal in adult sitcoms, and why is this significant?
In adult sitcoms like The Office and Outsourced, Diwali is often a source of conflict or comedic misunderstanding, used to drive a plot about cultural clash. In children’s media like Mira, the portrayal is inherently educational, celebratory, and normalized. There is no need for ironic distance or comedy derived from ignorance. The significance is profound: it socializes the next generation to view Diwali as a natural and joyful part of a diverse world. For all children, but especially for those of the diaspora, it provides positive representation and validation, fostering cultural pride and peer understanding from a very young age.
4. The article highlights a contradiction in the And Just Like That… episode. What was this contradiction, and what does it reveal about the limits of cultural representation in media?
The contradiction was between the episode’s plot—where a sophisticated New Yorker discovers Diwali for the first time at age 55—and the real-world context of New York City, which had a large, long-established South Asian community and was on the verge of making Diwali a public school holiday. This revealed that media representations can often lag behind social reality. It showed that while writers and producers are making efforts to include diverse cultural elements, they can sometimes do so in a way that feels inauthentic or anachronistic, failing to reflect the true depth and history of that culture’s presence within Western society. It underscores that inclusion must be coupled with informed context to be truly effective.
5. Looking at the trajectory from The River (1951) to Virdee (2025), what does the evolving role of the Diwali festival in these narratives suggest about the changing nature of global storytelling?
The trajectory suggests a significant shift from Diwali as an exotic backdrop to an organic element of character and plot. Initially, it was a visual spectacle (The River), then a source of comedic conflict (The Office), then a point of professional negotiation (Outsourced), and finally, a lived experience that informs character relationships and identity (Virdee). This evolution mirrors a broader trend in global storytelling towards more authentic and embedded multiculturalism. Stories are increasingly acknowledging that characters inhabit a world where multiple cultural realities coexist, and these traditions are not just “themes” for episodes but are integral to the human experiences of love, family, conflict, and reconciliation that form the core of all compelling narratives.
