Skip to main content

‘Paatal Lok’ sequel

BOLLYWOOD is predictable; emotions, music, patriotism, villain, repeat. But now and then, Indian alt-cinema breaks through the noise and delivers razor-sharp content. Paatal Lok, a crime thriller on Amazon Prime Video, is one example. It isn’t just a thriller but a masterclass in decoding the machinery of power, propaganda, and manufactured enemies.

In Paatal Lok, the assassination plot isn’t really about murder. It’s about getting rid of four petty criminals the political elite want out of the way. So they invent a fake plan to kill a journalist who was never in danger, just useful as a name on paper.

The police are tipped off before anything happens, swoop in for a dramatic arrest, and the headlines write themselves: ‘Delhi Police foils plot to kill journalist’. The criminals disappear into the system. The government walks away looking brave. And no one asks why any of it happened in the first place.

The plan falls apart when a low-ranking Delhi cop starts asking the wrong questions and uncovering links that go too close to those in power. The case is quickly taken from him and handed to the CBI, which makes sure it leads nowhere. Their fix is simple: plant some evidence, change the story, and suddenly those four petty criminals are no longer small-time thugs but dangerous Lashkar-e-Taiba terrorists backed by Pakistan’s ISI. Just like that, the truth is buried, and the headlines are taken care of.

But the real twist? The journalist in question, whose career, otherwise, was in a downward spiral towards irrelevance, is now draped in the tricolour. Thumping his chest on primetime, telling tales of bravery and how he ‘survived’ an assassination attempt by the intel agency, he becomes the “voice of India” and the new wheeler-and-dealer of the media industry.

If all of this sounds eerily familiar, you aren’t alone.

The media circus around the Pahalgam attack felt like a clumsy sequel to Paatal Lok, except this time, it wasn’t fiction. What the show satirised, Indian news channels turned into a strategy. Instead of grief and accountability, the tragedy became fuel for a nationalist spectacle.

Reckless anchors took centre stage, repackaging loss as war, while social media algorithms did the rest by amplifying outrage over truth. It unfolded like a script we’d already seen, only louder, uglier, and real.

When war sells and rage trends, the loudest lie often outperforms the quiet truth.

As someone who studies the political economy of disinformation, I was repeatedly asked the same question by various news outlets covering the story: ‘Why were the Indian news channels broadcasting obviously false news? Weren’t they worried about their credibility?’ It’s a fair question for media outlets that still rank credibility over clicks.

But sadly, for a large section of news media on either side of the border, especially on the Indian side, credibility isn’t the currency anymore; attention is. In the age of algorithmic amplification, virality, not verification, is rewarded by the business models. When war sells and rage trends, the loudest lie often outperforms the quiet truth.

You’re probably wondering, what’s this new ‘business model’? Let me break it down.

Broadcast news outlets in India, much like everywhere else, aren’t speaking to TV audiences anymore; they’re feeding the beast that lives online, the trolls, the echo chambers, the meme pages that turn warmongering into viral gold.

In India, the sheer scale of its news and entertainment industry has made this transformation especially brutal, where competition has become a fight for survival. And what better place to cash upon the currency of hate than the social media platforms infested with incel networks, political trolls, hate-mongers, disinformation peddlers, and religious bigots.

According to a recent joint publication by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Ernst & Young (the FICCI-EY report), digital media now accounts for 32 per cent of India’s entertainment sector, making it the single largest revenue stream. In other words, the clicks, shares, and rage-fuelled engagement online aren’t just noise, they’re profit.

Thus, in a media market where digital platforms now drive the biggest chunk of revenue, ethics and credibility have long become irrelevant. So, the media outlets invent, distort and dramatise, not because they’re misinformed, but because they know exactly what their audience wants: rage, revenge, and a constant supply of enemies. Contrary to the belief that credibility is essential for journalism, this audience doesn’t care. The more sensational the content, the more they come back for it.

But that’s only the tip of the figurative iceberg. As the brilliant Dr King Schultz put it in Tarantino’s Django Unchained, “I see the puppet, but I don’t see the master.” We see the anchors screaming, spinning hateful narratives, and cashing in on the rage. But we never think about where we see them, do we? The real money is in the shadows. It’s the social media platforms pulling the strings. Their algorithms are pumping this poison into billions of timelines and feeds across the world, making billions from rage; profiting on a scale the puppets can only dream of.

But the trail doesn’t end here. Behind the platforms lurk the political demagogues who are less the audience and more the directors of this spectacle. They aren’t just reaping the benefits of hate and polarisation; they’re scripting the very narratives that fuel it. The TV anchors echo them, the platforms amplify them, but the blueprint, the raw hate, the manufactured threat, the nationalistic hysteria starts in the halls of power. This isn’t accidental, it’s the design.

Prima facie, this playbook seems to benefit all parties involved, but in the long run, the cost is monumental. Outrage feeds demand, and demand feeds more outrage, until citizens become fanatics and viewers become war-mongers.

Night after night, this cycle breeds mass psychosis: a public so agitated that calm feels unnatural. While this may serve Modi’s political machine by fuelling pride and silencing dissent, it can’t be controlled forever. The media and platforms may think they’re directing the rage, but eventually, the spectacle turns, and the anger finds new targets, sometimes close to home.

The writer is the founder of Media Matters for Democracy.

Published in Dawn, May 24th, 2025



from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/xInkQHF

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Dodgers’ Shohei Ohtani skipping home run derby

Baseball’s biggest star is skipping the home run derby. Shohei Ohtani confirmed after Tuesday’s win over the Diamondbacks that he will not be participating as he continues to rehab an elbow injury that has prevented him from pitching this season. “There’s been some conversations going on,” Ohtani said, according to Juan Toribio of MLB.com . “I’m in the middle of my rehab progression, so it’s not going to look like I’ll be participating.” Manager Dave Roberts said Ohtani and the club reached the decision together. Ohtani signed a historic 10-year, $700-million contract with the Dodgers after winning his second AL MVP award last season with the Angels. Despite his elbow injury, he has served as the Dodgers’ primary DH this season and been one of the most productive hitters in baseball. Ohtani entered Tuesday hitting .316/.399/.635 with a 1.034 OPS. He hit his NL-leading 27th home run in the win. Ohtani had previously participated in the Derby in 2021. Last season’s champion, Vlad...

Pakistan flag installed at UNSC as country becomes non-permanent member for 8th time

The Pakistani national flag was installed in front of the United Nations Security Council chamber, as the country began its eighth term as a non-permanent member (2025-26) of the 15-member body, according to a press release issued by the Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the United Nations on Thursday. Pakistan on Wednesday began a two-year term as a non-permanent member of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC). Elected in June to replace Japan, Pakistan now occupies one of the two Asia-Pacific seats on the UNSC. It will preside over the council in July, a key opportunity to set the agenda and foster dialogue. View this post on Instagram This marks Pakistan’s eighth term on the council, providing an opportunity to shape discussions on pivotal international issues, but also posing significant challenges. “As part of the joining ceremony, flags of the five new incoming non-permanent members — Pakistan, Denmark, Greece, Panam...

Heathrow resumes operations as global airlines scramble after shutdown

London’s Heathrow Airport resumed full operations on Saturday, a day after a fire knocked out its power supply and shut Europe’s busiest airport, causing global travel chaos. The travel industry was scrambling to reroute passengers and fix battered airline schedules after the huge fire at an electrical substation serving the airport. Some flights had resumed on Friday evening, but the shuttering of the world’s fifth-busiest airport for most of the day left tens of thousands searching for scarce hotel rooms and replacement seats while airlines tried to return jets and crew to bases. Teams were working across the airport to support passengers affected by the outage, a Heathrow spokesperson said in an emailed statement. “We have hundreds of additional colleagues on hand in our terminals and we have added flights to today’s schedule to facilitate an extra 10,000 passengers travelling through the airport,” the spokesperson said. The travel industry, facing the prospect of a financial ...