Understanding India: Cultural Influences on Indian Television Commercials is a book about Indian television commercial production. It focuses on how key production decisions shape a television commercial's visual language. The larger goal of the book is to delineate the link between this visual language and India's socio-cultural identity.
The book is the outcome of an ethnographic study that attempted to capture the nuances of the cinematic or visual aspect of marketing communications strategy. It is, thus, situated at the intersection of interests in marketing and visual culture.
In this book, many of the discussed television commercials have an embedded vision of India. Within the context of a new consumer culture emerging due to economic liberalization, the book discusses these sketches of India.
