Hur porträtteras brittiskakaraktärer visuellt i Lagaan (2001)och Mangal Pandey - The Rising(2005) genom socialsemiotiskaresurser : och vilka koloniala maktrelationer artikuleras genomdessa visuella representationer?

This qualitative study examines how British characters are portrayed in the historicalBollywood films Lagaan (2001) och Mangal Pandey - The Rising (2005), and how poweris articulated through visual resources via social semiotics and character theory. Whileprevious research on Bollywood has addressed colonialism through narrative, ideology,or postcolonial identity, fewer studies have systematically analyzed how colonial power isconstructed through visual form. This study addresses that gap by focusing on visualrepresentations as a key focus in how meaning is conveyed.The analysis is grounded in a social semiotic framework based on Kress and vanLeuuwen’s theory of visual grammar, with particular focus on the three metafunctions,the ideational, interpersonal and compositional metafunctions. To deepen the analysis ofthe film’s characters, Jens Eders character theory is used as a complementary analyticalframework, making an examination of how visual resources cohere into charactersunderstood as both artefacts and fictional beings. This study is designed as a qualitativestudy and uses purposive sampling to analyze 4 key scenes, 2 from both each movie, inwhich characters play a central role in the colonial setting.The result of this study shows that British characters are consistently constructed visualpatterns that emphasize authority, control, and institutional dominance. These patterns areshown through the use of camera angles, spatial positioning, body language and gaze.Colonial power is also expressed through visual repetitions and normalization, whereBritish characters of authority are embedded in the cinematic structures of the scenes, likein the background. Even characters portrayed as morally conflicted and sympathetic arevisually positioned in ways that ultimately gives them no power to intervene.This study shows that colonial power is not only represented through dialogue and sound,but also through visual resources carefully constructed to show signs of hierarchy,passivity, and the normalization of authority.