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Anisha Mane, Anisha Creatives Pvt. Ltd, IndiaAbstract
In India, few mediums shape public imagination as profoundly as Bollywood. Producing over 1,000 films and billions of views annually, it generates social scripts influencing how people dream, love, resist, and succeed. This study explores the intersection of visual communication, participatory design, and motivation by adapting Bollywood’s signature arc of triumph into an interactive public installation. A comparative analysis of ten iconic films was done to identify common narrative motivators such as self-discovery, activated desires, and visualised victories, that inspire protagonists to achieve goals. An attempt to induce these motivators in real-life scenarios was made through The Wishing Well, an interactive installation presented at the India Film Project, Mumbai. A six-foot cardboard well was erected, where participants wrote personal wishes on origami paper boats and released them into the well, symbolising an external motivator event. This was followed by a digital questionnaire designed to introduce remaining motivators through guided self-reflection, prompting participants to reframe their passive “Wish” as an active “Goal.” To reinforce this transformation, a personalised Goal-book was sent to the participants. It consisted of psychological and behavioural frameworks, customised according to the participants’ responses, using AI. The installation engaged 450+ participants, with 40 interviewed based on completion/engagement criteria. Thematic analysis showed that 95% reported increased belief in their ability to fulfil their wish, and 87.5% gained a more actionable perspective of their Goal. The study demonstrates strong replicable potential by underscoring how culturally rooted media narratives can be harnessed to influence mindset and design behaviour change frameworks.
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Conference: MediAsia2025Stream: Visual Communication
This paper is part of the MediAsia2025 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Mane A. (2026) The Wishing Well: Harnessing Bollywood’s Motivational Arc as a Framework for Participatory Design ISSN: 2186-5906 – The Asian Conference on Media, Communication & Film 2025: Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 189-200) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-5906.2025.15
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2186-5906.2025.15
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