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Cinema of India: My First Impression | Video Essay

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The Internet Said So | EP 63 | Bollywood Stereotypes

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7 Bizarre Bollywood Stereotypes I Just Don’t Understand

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'English Vinglish' and Bollywood: what is 'new' about the 'new woman'? | Semantic Scholar

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Abstract Bollywood's transnational mechanisms offer a unique space to study gendered subjectivity. My article studies a specific Bollywood movie, English Vinglish (2012) to draw out the profile of the 'new woman.' Persistently, I question the 'new-ness' to the construction of women when the 'new' reiterates the values of tradition, nation, and family.

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Magazine - Deconstructing Gender Binaries

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Magazine - Deconstructing Gender Binaries

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Defining Gender Roles = Alternatives Seem Unnatural

Like all other social constructs gender is closely monitored by society. Gender refers to socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women. Practically everything in society is assigned a gender - toys, colours, clothes and behaviours are some of the obvious examples. Sara Alters and Wendy Schiff in their work Essential Concepts for Healthy Living defines gender roles as "patterns of behaviour, attitudes and personality attributes that are traditionally considered in a particular manner to be feminine or masculine."(143)

This shows that accepted social gender roles and expectations are so deeply entrenched in our culture that the alternative seems unnatural. However, gender polarity often creates an artificial gap between men and women that are very difficult to change in time. These roles leads to the formation of gender identity of an individual which presents more of an internalised way of perceiving one's own gender, which one way or the other is formed due to the social influences. This generalised setup is rightly observed by Levesque in his essay "Sex Roles and Gender Roles" as he says, "Individuals are deemed to adopt a gender role self-concept, which is the amount of gender stereotypical traits and behaviours that persons use to describe themselves and to influence their dispositions".

Women in this period have become more like a female hero and as result have become inspiration to many. M.C. Mary Kom of Manipur, India chose a masculine game, i.e., boxing and marked her success by becoming the World Champion in 2008. Her success was further highlighted by the 2014 Bollywood film Mary Kom. The women in Bollywood has become louder in voice and actions and has equalised their level with the male protagonist, leaving the basis of gender roles of being bashful, timid and sheepish in question.

Portrait of Women as Equal to Men

As Shoma Chatterji a film scholar, author and freelance journalist of India in her interview says:

Actresses like Vidya Balan, Tabu have struck a balance between glamour
and convention helped by their looks and the image they present. The
woman is stronger, almost equal to a man in current films such as
Dhoom, Dhoom 2, Shaurya, Aitraz where there is almost no difference
between the heroine and the vamp because all the female stars are
willing to step into negative roles if they are strong and make a
lasting impression on the audience.

Shoma Chaterjee states that in order to understand the portrayal of women in Indian cinema, "one has to develop a mode of analysis that is culture-specific and situation-specific." It clearly projects that one cannot understand the shift and transition on the macro level. The gender roles are undergoing the process of perpetual questioning as the roles being played by the women in movies are being liked by the viewers, forecasting the resent ideologies of people, which exhibits the acceptance of the androgynous world.

Media and the Focus on the Changing Roles

The focus on the changing roles of men and women has become more prominent in media with the dawn of twenty-first century. The trend of breaking away the stereotypical gender, that started in the western media, its representation has begun to show in Indian movies as well. West known for being a few steps ahead in breaking away the stereotypical gender roles has started affecting the Indian ideologies, says Sanjukta Dasgupta in her work Media, Gender, and Popular Culture in India, "In different categories of media-print, electronic, audiovisual, and virtual-the imprint of transition, though differing in degree, is too evident to be underestimated."(Dasgupta 41) The change is evident in the representation of women in media from being a self-sacrificing mother, daughter and sister to a bold, courageous and dauntless protagonist who is no more bound to the feminine category of being too shy, pure and virgin.

Visual media is thus playing an active role in contesting the gender stereotypes and providing the society with the evidences of possibilities that are ignored on the basis of established stereotypes. The recent campaigns by Ministry of Human Resource Development, on radio and television like 'Beti Bachao'(Save girl child), 'Beti Padao'(Educate girl child) propagated by the government of India clearly marks towards the awareness being provided to the society in order to establish equality and importance in terms of sexes. Girls being the victim of child infanticide were seen as burden due to socio-economic reasons. The recent shift towards not only saving but educating them has marked the importance of an individual in a society which is equal to any other person in order to enhance the status of the society. The paper aims at moving beyond the straightjacket of ascribed stereotypical roles viz. masculinity and femininity for men and women respectively towards more fluid gender roles.

This study will deconstruct the possible changes that has occurred through the times with the help of two Bollywood Movies viz., NH10 and Dangal where the females have played the central roles, breaking the stereotypes of society.

One of the most profound films of the recent times questioning the gender construct of femininity and masculinity is NH10, starring Anushka Sharma as Meera. She is a Product Launcher by profession who is living happily with her husband Arjun. Irrespective of being an ideal type of Indian beauty, Meera proves out to be stronger and more powerful than usually expected. The movie traces the evolution of a professionally independent woman who takes the "agency" into her hands. She not only avenges the murder of her husband but also becomes an agent of change, as she tries to bring justice in the highly regressive patriarchal setup, where a brother kills his sister, in the case of honour killing, for she chooses to marry a man of her own choice.

The movie begins with Meera, having a sensual talk with her husband while on their way to a late night party, which is generally not expected from an ideal wife. She even discusses how the woman who has invited them has a big crush on Arjun. Arjun denies the fact but Meera mocks the situation by saying, "You're a good looking guy. Even I like you." (NH10) Meera stands away from the generalised setup as she accepts the possibilities of a woman having a crush on a man, be it her own husband. The couple caricatures the presence of Westernisation in the modern towns, where after the introduction of technology and multinational companies things has subsequently changed. After reaching the destined location, Arjun realises that he has forgotten his cell in the car and Meera smiles and gives it to him, showing the caring side of woman in a relationship. But when Arjun asks her if she's been smoking again, she decides to hide it from her husband and denies it. As Patricia Mann says that, "ours is an era that will be remembered for romantic changes in basic social relationships, within families, workplaces, schools, and other public spheres of interaction."(Mann 1) The change in the relationship of Meera and Arjun is visible, as the couple stays away from the stereotypical conventions of the society and tries to justify their relationship in the Post-modern era.

After getting a call from her office she instantly takes the decision of moving out for her work. She simply informs her husband rather than taking his approval and rejects his proposal of staying and not moving out late at night. This shows the change in the behaviour of a woman, where rather than taking permission she simply sticks to her decision projecting her confident, professional and independent side. As says Patricia Mann,

Women and men today, for example, quite typically pursue activities and
relationships that lie outside traditional boundaries of male and
female identities... Many if not most individuals quite effectively
operate outside the parameters of traditional gendered, ethnic, class,
professional, or kinship identities, relying instead upon highly fluid,
ad hoc, tentative working identities. (Mann 6)

The conversation between Meera and Arjun provides a glimpse in how the roles between families especially spouses are constantly changing. The roles are not stable and constantly in a state of flux.

On her way to office, she gets attacked by the thugs, but interestingly, the movie walking on the grounds of presenting the unpresentable grabs the attention of the viewers by working against the general theme of abduction, rape and murder. Instead of getting saved by her husband or some other hero, she gets saved by her own instant actions and driving skills. This is the first time when she projects her driving skills, which is generally normalised to be the talents possessed by men rather than the women. After this incident she proves out to be a fearless woman as rather than leaving her job or the idea of moving out late at night she files a complaint against the thugs. But this again leads to an expected fail for she remains unsuccessful in finding the ones who attacked her and seeking justice. The policeman who is expected to be the protector of the society irrespective of their class, race and gender rather asks her husband, "Why do you let her travel alone at night?" (NH10) and advices them to ask for the permission of keeping a gun, for her husband has a good contact with the higher authorities. While on their way back to their house Arjun asks him if she is comfortable in keeping a gun. Meera at this point shows her masculine side by accepting the proposal and showing her unexpected comfort for applying for the license of a gun and facing the evils rather than hiding from them, as she says, "The city's a growing child, after all. I'll have to get a gun." (NH10)

A Shift from a Normal Life Issues to a New Ride of Rollercoaster

The story takes a shift from a normal life issues to a new ride of rollercoaster, when Meera's husband plans a weekend out to celebrate her birthday. After the projection of Meera's professional life the story shifts to the journey of the couple on a vacation, planned by Meera's husband. The journey starts on a very happy note, Meera discovers a cigarette pack in the dashboard kept by her husband, who tells her that it is her birthday gift which proposes that he not only loves his wife but also supports her choices. This echoes the sayings of Patricia Mann, "Women and men are trying out various new public and private roles today." (Mann 6-7) This projects that not only Meera but even Arjun fails to maintain the stereotypical image of a husband and tries to find a new way of living with his wife. This modern couple completely rejects the socio-constructs and still ends up leading happy and successful relationship. But this does not conclude with them leading a successful life, as the common theme of approaching danger starts getting projected in the film. While paying the toll tax Arjun finds that some men in the car killed the man when he asked them for the tax. And after that they get lost while finding the right path to their booked villa. Then a girl from nowhere comes straight in front of their car and runs away. All of these incidences build the atmosphere of approaching danger from which the couple certainly remains unaware.

Dependence of Women on Men for Security

Then they stop by a local restaurant to have lunch and freshen up. Meera removes the gun from her bag, to which Arjun presents his objection by saying, "What are you doing? You promised you'd always keep it in your handbag." (NH10) To which Meera replies, "But you're with me today, aren't you? Hey, Arjun. I... I didn't mean it that way. It's just very heavy." (NH10) This shows the dependency of woman on man in terms of her security. Meera showcasing the ideology of society believes that no one can touch or harm her until and unless she is with her husband. After that she moves straight towards the washroom in order to smoke, where she finds the same girl who came in front of their car, pleading and begging for help from some people who were threatening her and her husband's life, "They'll kill my husband and me... Please, sister. We really need help."(NH10) Meera dismisses her at once and returns back to her husband waiting for her. At that moment the same car who killed the man at the toll post arrives with four men loaded in it. All of them start creating a mess and drag a girl out from the crowd.

Meera realises that she is the same girl who was asking for her help. The girl cries out a name, Mukesh, who turns out to be her husband and Mukesh gets slapped by the man dragging the couple into a car. Arjun, being the hero, following the rules of being a man tries to solve the matter out by intruding in between. Meera tries to stop him but fails in doing so and everything turns out be a big mess, for the girl had married the boy without the permission of her family and was running away with him. The couple was being chased by her brother and their relatives, who were aiming at killing them, for they broke the societal rules by making the 'choice' and bringing dishonour to the family. Arjun does not stop and keeps getting involved in between the problem, whereas Meera gets nervous and continuously asks Arjun to come back. Their reactions to this situation can be normally attributed with the expected reaction of hero of getting involved in the activities where risk is involved and fear of a woman from getting involved in it. But looking from the other side it showcases the intelligence of the female character who at once senses the danger of getting into such matter, which Arjun completely fails to understand. The result also favours the latter explanation because he ends up getting slapped by the brother of the pleading girl.

Meera tries to get him away but completely fails to stop him from doing anything stupid. This situation does not end at once, for on their way to their destination Arjun traces the car and starts following it. Meera again tries to stop him but he ignores her advices and follows the car without giving it a thought.

MEERA: Arjun? Arjun, what are you doing?... Have you gone mad?
You're taking this too far. Baby listen, please don't do this. Why are
you doing this, Arjun? Don't turn this into an ego issue... I don't
want to go. Stop the car, I'm leaving. Are you insane or what? There
were 5-6 of them....
ARJUN: Meera, just relax, okay.
MEERA: Arjun, please!!
ARJUN: I'm with you today, am I not?
MEERA: Listen. I didn't mean it like that. Is that why you're doing
this?
ARJUN: Relax. They're just some village idiots. I'm just going to scare
them a bit.
MEERA: No, don't!
ARJUN: Teach them a few manners, you know? (NH10)

Duty of the Man to Kill the Villains?

It can be formulated that it's the duty of the man to kill the villains and stop any such wrong activities. This statement completely fails, for Arjun completely fails to understand the fact that he is not the local citizen of that society and cannot save the couple on his own. Along with this he even fails to take the responsibility of his young wife, who constantly tries to remind him of their safety.

After stopping at a barren place, Arjun takes out the gun and decides to scare the illiterate men and teach them a lesson. Meera stands against the idea and tells him to get back in the car at once, but nothing happens because Arjun moves out leaving her alone back in the car.

MEERA: Why are you even doing this? Arjun, no! Just stay in the car.
ARJUN: Lock the doors.
MEERA: You're such an idiot, Arjun! (NH10)

In this tense situation Meera gets traced by a man, a bit mentally disturbed and Arjun encounters the men brutally beating the couple to almost their deaths. Arjun gets scared of the sight and tries to run back, he finds Meera on the way who has come in search of him and both of them starts running back to their car. Arjun gets suddenly hit from back and then he wakes up in front of the thugs, searching their phones for their identification. Arjun's decision of going on with his desire to teach them a lesson goes perfectly with a man's way of reacting under such circumstances but his act of running back for the escape shows the complete opposite behaviour, usually not expected from a man.

The couple gets killed by the girl's brother in case of honour killing and then comes the decision of killing both Meera and Arjun. At this moment the role changes, as Arjun fails to cope up with the situation and becomes helpless. While Meera on the other hand becomes the agent of change, as she takes the control of the entire situation in her hands. Agency can be defined as "an actor's or group's ability to make purposeful choices."(Emma & Maria) After becoming the one in action she showcases her sharp wit by cleverly securing the gun and planning the run with her husband. But again they fail because of the mistake of her husband as he accidentally kills the mentally disturbed man, who was the little brother of one of the villains. This again projects the deviation from the general concept, where the mistakes are to be made by the women and not the men. Somehow they run away with the gun in their hands but ends up getting lost in the jungle and also part their ways in the process of running away from thugs. Meera showcasing the fragile side of female constantly searches for her husband out of fear.

Masculine Side

But her masculine side starts coming out as she shoots a man threatening her husband's life and shouts at a man approaching them, scaring him off to run away in search of support. Her husband gets injured and symbolically she becomes the one in action, taking decisions and planning their escape. This again shows the role of agency in the situation, as Meera after becoming the agent takes the responsibility of saving her husband's life. This can be understood in the words of Patricia Mann,

Agency refers to those individuals or group actions deemed significant
within particular social or institutional setting. While we are
accustomed to thinking in terms of distinct forms of agency, as in
economic, ethical or sexual agency, I emphasise that there are also
three distinct dimensions of agency operative either together or apart
within the context of individual actions. Individual agency is always
associated with one or more of the following dimensions: motivation,
responsibility, and expectations of recognition or reward. (Mann 14)

A Whole New Phase of a Woman

The second half of the story presents a whole new phase of a woman. Meera completely transforms herself into a brave masculine woman taking care of her injured husband as well as planning their escape. This role reversal makes Meera reveal her characteristics which she would have never used in any case. After becoming the victim of her husband's stupidity, she faces the situation boldly. She places him safely under a railway bridge and tells him that she'll return back soon.

MEERA: Nothing's going to happen to you. I'll be back soon, I promise.
Nothing's going to happen to you. You'll stay right here. Say,
"Promise."
ARJUN: Promise, baby, promise.
MEERA: Nothing's going to happen to you, baby. (NH10)

Ironically it's Meera, a woman who becomes the one in charge of saving the life of a man and not the other way around. She even hands him the gun to scare the men off and moves out alone at night to bring help. This shows that she doesn't need the gun anymore, even without her husband, rather the man takes the place of a woman who needs it in order to sustain his living. At this time her husband wishes her "Happy Birthday" (NH10) and she turns away parting ways from the one she always wanted to rely upon. She takes a new birth on this day, as she again moves alone at night with about four villains chasing her to death. She finds the police but the officer turns out to be against her too. Again she fights with the circumstances and kills the officer.

The phase of her driving skills are projected again where she once again successfully escapes from the clutches of the murderers. After getting into a car wreck she climbs the mountain rather than hiding behind some bushes or trees. Her strength remains unquestionable for even after getting spotted and hit by stones, she climbs the mountain and turns back rather than running away. Her turn is not full of fear but rather with a power of a brave masculine lady who not only curses but also throws stones back at them.

After failing to catch her, the murderer's moves towards the tunnel to catch her husband. This again shows the fall of four men against one woman. Rather than catching her they prefer to catch the half dead man whom she loved dearly. She ends up meeting the head of the village these ruffians belonged to and ironically the head turns out to be a woman rather than a man and also the mother of the girl who ran away with her husband. Where the woman blames the education for the unexpected decision of her daughter, her daughter-in-law presents her denial by preventing Meera from revealing her truth to her mother-in-law. All these three women showcases the different sides of women, where Meera presents the one being in the phase of acknowledging her masculinity, the head already had the masculine attributes but used them in generalising the stereotypes, as rather than stopping her son she supports him in killing her own daughter. At last her daughter-in-law projects the urge of getting liberated, as she saw the hope in her sister-in-law, who gets killed because of the choice she made. After discovering the truth Meera intelligently fights against the situation as she threatens the life of their dear grandson and marks her escape. But after finding her husband dead she comes back. She could have ran away easily but decides to return back like a hero to avenge the death of her husband and as a result kills the villains one by one with her own hands.

Sometimes, You Just Got to Do It

The main villain, the brother of the girl rejects the victory of woman over him and despite being injured tries to stand equal to her. Meera takes a rod and silently smokes in front of him, making him irritated, angry and further challenging his masculinity. The result turns out to be different than expected as he tries to run away from her, but Meera in her unforgiving phase hits him at once making him fall dead in front of her. The mother of the man runs out to find her son dead in front of her, to which she says, "She was my daughter. But sometimes, you just got to do it." (NH10) Meera replies to her by saying, "Yeah, sometimes you just got to do it."(NH10) and she turn back and moves forward as the sun rise with the advent of the new day in everyone's life. The cause of fight could be grouped under two levels, one being the personal tragedy (as she avenges the death of her husband) and another the change in the society (where she fights against the case of honour killing).

The second movie taken for this ambition is Dangal. The film revolves around the life of Phogat family, a family of wrestles belonging to Haryana, India where Amir Khan plays the role of the male patriarch Mahavir Singh Phogat who trains his two daughters, Geeta and Babita in wrestling. Mahavir, a masculine man breaks the gender stereotypes and encourages his daughters to participate in professional wrestling. This stands against the ordinary setup because girls are raised as highly feminine beings and are encouraged to only maintain their beauty and body as they have to get married and give birth to babies in the future. Conventionally women have to stay away from such masculine sports but Geeta and Babita are encouraged to take it as a career which is traditionally considered an all men arena. Geeta and Babita towards the end evolve as Indian wrestlers and win gold medal in Commonwealth games for the country.

Mahavir Singh Phogat, National Level Wrestler

The movie begins with the story of Mahavir Singh Phogat, a National level wrestler who leaves the sport due to some economic reasons. Irrespective of this he never drops his dream of bringing gold medal in wrestling for the country. After facing failure in achieving his goal he tries to find a hope in his children, but his dreams starts to shatter when his wife rather than giving birth to sons gives birth to four daughters. This leaves Mahavir in a devastated position as he packs all his displayed medals in a box with his broken heart. He tells his wife that, "Both Geeta and Babita are very dear to me. But only a boy can fulfil my dream." (Dangal) This shows the androcentric ideology of the society, where the gender domination is so rigid that it blocks the thinking process of a person and hence relates everything masculine to men and not to women. Mahavir despite loving his daughters fails to understand that an individual is capable of doing anything if given a chance.

In cue with the feminine notions the girls starts learning the housework and in meantime Mahavir gains weight and forgets about wrestling. Then occurs the most important incident in the life of Phogat family, Mahavir returns back to his home to find that his girls have beaten up two boys in their school. He asks the parents of the boys to forgive them and turns straight towards Geeta and Babita. Both the girls get terrified as they counter their doings by saying, "They started it. He called me a loser and Babita a witch. So, we beat the shit out of them." (Dangal) But both the girls gets surprised when he asks how did they hit them rather than asking why did they hit them.

MAHAVIR: First tell me, how did you manage to do it.
GEETA: First he called me a loser but I remained quiet. But then he
called Babita a witch. I grabbed him and punched him like this.
BABITA: Then the other guy attacked. I grabbed his hair and shoved him
down and dug my elbow in his back. (Dangal)

This sort of action goes against their feminine side, as per their learnings their work is to stay active in the house and passive in the world outside. So, according to their gender roles, beating the boys makes it difficult to group them under the category of being a woman but at the same time it does not provides us with the permission to call them men. This conflicted situation is what Judith Butler presents in her work Gender Trouble, "there is very little agreement after all on what it is that constitutes, or ought to constitute, the category of women." (Mann 2) The understanding of this matter is seen in the happiness of Mahavir. That day he decides that his girls will bring gold medal for India. He tells his wife that wrestling is in the blood of their daughters and they have the passion needed for it. While talking to his worried wife, his counter statement, "You think our girls are any lesser than boys?" (Dangal) reveals the change in the perception of the man who thought that wrestling is made for boys and not girls. Mahavir after tracing the strength of his daughters realises his mistake of following the crowd and rejecting the abilities of his daughters. Geeta and Babita on the other hand being way too young fails to understand that they've unknowingly showcased their strength, which marks them to be different from the other girls, busy exploring their feminine side only.

Geeta and Babita Training to be Wrestlers

But this revelation does not bring happiness in their life as his wife gets worried about their image in society. Mahavir asks for one year so that he could prove the society wrong. Next day he guides them with rules and asks them to follow a strict diet for they have to live a life of wrestler from now. Both Geeta and Babita get confused because this is not the way they are used too. He changes their attire and makes them wear shorts so that they could run without any problem and makes them workout every morning. This tires the girls and makes them beg their mother for saving their lives. He faces rejections from the society as he tries to ask them for the permission of letting his daughters play in their wrestling ring. As one of the men says, "Girls in the wrestling arena? Will you have me sin at this age? " (Dangal)

Mahavir's attempt to train his daughters in wrestling finds support in the words of Judith Butler, who in her seminal work Gender Trouble problematises the western belief in the vertical alignment of sex, gender and sexuality as female, feminine and heterosexual. She states that "Man and masculine might just as easily signify a female body as a male one, and woman and feminine a male body as easily as a female one."(Butler 9) Also, the expected rejections from the society does not stop Mahavir as he builds an arena for the girls to practice wrestling on his own. He teaches them the basic rules of wrestling and finds the need of good practice. He gets his brother's son so that the girls could find a tough competition and can practice more and become stronger. This presents the fight of a man for his daughters, so that he could make them able enough the stand in front of the society with their heads up.

Obstacles and Difficulties Faced

But all of this does not go as planned, as the girls find it difficult to cope up with their father's ideology, which was going against the established stereotypical structure. Further, the reaction of the girls towards their father's teachings shows the generalised setup in the thoughts of young children. Though Mahavir tries his level best to make them a good wrestler the girls find it difficult to survive under such conditions and as a result decides to confront their father.

GEETA: Papa, this wrestling isn't working out for Babita.
BABITA: Ya, Papa... and Geeta gets so tired that she falls asleep in
class. She can't concentrate in her studies at all
GEETA: Babita's body aches terribly. She keeps tossing and turning all
night.Girls tease Geeta by calling her a man. Sad, isn't it?
MAHAVIR: None of these seem like a problem. Tell me if there is a real
problem
GEETA: Papa, our hair is getting ruined because of wrestling in the
mud. She even has lice. I killed eight this evening
MAHAVIR: Now, that's a real problem (Dangal)

Next morning Mahavir gets their hair chopped which leaves the girls in great shock .Both the girls becomes the subject of mockery for the society. They get laughed at school too which provokes them to rebel against their father. Both the girls finds the ways to escape the morning practice and lives their life according to their choice. This shows the ability of the girls to follow as well as reject their father's rules according to their choice. They pretend to fall with a single blow of their brother, which leaves their father in a helpless state. From this time they take the "agency" in their hands and works accordingly, making their father unable to do anything even after understanding everything.

Everything was going fine until one day when their father finds that they have skipped the practice to attend the wedding of their friend. Both the girls while sitting with bride presents the unhappy state of their life to which the bride responds with the sharp words which makes the girls think about the choice they have made. With tears in her eyes the bride says,

At least your father thinks about you. Otherwise, our reality is the
moment a girl is born teach her to cook and clean, make her do all the
household chores. And once she turns 14 marry her off. Get rid of the
burden. And hand her over to a man, whom she has never met. Make her
bear children and raise them. That's all she's good for. At least your
father considers you his child. (Dangal)

Normative Sexuality in India

This legitimises the observation of Ratna Kapur who in her work Erotic Justice: Law and the New Politics of Postcolonialism states, "In India, motherhood, wifehood, domesticity, chastity, purity, and self-sacrifice constitute the primary features of normative sexuality." (Kapur 56) But the change in the Postmodern times is evident in the reaction of Geeta and Babita rejects the normalised style of living under their respective "gender template" and decide to make wrestling their profession. This choice shows the breaking away with the stereotypes, as the girls not only chooses the masculine traits as their prime preference but also rejects the generalised setup of woman rearing the family and sitting at home doing the household chores.

First Wrestling Match--Rigidity of Gender, and Success

After training them well Mahavir takes them for their first local wrestling match. He gets mocked and stopped by the man who says,

MAN: Mahavir Singh Phogat... Welcome! It's an honour that you have come
to watch the competition
MAHAVIR: I've got a wrestler with me too
MAN: Name?
MAHAVIR: Geeta Kumari Phogat.
MAN: What?
MAHAVIR: Geeta Kumari Phogat.
MAN: You'll make a girl wrestle?
MAHAVIR: Yes, so? Write.
MAN: Sir. the day I organise a cooking competition that day bring
Geeta. This is a wrestling competition! (Dangal)

This shows the rigidity of the gender roles which makes the society think such transgressions to be impossible. Somehow or the other they get the entry in the match, that never witnessed a girl fighting against the boy and subsequently becomes a great topic of discussion, attracting many viewers towards it. Geeta chooses the strongest contender and proves herself to be fearless. The referee asks the boy to play carefully for Geeta is a girl, "Go easy, she's a girl" to which she remarks that don't think that she is not strong enough, "Don't make that mistake". (Dangal)

This incident clearly points toward the fact that how society makes clear demarcations as to the roles of men and women. Men are considered masculine and hence strong whereas women are considered feminine and by implication weak. But Geeta proved to be otherwise. She gave a tough competition to her male counterpart. Even after losing the match she gathered lots of applauses for giving a tough fight to the guy. And she never looked back again as she eventually wins one match after another and later gets selected for the state level championship and once again the life of the girls change. This further shows the determination of the girls on the choice they made. With the help of their father they start proving the society wrong that says that a man is a man and a woman can never be the one possessing such power.

The father tries to get some funds from the sports club so that he could provide better training to the girls but fails because of the corruption in the department. This does not stop Mahavir Singh for he builds a mat ring at the home itself with the help of the mattresses. He mentions the rules and the points out of which point 5 is the most difficult and almost next to impossible one to achieve. After that he trains them for the first state level match and Geeta as usual secures the win. With time she becomes the senior player and finally wins the National championship. Babita on the other hand becomes the state champion and pursues to live with her father. Geeta leaves for Patiala for her further training for International Championship.

The life of Geeta again changes as she drools over the freedom she gets in the new place. This proves to be another important phase in the life of the family for everyone starts following their own ways. Geeta's exposure to city life makes her curious for exploring her feminine side as she grows back her hair, paints her nails, watches romantic movies and starts witnessing her feminine side which was doomed for a long time. Babita on the other hand lives determined to her goal and practices day and night in order to achieve her father's dream. Geeta returns back to her home to meet her family but her changed lifestyle comes in notice to everyone. She fights with her father in the arena and defeats him. Babita witnessing the change in her sister stands with her father while Geeta departs with losing trust in her family. Geeta being a revolutionist fights her own father in order to prove herself right, which she certainly does. This shows that even Geeta and Babita make the same choice, they differ on the basis of the way they acquire to accomplish it.

After some time Babita wins the nationals and joins Geeta in her academy. Geeta loses her first international match but remains unaffected by it. Babita traces the change and asks her to focus more. Slowly she starts losing all the matches. Her coach tells her not to worry because some people are not made for international matches, "Some people are not made for international victory." (Dangal) This leaves Geeta hopeless as she tries to acquire some motivation form her sister, who asks her to talk to their father. She calls her father and asks him to forgive her for not focusing on the game. Then came the time for another International match which was held after six months. She gets serious once again and chops her hair, this time with her own choice. His father leaves for Patiala and starts training her for the match. This makes the girls trespass the academy in the morning and as a result both of them get caught by the coach. Her father saves them from getting dismissed and promises for not creating any disturbance in future. But this does not mean that they break the link completely as they remain in contact through cell phone and that's how Mahavir continues to train her daughters for the match. The shift of Geeta's focus again presents her own choice, which she makes in order to achieve her goal. Babita remains the same that shows the steady determined personality in order to achieve her goal.

Finally the day comes, the first match witnesses Geeta's unexpected win because of the choices she makes. She chooses the advices of her father rather than that of her coach and wins the second match too. The coach gets jealous and locks Geeta's father before the beginning of the last match. Geeta tries to find her father but fails and as a result fights with the opponent with her own strategies. In this fight she recalls her father saying, "Remember!", "Your papa won't be there to save you every time", "I can only teach you to fight", "But you have to fight yourself (1)', "Make the effort.... save yourself. (Dangal) Geeta marks her ultimate win by reversing the impossible into possible, she scores the 5 points by building the arch and throwing the opponent down on her back. With this Geeta became the first Indian woman to win gold medal in Commonwealth Games, 2010.

Challenging the Stereotypes

Thus, the entire movie clearly challenges the stereotypes where woman irrespective of their gender fights against the restrictions of the society. The achievement of Geeta and Babita clearly points towards the possibility of gender transgression and the projection of such realistic stories marks to be the valid reasons for raising the voice against gender stereotyping. This clearly points to the fact that gender is not something essential but is socially constructed. To quote Butler, "Gender ought not be constructed as a stable identity or focus of agency from which various acts follow; rather, gender is an identity tenuously constituted in time, instituted in an exterior space through a stylised repetition of acts."(Butler 191) Dangal became the block buster of 21st century which clearly presented the acceptance of such transgressions by the society. The focus has shifted from gender rules to the individual preferences, where fighting is no more the ability of man only. It depends upon the choice one makes and men like Mahavir and women like Geeta and Babita are the exponents of breaking away with such stereotypes.

The paper presents the evident change in the role of men and women in the recent era with the help of the two Bollywood movies. These relationship changes are evident in both the movies as in NH10 both Meera and Arjun lead a relation that stands against the traditional norms and values and in Dangal both the girls gets supported by their father in choosing wrestling as their profession. Such types of transgressions have become explicit in the present times and its representation in media has further enhanced its effect.

NH10 showcases the change through the character of Meera who becomes the agent of change and fights at both the personal and social level. Dangal on the other hand presents the real life incidence of gender transgression, where the two girls Geeta and Babita not only chooses wrestling as their profession but also brings gold medal for the country. Thus, the study has tried to establish that gender is a construct generalised by the society, which has to be done away with in order to live more fuller and androgynous lives.

Alters, Sandra, Wendy Schiff. Essential concepts for Healthy Living. Jones & Bartlett publishers, 2009. Print.

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.

Chatterji, Shoma. "Interview with Shoma Chatterji - Role of Women in Indian Cinema". Interview by Oorvazi Irani. Web. 8 October 2018 < https://oorvazifilmeducation.wordpress.com/2010/10/08/interview-with-shoma-chatterji-role-of-women-in-indian-cinema/>. Accessed 20 Feb, 2018.

Dangal, Directed by Nitesh Tiwari, performances by Amir Khan, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Sanya Malhotra, Aamir Khan Productions with UTV Motion Pictures and Walt Disney Pictures India, 2016.

"Dangal (2016) Movie Script." Trans. Springfield! Springfield!. Dangal. https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=dangal

Dasgupta, Sanjukta, Dipankar Sinha and Sudeshna Chakravarti. Media, Gender, and Popular Culture in India. New Delhi: Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd, 2012 Print.

Kapur, Ratna. Erotic Justice: Law and New Politics of Postcolonialism. New Delhi: Permanent Black, 2005. Print.

Levesque, Roger JR. "Sex Roles and Gender Roles." Encyclopedia of Adolescence. Springer New York, 2011. 2622-2623. Print.

Mann, Patricia S. Micro-Politics: Agency in a Postfeminist Era. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1994. Print.

NH10, Directed by Navdeep Sarkar, performances by Anushka Sharma Kohli, and Neil Bhoopalam, Phantom Films and Eros International, 2015.

"N.H 10 (2015) Movie Script." Trans. Springfield! Springfield!. NH10. https://www.springfieldspringfield.co.uk/movie_script.php?movie=n-h-10

Samman, Emma, and Maria Emma Santos. "Agency and Empowerment : a Review of Concepts, Indicators and Empirical Evidence". Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI), 2009.

Somaaya, Bhawana, Jigna Kothari and Supriya Madangarli. Mother Maiden Mistress: Women in Hindi Cinema, 1950-2010. India: HarperCollins Publishers India. 2012. Print.

School of Languages and Literature

Devikasharma26@hotmail.com

Sub-Post Office, Katra 182320

India

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Deconstructing Gender Binaries: Representations in Select Bollywood Movies.

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Defining Gender Roles = Alternatives Seem Unnatural Like all other social constructs gender is closely monitored by society. Gender refers to socially constructed roles, behaviours, activities and attributes that a given society considers appropriate for men and women. Practically everything in society is assigned a gender - toys, colours, clothes and behaviours are some of the obvious examples.

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Listen to this episode from Once Upon a Time in Bollywood on Spotify. In this Episode Bhawana Sommaya talks about Action Cinema. its started from Fearless Nadia to tiger Zinda hai. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Why King of Bollywood Akshay Kumar Made A Movie About Menstruation; Akshay Kumar’s latest movie, ‘Padman,’ tells the story of a superhero who doesn’t wear a cape or have a superpower. It’s about the man who launched India’s sanitary pad revolution - Document - Gale Power Search

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Arunachalam Muruganantham: How I started a sanitary napkin revolution!

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Gravitas Plus: How India can harness the soft power of Bollywood

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Journal: A glimpse into India's Evolution

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Journal: A glimpse into India's Evolution

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The University of Maryland, Baltimore, is the state's public academic health and law university devoted to professional and graduate education, research, patient care, and public service.

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A hundred years ago on this date, India's first film Raja Harishchandra was released. Over the past hundred years, our cinema and its facets have evolved and how!!

From mooch to macho
From a bulky mustached Raj Kapoor in the 40s to a six-pack flaunting, butt-baring John Abraham now, the Bollywood hero has had quite a makeover. The 50s was the era of method-acting with the likes of Dilip Kumar, while in the 60s, Rajesh Khanna and Dev Anand epitomised romance on screen. After Khanna's guru kurtas and fluffy hairtop, Amitabh Bachchan brought the angry young man into the picture in the 70s and 80s with Zanjeer, Deewar and Agneepath, also bringing to the fore, bell bottoms and side burns. The 90s was the time of the lover boys Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan dancing in exotic foreign locales. Now, the Bollywood hero is not restricted by genre or style and fits into every mould. He is a looker, chocolatey, experimental and total paisa vasool, read Ranbir Kapoor and Imran Khan.
The heroine From feeble to fabulous
In the early decades, the heroine in Indian cinema had only one objective in life, that of being a sati-savitri, who never looked beyond her family and husband. The kitchen was her cocoon, and she epitomised all things good. Through the 1940s, 50s and 60s, heroines such as Mala Sinha, Meena Kumari, Madhubala, Nanda and Asha Parekh ruled these roles. It was only in the 80s and 90s that she evolved as a strong character (Rekha in Khoon Bhari Mang, 1988), (Meenakshi Sheshadri in Damini, 1993). While in the early 2000s, she was still the demure girl, she managed to live her life on her terms like Rani Mukerji in Kabhie Alvida Naa Kehna. And the heroine today is the sexy, uber cool woman who cares for little more than her own life. Way to go girl!

The villain
From scary to suave
From the usual lot of wicked village zamindars, smugglers, murderers, rapists, dacoits and terrorists, the larger-than-life Bollywood villains have become rare in new age cinema. Thus the traditional villain, Loin, Shakal, Mogambo, Dr Dang and Badman, has died a natural death. The wigged, cigar-smoking avatars played by the likes of Pran, Prem Chopra, Amrish Puri, have made way for smart and sometimes more-adorable-than-the-hero kind of villains. Exhibit A- Saif Ali Khan (Omkara) and Shah Rukh Khan (Don). No lines are drawn now and black characters have became grey with lead actors playing antagonists in films, almost replacing the dedicated villains. This marked the end of ever reverberating iconic one liners like "Kitne aadmi the?" and "Saara sheher mujhe Loin ke naam se jaanta hain."

Rona-dhona to supercool
From the God fearing and homely mum to a party freak, mothers in Bollywood have come a long way since 1930s. While Nargis in Mother India (1957) played a mother who went through hardships and struggled to bring up her offsprings, Nirupa Roy in the 70s became synonymous with white saris and a melancholic look. Then came Reema Lagoo, with her bindi and sindoor, an ideal middle class Indian mother in Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (1988) and Maine Pyar Kiya (1989), who tried to be a friend to her son. But now, mothers are the uber cool women who are ready to accept even same-sex couples, case in point, Kirron Kher in Dostana (2008). And now there are mom who drink and dance at weddings, ala Dolly Walia in Vicky Donor (2012).
The item girl Taboo to must-haves
The dancing girl evolved from the Cabaret seductress, the free-spirited banjaran, the sensuous courtesan to dancing temptresses in half-saris. In the 40s and 50s, Cuckoo Moray, hotted up the screen with her innocent charm. The 50s saw Vyjayanthimala woo the audience in songs such as Chad Gayo Papi Bichua in Madhumati (1958) in ghagra cholis, and junk silver jewellery. Helen ruled the 60s and 70s, emerging in a bold avatar with dramatic ensembles. The 80s saw the trend of heroines appear in item numbers with Zeenat Aman in Qurbani (1980). Madhuri Dixit's Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai became the ultimate tease in the 90s. The item girls of 2000s are sexy, not afraid to show skin and love to play hard to get, be it Malaika Arora Khan in a mid-riff baring choli dancing atop a train or Katrina in Sheila Ki Jawani.

The comedian
Funny face to frontman
The comedian in the 40s, was the fat man with funny facial expressions, whose mere presence made audiences laugh. In the 1950s, the lean Johnny Walker broke that trend and managed to win hearts with his slapstick humour. Kishore Kumar, essentially a singer, redefined comedy by using his songs like Meri Pyari Bindu (Padosan 1968) as elements of fun in films. But it was Mehmood, with his fringed hair and impeccable dialogue delivery who became the king of comedy in the 1970s. The next big thing in comedy was Johnny Lever, who left audiences in splits with his body language and dialogues in films like Raja Hindustani (1996) and Dulhe Raja (1998). Now, it's the heroes - Akshay Kumar (Hera Pheri), Ajay Devgn (Golmaal) who are doubling as comedians.

The friend
Sidekick to the right-hand man
The side kick or hero's best friend, every Bollywood film has had one. The role could be that of a fun buddy who provides comic relief to the film or that one jigari dost who stays with the hero through thick and thin (in other words, fights for the hero and often dies in the end). From the days of Mukri and Mehmood, who played the hero's good friend in the 1950s and 60s to the current time where actors like Arshad Warsi and Sharman Joshi play as powerful characters as the hero himself, this portrayal has had a sea change. Mehmood in Humjoli (1970), for instance, played a sidekick who brought the house down with his antics, but Arshad Warsi in the Munnabhai series (2003/06) played the ideal Robin to Sanjay Dutt's Batman, and got some of the best lines in the films.
The romance
Touch-me-not to pre-marital sex
Romance in Bollywood turned from bold to coy and back to racy and bold. The silent film, 'A Throw of Dice' (1929) saw actor Seeta Devi kiss actor Charu Roy. Post-independence, in the 1940s, romance became conservative. The Cinematograph Act in 1952, called kissing on screen indecent and romance became associated with clasping hand and staring into each other's eyes. Kissing was shown with two flowers coming together or honey bees sucking nectar from flowers. 1970s was Raj Kapoor's era that brought a passion back to romance with movies such as Bobby (1973), Satyam Shivam Sundaram (1978). It was the 90s that romance took a pure and sweet form the two blockbuster hits Hum Aapke Hain Kaun (1994) Dilwale Duhaniya Le Jayenge (1995). Now, in the 2000s, pre-marital sex shown in films like Salaam Namaste (2005) and Rockstar (2011), is considered cool.

Melodies to racy tracks
The 1930 and 40s, were defined by nasal renditions by the likes of KL Saigal (Jab Dil Hi Tooth Gaya, Shahjahan, 1946) and Noorjehan. The 50s were all about soul-soothing melodies. Songs like it Pyaar Huya Ekraar Huya (Shree 420 1952) or Jaane Woh Kaise Log The (Pyaasa 1957) became epics. However, it was R D Burman, who single-handedly changed the course of Bollywood film music, and introduced westernised tunes in songs in the 60s. While 70s remained the decade of a mix of soft and fast numbers, the 80s turned Bollywood music on its head, as Bappi Lahiri brought in disco music. Disco Dancer (1982) marked the beginning of a range of high-on-noise, low-on-lyrics songs. The 1990s churned out several hugely forgettable numbers, except for musical hits like 1942 a Love Story (1994), Saajan (1991). The 2000s have been the decade of experimenting - thus Sonu Nigam and Yo Yo Honey Singh both find place in the same film.

The dialogues
Melodrama to quirky
Power-packed dialogues get the maximum seetis from the audience, and why not. A film is often remembered for its iconic dialogues. Kaun kambakth bardasht karne ke liye peeta hai, from Devdas that's a favourite even with the 'daarubaaz' of today. However, dialogues like Kitne aadmi the, and " Kuttey main tera khoon pi jaunga " from Sholay, "Pushpa, I hate tears" from Amar Prem and "Mere paas maa hai" from Deewar; have gone on to become epic. In the 1990s, heroes impressed their lady love with dialogues. Thus came, "I love you Kkk... Kiran" (Darr), "Bade bade shehron mein aisi chhoti chhoti baatein hoti rehti hain." (DDLJ 1995). In 2000, quirky dialogues such as, Main apni favourite hoon (Jab We Met), Picture Abhi Baki Hai Dost (Om Shanti Om) are the big hits among film buffs.

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How Indian cinema evolved over the years

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A hundred years ago on this date, India's first film Raja Harishchandra was released. Over the past hundred years, our cinema and its facets have evolved and how!! From mooch to macho From a bulky mustached Raj Kapoor in the 40s to a six-pack flaunting, butt-baring John Abraham now, the Bollywood hero has had quite a makeover.

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India's film industry - the world's largest in terms of the number of films produced - has not been immune to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

The industry has been on the decline since India's first COVID-19 lockdown in March last year.

Major film productions have been shelved or indefinitely postponed, while thousands of cinemas have shut down, prompting job losses across the country.

"This is an industry which is already dealing with losses going into millions, and it is going to be worse than 2020 if losses keep on mounting," a senior trade analyst told DW.

COVID takes heavy toll on 'Tollywood'

Around 1,600 to 1,800 films are typically produced in India every year in various languages. About 200 to 250 of them are in the Hindi language, popularly known as Bollywood films.

Bollywood's yearly box office earnings stands at a little over 30 billion Indian rupees ($402 million/€340 million). But COVID-related shutdowns have taken a heavy toll on cinemas.

"It is a worrying situation. Many big releases have been hit, and this has disrupted the entire production chain. Losses have been incurred and worryingly nobody has an answer when the situation will normalize," said Taran Adarsh, another trade analyst.

The film industry in south India - or Tollywood - is staring at its worst crisis with losses pegged at 9 billion rupees, as a slew of films, including possible blockbusters, still lie unreleased.

Unlike films in Kannada, Tamil and Telugu languages, where mega production houses and corporate-political backing are the norm, a majority of films produced in Kerala, southern India, are from small production houses.

"The film industry is undergoing major losses. I had to release my movie, Bhoomi, through the digital platform this year. At the end of the day, we need audiences back and theaters to open for a vibrant industry that we always knew," Sujatha Vijayakumar, a Tamil film producer, told DW.

Hundreds and thousands of workers affected

Across the country, theaters and film multiplexes lie deserted.

According to a 2020 report from accounting firm Ernst & Young, India had around 9,527 screens out of which there were around 6,327 single-screen theaters and 3,200 multiplexes. Last year, around 1,000 screens shut down permanently.

"With thousands of screens countrywide forced to close down, and many employees, not just of cinemas, but even their supply chains and other stakeholders facing personal hardship. It is a tough situation," said Gautam Dutta, CEO of PVR Cinemas.

"It is estimated that the Indian cinema exhibition industry had lost theatrical revenues of close to 120 billion rupees in 2020-21. There has also been additional impact on revenues in terms of lost concession sales, and screen advertising sales," Dutta added.

According to the Federation of Western India Cine Employees, over 250,000 workers, including entertainers, makeup artists, set designers, carpenters and backstage dancers have also been affected by the pandemic.

Depending on the scale of a film, sets can employ anywhere between 300 and 500 people, including crew, main cast, junior artists and stuntmen.

"Obviously, smaller artists and workers in the industry have been impacted. Shoots are happening now but there is considerable uncertainty in peoples' minds about the return of blockbusters and if they will throng cinema halls," said film critic Namrata Joshi.

Cinema alternatives

With cinema halls still near empty due to the lockdown in many parts of the country, several producers are opting to release their films on streaming platforms without waiting for a theatrical release.

As cinema enthusiasts are stuck at home, streaming media service platforms have turned into the "new big screen." There are over 45 such services in India, also known as over-the-top (OTT) platforms. Industry trends indicate that with access to better networks, digital connectivity and smartphones, OTT platforms in India have been increasingly attracting subscribers on a daily basis.

Radhe, the first budget Bollywood film starring Salman Khan, was deferred multiple times for a theater release but then shown on OTT platforms in May. Several other blockbusters are also expected to follow suit in the coming months.

"Major production houses are turning to OTT platforms for their new releases. We have to take the giant leap and adapt. Directors, producers and even actors realize that this platform is going to be increasingly relevant," said film producer Sai Krishna.

India's streaming market is expected to grow 31% from 2019 to 2024, with revenues reaching $2.7 billion, according to consultancy firm PricewaterhouseCoopers. Cinema revenues are estimated to contract 2.6% in the same period.

Low cost and efficient mobile recharge packages, along with good internet connectivity, have permitted both rural and urban populations to consume video content at a rapid rate.

"What I have noticed also is there is a distinct change in viewing preferences in this crisis, especially in rural India, where people are seeing movies on their phones. People have turned adversity into advantage," said actor Shabana Azmi.

Yet, many Indians still yearn for the cinematic experience, and are waiting for the reopening of theater halls.

COVID: Life slowly coming back to normal in India

Precarious calm before likely storm

While the Indian government was caught off-guard by the last surge, preparations are underway to prevent such a situation from repeating itself. Local administrations and hospitals are looking to bolster the country's health care system. But as masks hang below the chin and social distancing remains a faraway dream, experts say that India could see another surge in the next six to eight weeks.

Author: Seerat Chabba (New Delhi)

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How India's COVID crisis has changed Bollywood | DW | 16.07.2021

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India's film industry - the world's largest in terms of the number of films produced - has not been immune to the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. The industry has been on the decline since India's first COVID-19 lockdown in March last year.

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Statistics: Highest Grossing Indian Movies

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Statistics: Highest Grossing Indian Movies

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Evolution of Bollywood Music - Penn Masala

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Influence of Bollywood on Fashion and Film

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Film, Fashion, and Beyond: The Influence of Bollywood. The relationship between the world of fashion and the world of cinema is complex and intertwined. Film allows us the opportunity to escape for a

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Be it Madhubala's Anarkali look in Mughal-e-Azam or Kareena Kapoor's T-shirt-salwar combo in Jab We Met, Bollywood has inspired trends down the ages. But that influence seems to be waning due to a variety of reasons, including greater exposure to the West and the move towards more realistic cinema, say designers.

There is also the constant fear of criticism, which has restricted filmmakers from attempting to set fashion trends.

According to veteran designer Ritu Kumar, people were earlier not so exposed to fashion. So every new and unique garment seen on the big screen set a trend. This is no longer the case.

"Initially, costumes, which were off everyday wear for the normal population, did cause a stir and led to fashion influences as the market was starved of such designer wear. But this has largely changed," Kumar, who is yet to design for a Bollywood film, told IANS.

Kumar, who has designed the costumes for Deepa Mehta's Midnight's Children, hopes the scenario improves.

"The industry still seems to design for individuals. When more holistic designing for a complete film is taken up, the fashion scene in India will mature further."

In the past, Bollywood has given memorable styles to masses. Remember the 1960 period drama Mughal-e-Azam when Madhubala as Anarkali sported long flowing kurtas and churidars. Almost five decades later, the eponymous Anarkali kameez is the current rage with everybody, from homemakers to hip Bollywood actresses, wearing it.

In 1994, Madhuri Dixit left a mark with her green embroidered choli paired with a white lehnga and a purple embroidered sari in Hum Aapke Hain Koun...!. Women lapped up the styles at family weddings. There are so many similar instances. There were Rani Mukerji's Bunty Aur Babli suits and then the sari, of course, redefined over and over again with movies like Chandni, Main Hoon Naa and Dostana.

But new trends are now few and far between.

"The main reason for this is that a lot of stylists of celebrities or films are playing safe with ongoing trends in fashion. They are primarily using outfits which are in fashion, avoiding the risk of fashion faux pas. Thus they are unable to create a new trend," designer Pria Kataaria Puri told IANS.

"Earlier, film costumes were not designed according to what everyone was wearing or according to international trends but were rather filmy or outlandish, rule breaking; and if they worked well, it became a new trend. To create a style, one has to create costumes that are unusual," she added.

Costume designer Payal Saluja, who has worked on Vishal Bhardwaj's Maqbool, Ishqiya, Saat Khoon Maaf and now Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola, says the move towards realistic filmmaking in Bollywood has changed the scene.

"Stories are becoming real and connectable for the audience these days. So, the clothes also need to be in tandem. Clothes should never be stronger than the character because then the viewer will only remember the clothes. So it is first important to think of blending costumes into the narrative rather than create fashion trends," Saluja told IANS.

According to designer duo Meera and Muzaffar Ali, one of the leading names in the world of fashion, "costumes (today) are left to stars' whims and their sycophant designers and colours that suit a cameraman".

"Anything and everything in Bollywood can set a trend amidst mindless people who know no better. What concerns me is the style of the film," said Muzaffar Ali, director of the classic Umrao Jaan.

His wife Meera added: "There were some yesteryear stars who had a body language which made what they wore extremely attractive. They somehow caught the fancy of the audience by getting the colour and mood right, particularly in romantic outdoors... Shammi Kapoor, Dharmendra and at times Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand, but the rest of the film had no look whatsoever. Similarly, women had a story on their face and they knew how to tell it more effectively through their performance."

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Bollywood influence on fashion trends waning?

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Be it Madhubala's Anarkali look in Mughal-e-Azam or Kareena Kapoor's T-shirt-salwar combo in Jab We Met, Bollywood has inspired trends down the ages. But that influence seems to be waning due to a variety of reasons, including greater exposure to the West and the move towards more realistic cinema, say designers.

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Bollywood’s boisterous masala fare elicits enthusiastic wolf whistles in cinemas in the East and West. Today Bollywood is the only global challenger to the popularity and clout of mighty Hollywood. DESIblitz traces the impact of the Hindi movie industry on Indian culture, society and economy.

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Article - Bollywood's influence on Society

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Article - Bollywood's influence on Society

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Bollywood’s Influence on Society - Onhike

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Bollywood or the Indian film industry has always had a huge influence on the Indian society. People across the country love to follow popular Bollywood

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Article - Impact of Bollywood on the middle class

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Article - Impact of Bollywood on the middle class

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To print the story please do so via the link in the story toolbar.

An Analysis on how Bollywood Movies, through capturing Indian Culture have changed over the years and influenced society with their meanings and artistic expressions.

Bollywood movies are an expression of art through media. They have aesthetic considerations and portray everything within their 2-hour time slot from music, dance, drama to entertainment. The fashion portrayed in the movies makes its way into the culture of India, influencing the art and apparel. From the depictions of Bollywood movies, they simply function as a way to tie together all forms of art into one form - movies.

Bollywood movies impact all age groups since they are versatile and each individual plot targets a certain audience. They are an expression that can be interpreted and impacted differently by youth, adults and senior citizens. They are not of direct impact, since it's an individual's choice if they wish to immerse themselves in Bollywood movies or not. It's a choice to watch and with each person, the impact of the expression will also vary, depending on how much they would like to dwell into the artistic sides of the movie.

When looking at societal factors and how in a balanced relationship of Bollywood affecting society and vice-versa, the growth and change of the expression becomes quite prominent. At the beginning of Indian Cinema, there weren't messages being conveyed to society and impacting mindsets through emotional drama. It was simply historical events being shown as entertainment. But through the necessary change over time, Bollywood influenced mindsets of people and due to this, it grew as a business and made its way into the hearts of citizens of India. This timeline will explore the events - from small to large, that shaped Bollywood and changed its way of artistic expression of history to expressing important societal matters which need light shed on them.

The timeline focusses on a few of the main questions:

What caused Bollywood to change its plot/themes in relation to the time period?

What were some key dates crucial to understanding Bollywood's history and how did they bring change?

How does Bollywood influence middle-class society in India?

In what ways(culturally) has the expression changed over the span of a 100 years?

Early 1900's

Bollywood was first introduced in 1913 by Dadasaheb Phalke, known as the "Father of Bollywood." He produced the first silent film which is reflective of the culture and the birth of Bollywood. The first movie, "Raja Harishchandra" was the foundation for the rest of Bollywood movies, especially since the plot stayed true to what society was experiencing at the time. The tale of upper and middle-class people, royal families and greed for power captured the essence of the place of origin for the movie. It reflected how society was functioning and the cultural norms during the early 1900's. Due to this firm foundation, future Bollywood movies also stayed persistent in the close proximity of the movie plot and capturing societal life.

The 1950's was when Bollywood went through the most changes and the argument comes in that this was when the modern Indian movies were born and adapted.

Indian films were focused on influencing culture through their tales of mythology and history, however, it was the 50's when they started being replaced by social-reformist movies. This really opened eyes on social issues like the dowry system and polygamy.

Bollywood has undoubtedly used a large part of societal culture to influence movies and vice versa. Some examples include;

Baabul (2006) raising the issue of widow remarriage,

Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (2001) explaining the importance of respecting elders and loving parents.

Rang De Basanti (2006) was known for giving voice to youth against the country's corrupt politics and politicians.

Akshay Kumar is a very well-known Indian actor for his breakthrough from creating movies of star crossed lovers to issues such as feminine hygiene products and sex trafficking within the span of 20 years. He raised awareness and influenced the production of more sanitary pads in villages in India for female menstrual use, just early this year after the release of his movie; Padman.

Conclusion: Evaluating the Bollywood Evolution

The 2000's are a time of the largest societal issues being emphasized and having the largest influence on middle class society. Earlier, the movies used to incorporate mythology and history, without talking about polygamy or dowry (serious issues in India). This early form of expression was not having much influence on the average family in India since it wasn't raising awareness on the sad reality of Indian society. Nowadays, as written in the above fact, about 14 million people go to the theatre every day in India, more than ever in the past. When people have something they can relate to in society, apply a critical lens on while being entertained and open up conversation, the idea of Bollywood seems to have earned their credit. This timeline started off at the very beginning of 1913, through 50's and 80's where leading actresses came to be. It isn't simply the evolution of Bollywood movies and how they came to be. It's how the artistic expression changed over time to greater influence the average society and bring about change in India.

There are countless movies which have impacted numerous cultural groups in India through their tale-telling and knowledge packed form of art. For example: caste systems are a huge aspect in India which through movies like NH10(focusses on lower class families and child marriage), were discussed widely in Bollywood. Middle class families in villages with older customs and rituals were impacted by the movie due to the widespread attention it got. 3 months after the release, there were about 398 child marriages in a village, Bihar; compared to the yearly 650. There are influences like this that Bollywood has changed. Before, there would be huge amounts of depictions on old religious history such as Ramayan, Lord Krishna, etc. That didn't need to be fixed or shed light on - it wasn't something that the average Indian family could even relate or look into. It was focused on the past, which was Bollywood's traditional form of expression.

Now, Bollywood expresses issues that are ongoing and issues that are overtaking Indian society. They shed light on matters which need to be explored and by impacting the average person living in India who goes to watch the movie, it raises a sense of awareness about the future, rather than the past. Bollywood movies used to be very conservative in nature during the early times, such as the indecency of intimate scenes. This prevented topics such as gang rape and molestation from being covered. Which is why compared to the 70's and 80's, there were about 92% of unreported rape cases in Mumbai compared to the 85% now. It's simply because Bollywood is a huge part of the average person's life in India - people live, breathe and love the Indian cinema. To have actors and actresses talk about serious issues going on in society, citizens get impacted in a positive way since it's no longer seen as taboo to be talking about such problems. For example; as mentioned in the timeline, Akshay Kumar and Anurag Kashyap are well known for generating conversations within society and are advocates for change.

They know very well that Bollywood fans are immersed in messages in movies and thus, through the origin of Bollywood being historical to present day, it is being open about crucial problems in society. Bollywood has changed mindsets of the average Indian citizen through the artistic expression. They influence India as a whole which is why as time goes by, the country is becoming more progressive and will soon use their expressions as a way of reflecting their culture in the coming centuries.

Bollywood movies are an expression of art through media. They have aesthetic considerations and portray everything within their 2-hour time slot from music, dance, drama to entertainment. The fashion portrayed in the movies makes its way into the culture of India, influencing the art and apparel. From the depictions of Bollywood movies, they simply function as a way to tie together all forms of art into one form - movies.

Bollywood movies impact all age groups since they are versatile and each individual plot targets a certain audience. They are an expression that can be interpreted and impacted differently by youth, adults and senior citizens. They are not of direct impact, since it's an individual's choice if they wish to immerse themselves in Bollywood movies or not. It's a choice to watch and with each person, the impact of the expression will also vary, depending on how much they would like to dwell into the artistic sides of the movie.

When looking at societal factors and how in a balanced relationship of Bollywood affecting society and vice-versa, the growth and change of the expression becomes quite prominent. At the beginning of Indian Cinema, there weren't messages being conveyed to society and impacting mindsets through emotional drama. It was simply historical events being shown as entertainment. But through the necessary change over time, Bollywood influenced mindsets of people and due to this, it grew as a business and made its way into the hearts of citizens of India. This timeline will explore the events - from small to large, that shaped Bollywood and changed its way of artistic expression of history to expressing important societal matters which need light shed on them.

The timeline focusses on a few of the main questions:

What caused Bollywood to change its plot/themes in relation to the time period?

What were some key dates crucial to understanding Bollywood's history and how did they bring change?

How does Bollywood influence middle-class society in India?

In what ways(culturally) has the expression changed over the span of a 100 years?

Early 1900's
Bollywood was first introduced in 1913 by Dadasaheb Phalke, known as the "Father of Bollywood." He produced the first silent film which is reflective of the culture and the birth of Bollywood. The first movie, "Raja Harishchandra" was the foundation for the rest of Bollywood movies, especially since the plot stayed true to what society was experiencing at the time. The tale of upper and middle-class people, royal families and greed for power captured the essence of the place of origin for the movie. It reflected how society was functioning and the cultural norms during the early 1900's. Due to this firm foundation, future Bollywood movies also stayed persistent in the close proximity of the movie plot and capturing societal life.

The 1950's was when Bollywood went through the most changes and the argument comes in that this was when the modern Indian movies were born and adapted.

Indian films were focused on influencing culture through their tales of mythology and history, however, it was the 50's when they started being replaced by social-reformist movies. This really opened eyes on social issues like the dowry system and polygamy.

Bollywood has undoubtedly used a large part of societal culture to influence movies and vice versa. Some examples include;

Baabul (2006) raising the issue of widow remarriage,

Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham (2001) explaining the importance of respecting elders and loving parents.

Rang De Basanti (2006) was known for giving voice to youth against the country's corrupt politics and politicians.

Akshay Kumar is a very well-known Indian actor for his breakthrough from creating movies of star crossed lovers to issues such as feminine hygiene products and sex trafficking within the span of 20 years. He raised awareness and influenced the production of more sanitary pads in villages in India for female menstrual use, just early this year after the release of his movie; Padman.

Conclusion: Evaluating the Bollywood Evolution

The 2000's are a time of the largest societal issues being emphasized and having the largest influence on middle class society. Earlier, the movies used to incorporate mythology and history, without talking about polygamy or dowry (serious issues in India). This early form of expression was not having much influence on the average family in India since it wasn't raising awareness on the sad reality of Indian society. Nowadays, as written in the above fact, about 14 million people go to the theatre every day in India, more than ever in the past. When people have something they can relate to in society, apply a critical lens on while being entertained and open up conversation, the idea of Bollywood seems to have earned their credit. This timeline started off at the very beginning of 1913, through 50's and 80's where leading actresses came to be. It isn't simply the evolution of Bollywood movies and how they came to be. It's how the artistic expression changed over time to greater influence the average society and bring about change in India.

There are countless movies which have impacted numerous cultural groups in India through their tale-telling and knowledge packed form of art. For example: caste systems are a huge aspect in India which through movies like NH10(focusses on lower class families and child marriage), were discussed widely in Bollywood. Middle class families in villages with older customs and rituals were impacted by the movie due to the widespread attention it got. 3 months after the release, there were about 398 child marriages in a village, Bihar; compared to the yearly 650. There are influences like this that Bollywood has changed. Before, there would be huge amounts of depictions on old religious history such as Ramayan, Lord Krishna, etc. That didn't need to be fixed or shed light on - it wasn't something that the average Indian family could even relate or look into. It was focused on the past, which was Bollywood's traditional form of expression.

Now, Bollywood expresses issues that are ongoing and issues that are overtaking Indian society. They shed light on matters which need to be explored and by impacting the average person living in India who goes to watch the movie, it raises a sense of awareness about the future, rather than the past. Bollywood movies used to be very conservative in nature during the early times, such as the indecency of intimate scenes. This prevented topics such as gang rape and molestation from being covered. Which is why compared to the 70's and 80's, there were about 92% of unreported rape cases in Mumbai compared to the 85% now. It's simply because Bollywood is a huge part of the average person's life in India - people live, breathe and love the Indian cinema. To have actors and actresses talk about serious issues going on in society, citizens get impacted in a positive way since it's no longer seen as taboo to be talking about such problems. For example; as mentioned in the timeline, Akshay Kumar and Anurag Kashyap are well known for generating conversations within society and are advocates for change.

They know very well that Bollywood fans are immersed in messages in movies and thus, through the origin of Bollywood being historical to present day, it is being open about crucial problems in society. Bollywood has changed mindsets of the average Indian citizen through the artistic expression. They influence India as a whole which is why as time goes by, the country is becoming more progressive and will soon use their expressions as a way of reflecting their culture in the coming centuries.

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The Influence of Bollywood movies on Middle-Class Society living in India

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An Analysis on how Bollywood Movies, through capturing Indian Culture have changed over the years and influenced society with their meanings and artistic expressions. Bollywood movies are an expression of art through media. They have aesthetic considerations and portray everything within their 2-hour time slot from music, dance, drama to entertainment.

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"Bollywood movies could have a profound influence on Indian's attitude to mental health''

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Primary, the responsibility goes to guardians to counsel their children, read their psychology, and convince them accordingly the glitches of watching such programs and its repercussion on their overall personality very tactfully. Actually, guardians are the real decision makers of their children's watch rather than anybody else.

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Representation of the media in Bollywood Films | Media - A Bilingual Monthly Journal of the Kerala Press Academy

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The portrayal of media personalities in Indian mainstream films in general and Bollywood films in particular can rarely be called authentic. In fact, sometimes, commercial compromises distort and dilute the image of a media professional – journalist or reporter from the print media or media professi…

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Considers the transnational purchase, aesthetic, and civic sensibilities of Indian cinema focusing on Hindi-language films. Review begins with emergence of Indian cinema in 1890s, then considers how social change became a driving force during anti-colonial resistance and nationalist reform. Course focuses on the post-independence (1947-) period, when social justice activism enters the mainframe of "Bollywood" film.

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Pink movie cast: Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, Andrea Tariang, Amitabh Bachchan, Angad Bedi, Raashul Tandon, Vijay Varma, Tushar Pandey, Piyush Mishra, Dhritimaan Chatterjee, Vinod Nagpal, Dibang
Pink movie director: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury

All those associated with the making of 'Pink', please take a deep bow : finally, a powerful, brave Hindi mainstream film which focuses on real young women who live real lives and deal with thorny day-to-day issues, which young women the world over will identify and relate with.

I know where the young leads in 'Pink' are coming from. And I know too many women who have been in their place, or missed being there by a scary, scarring whisker.

Bottomline, when a girl says no, she means no. En O, which means `nahin', nada, don't want. It means go away, don't bother me. It can also be a prelude to stronger language if the aggressor in question refuses to back off. The young woman can wear short skirts or jeans or Tees. She can be present at rock concerts. She can laugh and reach out to a young man in a friendly fashion. She can have a drink or two in his company. She can even be, shudder, sexually experienced.

Hearing the phrase 'are you a virgin' in a Bollywood film in a meaningful, non-smirky manner? Fantastic. Underlining a woman's freedom to own her sexuality? Priceless.
Watch Video | Amitabh Bachchan, Taapsee Pannu Starring Pink Releases: Audience Reaction
When she says no, it means only one thing. No grabbing. No forcing. Take that groping hand and mouth away. She isn't easy. She isn't a person of loose morals. She is not, never, ever, asking for it.

That it has taken Bollywood so long to make a movie which says it so clearly, without beating about the bush, without prevaricating or using obfuscatory language, tells us a great deal about the country we live in, and the social mores that its women have had to live by, buried under crippling patriarchy and misogyny and a sense of mistaken shame-if you are pawed or worse, you must have done something to provoke your molester. So cross your hands across your chest, put your head down, and keep shut.
Also read | Pink celeb movie review: Amitabh Bachchan film is unmissable, says Bollywood
The three female protagonists of 'Pink' are your regular young women. Minal (Taapsee Pannu) is an events manager, whose work can extend into the late hours. Falak (Kirti Kulhari) works in a corporate set-up where image is all. Andrea (Tariang) is from the 'North-East' (Meghalaya, she says, but clearly no one is interested in the specifics : girls from the `North East' are fair game, even if they are covered from top to toe). The girls share a flat in a 'posh' South Delhi locality, and we meet them first when they are heading back in a cab in the early hours of the morning, disturbed about something that has just happened.

As the plot (oh joy, a plot, verily), terse and on-point, unravels, we get to know that the trio was in the company of three young men, after a rock concert in Surajkund in Haryana. Things take an ugly turn after the dinner that follows. The women have to make a run for it, and one of the young men ends up needing stitches in a deep bloody gash above his eye.

It doesn't a genius to discover that the political might backing the injured Rajveer (Angad Bedi) and his friends, Dumpy (Raashul Tandon), Vishwa (Tushar Pandey) and another fellow (Vijay Varma) who wasn't there but is happy to engineer and participate in the humiliation of the women, will try and turn the tables: instead of being the victims, they will be painted as the aggressors. How do you silence a courageous young woman who has the temerity to ask questions? You label her cheap, slut, whore: the film mutes the word 'rxxx', but you can see it emblazoned on the face of the guy who says it out loud and the girls who have to hear it. You can see it in the body language of the female cop (Shankar, just so) who helps nail the wrong person for the crime.

Pink reminded me of Jodi Foster's The Accused in which her character is gang-raped in a bar: because she wears a short skirt, and has been drinking, she is made out to be a woman on the make. Something similar happens here, but it is all three women who have to bear the brunt of the rage that such male entitlement comes with: 'aisi ladkiyon ke saath toh aisa hi hota hai'.

Pannu, Kulhari and Tariang, all very good, typify the dilemma of the modern working young women ( they live in Delhi, and the young men who accost them are very much a part of a certain kind of coarse North Indian ethos-they bully but are too cowardly to do this on their own, needing patronage and protection from the nexus of `netas' and police which exists only to protect them, not call them out on their wrong-doing), but this could happen anywhere , and not just in India.

The young men are also spot on. Bedi exudes menace : when he snarls out that awful expletive during the trial, you feel like shrinking, and wondering - how did we fail this generation, this youth of today, if they still feel like this? Or is it just a continuation of the way generations of men, only surface smooth-and- suave, have felt about women? Scratch a little, and putrid patriarchal pus comes pouring out.

The other three guys are the kind of hangers-on who slip stream alongside a strong leader : if he is having fun (`mazey' is the word used, and you feel faintly grubby after hearing it used in this manner), then so can they. 'Behti ganga mein sab haath dho sakte hain', and girls who refuse to give in and lie back and enjoy it, be damned. How dare they?

The major weak link in this film is the elderly lawyer played by Amitabh Bachchan. (Piyush Mishra takes away some of the sobriety in the court scenes by his unsubtle notes, but he is not so germane to the film's scheme of things). Deepak Sehgall, we are told, is suffering from bipolar disorder, which means mood swings, which means Bachchan alternating between chewing out dialogue and being growly and forced. He takes on the girls' case, and we want to cheer because he is the Bachchan and will make everything come right. But because he is Bachchan, the director handles him with kid gloves, and there goes the naturalism with which everyone else is playing their parts so effectively.
Watch | Amitabh Bachchan and Taapsee Pannu-starrer Pink Trailer here.
For the most part, the thespian comes off mannered, and you want to shout out and say, no, this film doesn't need Bachchan to be in a pulpit of his own, when he is meant to be taking apart those who are in the witness box. Only occasionally during the second half ( most of which is spent in the court-room with the excellent Chatterjee as the presiding judge), Sehgall forgets he is Bachchan the Baritone, and lights up the screen with a couple of superb moments. It is in these moments you are face to face with the One and Only Bachchan, who should have been in exactly that mode through the film: why are his directors so chary about telling him what to do and how to do it, when he never tires of saying that he is a director's actor?

Those sporadic moments make you nostalgic. Is there anyone out there who can craft a solid, challenging role for Bachchan? Anyone at all? Being awe-struck is not a good place for a filmmaker. I am waiting for the return of the actor who, back in his day, used to routinely blow my socks off in a way no one has even come close to, in all these years.
Also read | Raaz Reboot movie review
Meanwhile, Pink, perhaps called thus because the colour is girly, subverts it and turns it on its head. In its best bits, the film blazes, its call-to-arms radiating outwards and forcing us to acknowledge uncomfortable truths. It has something to say, and says it with courage and conviction. Gather everyone and go; and while you are at it, spread the word.

Follow on Twitter @shubhragupta

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Pink movie review: A blazing indictment of all that's wrong with us

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Pink movie cast: Taapsee Pannu, Kirti Kulhari, Andrea Tariang, Amitabh Bachchan, Angad Bedi, Raashul Tandon, Vijay Varma, Tushar Pandey, Piyush Mishra, Dhritimaan Chatterjee, Vinod Nagpal, Dibang Pink movie director: Aniruddha Roy Chowdhury All those associated with the making of 'Pink', please take a deep bow : finally, a powerful, brave Hindi mainstream film which focuses on real young women who live real lives and deal with thorny day-to-day issues, which young women the world over will identify and relate with.

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Essay: Cultural Practices and Media Production

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Essay: Cultural Practices and Media Production

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This chapter explores how media globalization has impacted upon cultural production and practices in a transnational context. The chapter discusses how South-South and increasingly, South-North cultural flows are challenging US cultural hegemony. It also explores the complexities of production and consumption of audio-visual media emanating from Bollywood, the world's largest film industry. As a Southern production, Bollywood defies the US cultural hegemony, but as a mass phenomenon it produces its own version of hegemony.

Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.

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Cultural Practices and Media Production: The Case of Bollywood

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This chapter explores how media globalization has impacted upon cultural production and practices in a transnational context. The chapter discusses how South-South and increasingly, South-North cultural flows are challenging US cultural hegemony. It also explores the complexities of production and consumption of audio-visual media emanating from Bollywood, the world's largest film industry.

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Article: How much does a Bollywood movie make?

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Article: How much does a Bollywood movie make?

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As Fanaa's will-it-won't-it release sends jitters through the film frat, producer Yash Raj Chopra is presumably less worried than he might have been had this been the Big Bad World of Cinema Before It Was Corporatised.

Today, Yash Raj Films can afford to detach itself from the fortunes of its film because chances are, whatever the controversy, it'll end up making money anyway.

And that's because somewhere, sometime circa 2006, the film industry grew up, the corporate world looked around and spotted an opportunity, and the rules of the game changed irreversibly. Stars began to report on locations in time not because some Bhai was arm-twisting them, but because it was written into their contracts.

Films went on to the floor and proceeded to wrap up schedules on time because the contracts had completion bonds written into them, and because such things as bound scripts had become mandatory to the process.

And the phrase "bombed at the BO" (referring to the box office and not, as is widely understood, body odour) became redundant because, whether they ran or not, chances are that everything from 36 China Town to the ill-fated Tom, Dick and Harry made at least enough money to tide them over.

In a matter of only a few years, filmmaking in India has changed rapidly, crossing over (a favourite Bollywood phrase) to the Hollywood mould.

It's the reason Sandeep Bhargava, CEO of Sahara One [ Get Quote ] Motion Pictures, no longer gets the blues on a Friday morning even when the company's blockbusters are slated to hit the screens. And all because - as he says cockily - "the success of my movie is no longer dependent only on box-office collections".

It's the reason managing director Bobby Bedi of Kaleidoscope Entertainment, who pulled in Rs 33 crore (Rs 330 million) from Mangal Pandey, a film everyone's crowing is a dud, can afford to smile. And all because Bedi saw his movie as a business venture and looked around for appropriate financing in the one place film producers have never turned to - banks.

When Bedi walked into Exim Bank's office in Mumbai to convince officials that the movie had export potential, even he hadn't reckoned with success.

The bank offered him Rs 8 crore (Rs 80 million) as loan at an amazingly low annual interest rate of 5 per cent (much less than what you get for a home loan). That's not all, for he also roped in high net worth NRIs - as equity partners on the project.

"The combination of debt and equity helped us in reducing the cost of money to finance a film dramatically. It changed the whole economics of film making," he says, days before leaving for Cannes to network with buyers and sellers on an international platform.

Remember, some years back, it wasn't like this. Films were (mostly) financed by the underworld or diamond merchants charging exorbitant rates of interest - 30 per cent and more. The dons dictated the stars, interfered with the storyline, and sometime asked "special friends" to be cast alongside the hero, virtually guaranteeing that the film would bomb.

Today, it isn't just the financing that has changed. Recoveries from the box office constitute no more than 35-40 per cent of a film's revenue (compared to 80 per cent just two year ago).

Producers are now milking other avenues for whatever it's worth, selling an array of emerging rights - satellite (which is in the same league as the box office), home video, music, wireless song downloads, the Internet, DTH and, now international rights too.

Bhargava, for instance, sold the satellite rights of animation film Hanuman for a staggering Rs 2.5 crore (Rs 25 million) before the movie released, no one was ready to offer even Rs 25 lakh (Rs 2.5 million)}, and that too for only two telecast rights. No wonder he's confident that his dependence on the box office will lower further to no more than 20 per cent in the next six months.

Welcome to the new world of movie business where institutional funding is the norm, IPOs are possible and the advent of large corporate houses like the Aditya Birla group or Anil Ambani in the movie fray are making filmmaking more affordable than before.

Pritish Nandy doesn't mince his words. "That production is a risky business is all bullshit," he says. "Over the next five years, 50 per cent of film revenues will come from the 'new media', from the Internet, DTH, mobile phones and pay-per-view."

There are others who agree with the chairman of Pritish Nandy Communications [ Get Quote ], such as Anshuman Swami, CEO of the Aditya Birla-promoted Applause Entertainment that produced Black: "Today there is more funding available than there are good films in the market. And with the cost of money becoming cheaper, and with new innovations like joint marketing and revenue share deals, the risk factor in making movies is coming down."

The changing paradigm is reflected in numbers too. According to a Yes Bank [ Get Quote ] report, over 38 per cent Hindi films in 2004 were financed through non-traditional sources (debt, IPO, private and individual equity, companies, TV broadcasters) compared to only 10 per cent two years before that. As much as Rs 256 crore (Rs 2.56 billion) was disbursed through these sources to the film industry in that year.

From the Industrial Development Bank [ Get Quote ] of India [ Get Quote ] and Exim Bank to Yes Bank, they're all queueing up to lend money to the entertainment sector.

Says Sanjay Bhandari, a chartered accountant who has structured various cheap money deals for producers: "The rate offered by banks is anywhere from a third to a sixth of what traditional financiers used to charge. That changes the whole economics of filmmaking."

Exim Bank, for instance, offers loans at 8-10 per cent interest provided the film has export potential. IDBI's credit line for films is available for 10-15 per cent, to be paid before the film is released.

Yes Bank has just sanctioned a Rs 5 crore (Rs 50 million) loan to Pritish Nandy Communications on the strength of its balance sheet, at 12.5 per cent. By comparison, traditional financiers charged a staggering 30-50 per cent by way of annual interest.

But the banks are still cautious about disbursing loans to producers, banking on the bettable. Exim Bank may have sanctioned loans worth Rs 100 crore (Rs 1 billion) over the last 18 months, but Mathew John, general manager, says: "We have chosen only top producers with a good track record." Among the beneficiaries are Yash Raj Films, Farhan Akthar, Bobby Bedi and Sunil Manchanda, "who is producing a film starring Amitabh Bachchan".

But the bank is now poised to take bigger risks in funding distribution. Exim Bank has sanctioned a credit line of Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million) to Yash Raj Films, which has moved into movie distribution in a big way. John says the interest rate is slightly higher as the risk factor too is greater, since distributors have to take a call on expected box-office earnings.

Others have used the buoyant IPO route to fund films - PNC, for instance, raised Rs 38 crore (Rs 380 million) from its IPO of which Rs 23 crore (Rs 230 million) was used to finance films. The company is now raising $12 million through convertible debenture, and the cash will be used to de-risk its movie-making portfolio.

Says Pritish Nandy, "The money will help us increase the number of films we make each year from three to at least eight. Also, we will make bigger films and reduce the number of small films to reduce the risks."

Also showing their money are corporate houses jumping into the entertainment fray. Aditya Birla's Applause Entertainment is able to borrow money from group companies at rates lower than even banks. Big boy Sony Pictures is debuting with director Sanjay Leela Bhansali's lavish offering Eklavya, slated to cost Rs 35 crore (Rs 350 million).

Adlabs [ Get Quote ] (in which Reliance [ Get Quote ] has bought a majority equity stake) has earmarked a revolving fund of Rs 60 crore (Rs 600 million) to finance films. The company is tying up directors in long-term contracts to make films for the company - it has signed on director Vipul Shah to make 10 films in two years.

Points out Manmohan Shetty, chairman of Adlabs, "We can rotate these funds to finance films and double our output of 5-6 films a year." And in keeping with Hollywood studios, it's clear that "you need to have your own distribution too".

If the movie business suddenly looks attractive, industry experts say it's because the banks haven't lost money on any projects yet. In fact, they get their money back even before a film is released because distributors pay upfront, pick big banners to minimise risk, and have a stable collateral in the negatives. Producers say the upside is mind-boggling.

Points out Bedi: "Failure no longer means huge losses as you recover part of the money while pre selling territories to distributors. And if a film is a hit, you get 4-5 times the money you put in."

What has made financing easier is innovative instruments to mitigate risk. US-based Film Finance Inc which has set shop in India is offering "completion bonds" to producers and has eight films in the post-production stage that have signed these bonds.

Says Pooja Bedi, who heads the company in India, "What we take care of is mitigation of two key risks - completion of the movie, and cost overruns. We underwrite these risks so financiers have no fear they will not get their money back."

Producers have to pay a steep fee of 3-5 per cent of the cost of the film by way of guarantee and they have to face strict scrutiny on their budgets, daily schedules and even control on production budgets, but the regimentation is worth it.

Bedi is taking completion bonds to the next logical step - for distributors who pay a minimum guarantee to book a territory from a producer but have no risk mitigation opportunity if the film gets delayed or faces cost overruns. Pooja Bedi says they are already talking to both sides for creating a completion bond to underwrite the distributor's risk.

Production companies too are devising strategies to hedge their risks. Applause shaved off 5-10 per cent from the cost of the film when it tied up with Star TV for promotion space in return for an exclusive Making of Black on the channel.

It also worked out a deal with in-house cement company Ultratech and used its hoardings to promote the film. Says Anshuman Swami, CEO of Applause, "You have to spend around 10 per cent as promotion on a film, so by saving this money we were able to reduce the overall budget risk."

Adlabs has formulated a de-risking strategy by pre-selling distribution to just one company for a series of film projects. It has sold all rights for three films - Bluff Master, Rooh and Taxi 9211 - to UTV (except DVD and satellite). Says Shetty, "By pre-selling, we not only recouped our costs but even made money upfront."

But changing financial models does not mean everything is hunky-dory. UTV's Ronnie Screwvala says while completion bonds are good, the problem is they preclude the need for discipline in production houses. Bhandari says the completion bonds are too expensive and large production houses don't require them anyway since investors are not asking for such security.

Besides, smaller producers can't afford them to begin with. Warns veteran producer and director Subhash Ghai: "There is too much easy money, whether from banks or from IPOs and investors, floating around but the creative talent base is limited. There is a danger that this honeymoon might not last."

The N K Singh report on the role of venture capital funding in cinema had mooted a Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) fund bankrolled by the government and managed by fund managers like ICICI [ Get Quote ] Ventures. But the move has not taken off the ground and an ICICI Ventures executive says, "We have kept away from funding movies as the risks are still very high and you can never predict your earnings."

The good news is that new revenue channels for movies are opening up, which could reduce box office risks substantially. Home videos, an unknown segment a few years ago, already constitute over 10 per cent of a film's revenue. And industry pundits say movie downloads can fetch a producer as much as Rs 1 crore (Rs 10 million as revenue share from mobile operators.

And if you retain control over the intellectual property rights for your library, you could make good money - Yash Raj Films is believed to have earned Rs 60 crore (Rs 600 million) through selling the movie rights of films in its library to Sony for a limited period.

Bedi says satellite and overseas film rights could be as big as domestic film rights for most films. "Five years ago, the overseas market was limited to movies depicting Indian weddings and culture. But with the high economic interest in India, today every movie has an international audience. And ticket prices are much higher there."

He adds that the high demand for software on satellite channels has also driven up prices. One example: Theatre audiences for PNC's Jhankar Beats constituted only 8 per cent of its viewers; the rest came from TV.

Once, filmstars went to Dubai to hobnob with the underworld, and danced to the tunes of diamond traders. Today, moviemaking has overcome its attendant risks with a business model that banks and corporate houses understand. And if movies are getting made on time, it's because your friendly neighbourhood bank - and not Dawood Ibrahim - are turning the screws on the stars. Films really have gone the way of the masses.
How the industry rakes in moolah
Producer: Distributors give him a minimum guarantee fee before the movie in return for film rights in a territory within the country. Producers can recover up to 30 per cent of the cost of the film, pre-selling it to distributors. If the movie does well and the distributor recovers his money, any additional inflows get divided between the two.

Another 25 per cent of the revenue comes from overseas rights, 20 per cent from satellite rights, 10 per cent from the emerging home video market, 10 per cent from music (which includes wireless and Internet downloads). If the producer owns the intellectual property rights and has not sold it off in perpetuity (generally, rights are given for five years), he could make money selling his library to a TV channel in the long term.

And where does he get his money? From banks, like Yash Raj does. He can borrow on the strength of his balance sheet, as UTV does. He can fund his films from IPOs, like PNC. Or go to individual high net worth individuals or companies to put in money as equity. Or, of course raise money upfront from distributors, or through selling some of the rights early to finance the cost of the film.

Distributor: They offer an MG fee to the producer to book a territory. And spend on print and publicity on which they take a 20 per cent commission. Any overflow of revenue after recovery of the MG fee and commission is divided between them and the producer. In cases like Yash Raj Films, which distributes most of its films, while the risks are bigger, so are the gains.

Exhibitor: The old system in which distributors paid a rental to the theatre irrespective of whether the movie ran or not is rapidly becoming history. Under a new system revenue gets shared between theatre owners and distributors. Generally, in the first week of a release, the split is evenly 50:50, in the second week the producer gets 40 per cent and the exhibitors the rest, in the third week the producer makes 30 per cent and if the movie continues into the fourth week, he gets 25 per cent of the collections.
Voices
"We are planning to hit the IPO route and raise Rs 50-70 crore (Rs 500-700 million). We have an ambitious Rs 120 crore (Rs 1.2 billion) project to make the film Mahabharata, which we will finance through a combination of debt and equity. We are clear we won't put in more than 20 per cent of the money, so in case the project fails we can get up and continue to run"
Bobby Bedi

"Film companies are getting structured, banks are realising we are a service industry and cannot give hard assets as collateral. I think very soon the system of minimum guarantee given by distributors to producers will get replaced by straight commission"
Ronnie Screwvala

"We have preferred to remain a debt-free company. We do four films a year, and our plan is to scale up to six"
Subhash Ghai

"There is nothing like a big or a small film. What you have is a good film or a bad film. We have created an overriding brand in PNC. We might get into distribution as an independent business and do promotions in movies. We want to be like DreamWorks"
Pritish Nandy

"We went into a revenue share with Sanjay Leela Bhansali for Black. Otherwise, we'd have to pay him Rs 6-7 crore (Rs 60-70 million) and the movie's cost would have gone up"
Anshuman Swami

"We don't have our own creative unit like Yash Raj Films, that is why we are tying up with directors to produce their films. We are into the multiplex business and are going for distribution so we will be in the entire chain"
Manmohan Shetty

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As Fanaa's will-it-won't-it release sends jitters through the film frat, producer Yash Raj Chopra is presumably less worried than he might have been had this been the Big Bad World of Cinema Before It Was Corporatised. Today, Yash Raj Films can afford to detach itself from the fortunes of its film because chances are, whatever the controversy, it'll end up making money anyway.

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Essay: Caste in contemporary Bollywood movies

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Essay: Caste in contemporary Bollywood movies

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Abstract

Caste, an integral part of the Indian social system, has extensively influenced all walks of life. The media is not an exception for the persuasion of caste. The depiction of caste as a social reality is central to Indian cinema since its early years. However, there is a lack of studies examining the depiction of the caste system in mainstream Bollywood movies. In the present study, we have critically analyzed mainstream commercial Bollywood movies to understand: (i) How it depicts the caste system? (ii) What are the explicit or implicit indicators of castes in mainstream movies? (iii) How they reinforce or validate existing caste stereotypes? Using certain inclusion and exclusion criteria, 22 highest-grossing movies of the period 2014-2017 were selected. Analyses of the selected movies suggested that the majority of the lead characters carry surnames representing dominant castes, and the portrayal of characters was made in accordance with the traditional caste-based occupations. Further, the characterization is reinstating and upholding the dominant caste values. The narratives of the Dalits and backward castes are neglected in mainstream cinema. The subalternity appended with them has intentionally hidden, and these castes are treated unworthy to the cinematic portrayal.

View Abstract

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Caste in contemporary Bollywood movies: An analysis of the portrayal of characters

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Caste, an integral part of the Indian social system, has extensively influenced all walks of life. The media is not an exception for the persuasion of caste. The depiction of caste as a social reality is central to Indian cinema since its early years.

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Essay: Gender bias, social bias, and representation in Bollywood

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Essay: Gender bias, social bias, and representation in Bollywood

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Highlights

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Applies cutting-edge natural language processing methods to movie subtitles

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Considers 700 popular Bollywood movies spanning 70 years to analyze evolving trends

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Tracks evolving biases toward gender, color, geographic region, and religion

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Compares movies from Bollywood, Hollywood, and critically acclaimed world movies

The bigger picture

With an outreach in more than 90 countries, a market share of 2.1 billion dollars and a target audience of at least 1.2 billion people, Bollywood, also known as the Mumbai film industry, is a formidable entertainment force. While the number of lives Bollywood can potentially touch is massive, no comprehensive natural language processing (NLP) study on the evolution of social and gender biases in Bollywood dialogues exists. Our study, conducted on a substantial corpus of 700 popular Bollywood movie subtitles spanning 70 years, uncovers social biases along the lines of colorism, son preference, and geographic and religious representation. While our study focuses on movie subtitles, the same NLP tools might be used to rapidly analyze hundreds or thousands of books, magazine articles, radio transcripts, or social media posts. As early evidence of social impact, this work has triggered an initial conversation within the film community initiated by widespread international media attention.

Summary

We use a suite of cutting-edge natural language processing methods to quantify and characterize societal and gender biases in popular movie content. Our data set consists of English subtitles of popular movies from Bollywood-the Mumbai film industry-spanning 7 decades (700 movies). In addition, we include movies from Hollywood and movies nominated for the Academy Awards for contrastive purposes. Our findings indicate that while the overall portrayal of women has improved over time in popular movie dialogues from both Bollywood and Hollywood, modern films still exhibit considerable gender bias and are yet to achieve equal representation among genders. We also observe a strong bias favoring fair skin color in Bollywood content that occurred consistently across all time periods we considered. While our geographic representation analysis indicates improved inclusion over time for several Indian states, it also reveals a long-standing under-representation of many northeastern Indian states.

Data science maturity

DSML 2: Proof-of-concept: Data science output has been formulated, implemented, and tested for one domain/problem

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Gender bias, social bias, and representation in Bollywood and Hollywood

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Applies cutting-edge natural language processing methods to movie subtitles * Considers 700 popular Bollywood movies spanning 70 years to analyze evolving trends * Tracks evolving biases toward gender, color, geographic region, and religion * Compares movies from Bollywood, Hollywood, and critically acclaimed world movies With an outreach in more than 90 countries, a market share of 2.1 billion dollars and a target audience of at least 1.2 billion people, Bollywood, also known as the Mumbai film industry, is a formidable entertainment force.

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26 June - 6 October 2002

Featuring works from pre-independent India to the present day, this exhibition charted the historical, political and cultural changes experienced by the country, as seen through the eyes of the Indian film industry.

The exhibition brought together some of the most remarkable examples of Indian cinema art, from large-scale hoardings and posters to photo cards, booklets and original film trailers. Posters from many classic films were represented: the Oscar nominated epic 'Mother India', 'Sholay' (with its distinctive and influential typography) and recent blockbusters such as 'Lagaan' and 'K3G'.

The extraordinary talent of the hoarding artist was highlighted, with artists from India specially commissioned to demonstrate their unique art. Three works were hand-painted on site at the V&A, providing a rare opportunity to see this fascinating technique first-hand.

The exhibition also displayed the work of contemporary artists who have commented on or have been influenced by Bollywood and its imagery, including Catherine Yass, Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, Annu Palakunnathu Matthew and Adam Bartos.

Leading Cinema India film stars

Amitabh Bachchan

Nicknamed 'Big B', Bachchan is the undisputed superstar of India popular cinema. Since entering the business in the late 1960s, he has made more than 70 films, many of which have become classics of the India cinema such as 'Sholay' and 'Deewaar'. His portrayal of the angry young man struggling in Indian society, struck a chord in the turbulent political times of the 1970s.

He left acting to go into politics in the 1980s but returned to movie-making, producing and narrating films soon after. He is devoted to making Indian movies and culture prominent throughout the world and has founded an entertainment company in order to use his status to help that cause.

Ashok Kumar

Kumar fell into acting in the 1930s and went on to have an incredibly successful career. His initial appeal as the good guy changed with the release of 'Kismet' in 1943 in which he portrayed a cigarette smoking anti-hero. The film went on to be the biggest commercial success of the time.

Kumar was also a noteworthy producer with Bombay talkies as well as with Filmistan Studios which he helped set up in 1943. He continued to act through the 1990s and also spent time teaching acting before his death in 2001. His essence lives on in Indian popular culture, as suggested by his nickname, 'Dadamoni', meaning the grand old man of Hindi film.

Dilip Kumar

Along with Raj Kapoor and Dev Anand, Dilip Kumar was one of the India film industry's brightest stars of the 1950s and 1960s, gaining fame for roles in 'Andaz', 'Devdas' and 'Mughal-e-Azam', amongst others.

Praised for his natural manner on screen, Kumar excelled at showing anguish and defeat and was crowned 'The King of Tragedy.' His roles as the love struck loner drew upon the social climate of post-independence India and remain an inspiration for contemporary actors.

Although his career has slowed down considerably, Kumar remains in the public eye. In 1982 he starred alongside current Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan in the critically acclaimed 'Shakti', proving his star qualities.

Dev Anand

Best known for films such as 'Baazi', 'Jaal' and 'Guide', Dev Anand perfected the role of the degenerate city dweller with enough charm to win over the girl as well as the audience. And with comparisons to American movie stars like Cary Grant and Gary Cooper, one can see that Anand was one of the most popular performers of his time. He also started a film production company, Navketan, in 1949 which went on to make some of the biggest films of the 1950s.

Waheeda Rehman

Rehman gained fame starring in many of director Guru Dutt's most acclaimed films including 'Pyaasa' and 'Kaagaz Ke Phool'. Her beauty and dancer's grace had mass appeal and her most famous role was in 'Guide' made in 1965 for which she won a Best Actress Filmfare Award. She continues to act in movies today starring alongside Bollywood stars like Amitabh Bachchan.

Nargis

Nargis was introduced to Indian cinema at the age of five as Baby Rani. She began her adult career when she was fourteen in 'Taqdeer'. As romantic counterpart to actor Raj Kapoor, the two earned much adoration and fame for films like 'Barsaat' and 'Andaz'. Their intense passion on screen spread to their personal lives but ended when Kapoor refused to marry and have children with her. Her greatest role was in 'Mother India' in which she met Sunil Dutt whom she later married. After their marriage she disappeared from acting, focusing instead on producing films and devoting her time to social causes. She died in 1981.

Raj Kapoor

A devout cinema fan himself, Raj Kapoor was consumed by his acting and directing projects throughout his career. He rose to fame in films like 'Shri' 420 and 'Awara' starring alongside his leading lady, Nargis. The characters he portrayed often displayed a charming simplicity and innocence, and many of the films he directed and starred in had autobiographical elements in them. He and his films were hugely popular outside India, particularly in Russia.

Meena Kumari

Kumari began acting at the age of six in 'Leatherface' and found success as a child star known as Baby Meena. Later she was renamed Meena Kumari and began to appear in comedies. However she found fame portraying innocent lovestruck women who go through much suffering in films like 'Sahib Bibi Aur Ghulam'. This element of misfortune was paralleled in her own life in which she fell into alcoholism and endured a difficult marriage to Kamal Amrohi who had directed her in many of her most popular roles. After a long term separation the two were reunited to film 'Pakeezah' and Kumari died shortly after the release of the film.

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26 June - 6 October 2002 Featuring works from pre-independent India to the present day, this exhibition charted the historical, political and cultural changes experienced by the country, as seen through the eyes of the Indian film industry.

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15 strong female lead characters in Bollywood

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15 strong female lead characters in Bollywood

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Indian cinema is often accused of being sexist, what with women in item numbers or objectified as arm-candy. However, there are some prominent characters out there, who stand out as superb portrayals of the strength of a woman. Today, we list those.

Iconic Female Characters In Bollywood Films

Here are some famous and strong female characters in Bollywood movies

Shashi, English Vinglish

We see role models everywhere, but never in the homemakers and mothers around us. Sridevi 's game-changing portrayal of a housewife changed this. Shashi, a wife and mother who can't speak English, raises important questions about the value of a homemaker's work and skills.

Rani, a woman with scant English-speaking skills, goes off to Europe on her honeymoon alone and takes control of her own life, after being left at the altar. After some self-realisation, she proceeds to dump her no-good fiancé. Does anyone need further proof that marriage is not the be-all and end-all for women?

Naina, Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani

Naina's conviction in her own way of life and lack of desire to change for a man, however much she might love him, is what makes her character exemplary. Not only that, the narrative of the film ends with Ranbir Kapoor leaving his job and coming back to her, instead of Naina - the woman - doing so.

A gritty and gruesome tale of rape, murder, and misogyny, NH10 looks into the dark horrors that Meera experiences. Anushka Sharma plays the role of a woman who fights for justice and defends herself in the most trying circumstances, not once backing down because she is a woman.

The idea that women can be caretakers of their parents and that they can be unmarried and live in their own home, was normalised in . From a feminist father like Amitabh Bachchan's character, to Deepika Padukone's Piku's own independence, the film has its own kind of role models.

Sulu takes the idea of your neighbourhood aunty and turns it on its head. She's fun, she's woke, and she is boldly ambitious - everything an Indian woman might want to be, but cannot. Vivacious and adept at finding unique solutions to common problems, Sulu is an icon for the middle-class ' bhartiya nari.'

Another strong character played by Vidya Balan, this story of a pregnant woman venturing out to avenge her husband, is iconic. Taking on figures of authority when a woman is supposedly at her weakest, Vidya shattered loads of stereotypes while going up against naysayers.

Very few lead female characters in Bollywood are portrayed as geniuses. Parineeti Chopra's Meeta was one of those rare characters. A total nerd with nothing going for her but her brilliant mind, she manages to make the good-looking hero fall for her just by virtue of her intellect.

Smita Patil's iconic portrayal of Bindu, a woman who takes it upon herself to lead her fellow village women to create a local milk cooperative, is the driving force of this film. Inspired by true events, the film underscores the actual White Revolution, which made India the world's largest milk producer.

Ambar is one of the first sex-positive, independent female characters to be glamourised and shown as the lead heroine in a mainstream film. Played by Preity Zinta, she not only gets into a live-in relationship, but has pre-marital sex and decides to have a baby outside marriage on her own.

Laila, Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara

A rare strong and independent character in Katrina Kaif's roster of roles, Laila is a free bird who lives on the edge. From scuba diving to motorbiking, she doesn't ascribe to girly stereotypes, and that's what's refreshing about her. We don't know about you, but we quite like that in a female character!

Jyoti, Khoon Bhari Maang

The story of a woman who rose from the ashes like a phoenix, Khoon Bhari Maang sees Rekha become a vengeful femme fatale. A glamorous take on a classic tale of revenge, the story is unlike anything else Bollywood has ever seen!

Humiliated, neglected, and sidelined by her husband and children, Tabu's character Aditi's goes on a journey of self-discovery, leaving behind this family of hers. Questioning the double-standards in society about a woman's conduct versus a man's, Astitva looks at Indian families in a new way.

Rani Mukerji has played many strong characters in her lifetime. However, this portrayal of a policewoman seeking out people accused of child-trafficking stands out. A lone wolf who takes on gangs of men single-handedly, Mardaani is quite the inspiring story.

Everyone in Lajja, Angry Indian Goddesses and Parched

From Rekha, Manisha Koirala, and Madhuri Dixit in Lajja, to Radhika Apte, Tannishtha Chatterjee, and Surveen Chawla in Parched, Bollywood has seen some strong female characters from villages. Not only do they tackle issues of rural development, but they do so from a feminist perspective, be it in saving girl children, or in fighting abusive social structures.

The urban characters in Angry Indian Goddesses, on the other hand, fight violent misogyny head-on, throwing light upon the lack of options presented to women seeking recourse against sexual violence.

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strong female characters in bollywood film. bollywood film

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bollywood films who are role-model material

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15 Strong Female Characters In Bollywood Films Who Are Role-Model Material

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Indian cinema is often accused of being sexist, what with women in item numbers or objectified as arm-candy. However, there are some prominent characters out there, who stand out as superb portrayals of the strength of a woman. Today, we list those.

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Sexual violence is a major problem faced by women and girls in India. It is already a challenge for survivors to obtain justice in the Indian legal system, and those from the country's marginalized communities face even more major barriers.

There were 32,033 reported rape cases in 2019, with 33,356 in 2018. According to official crime data, there were 3,486 reported cases of rape against Dalit (Scheduled Caste) women and girls in 2019, and 1,110 reported rape cases against Adivasi women and girls (Scheduled Tribes).

Survivors of sexual violence face huge barriers in accessing justice, including community pressure to drop the case, discriminatory attitudes of police and judicial officers, insufficient legal aid, and discouraging conviction rates. These challenges are often magnified if the survivors are members of India's marginalized communities, particularly if they are Dalits, Adivasis, or Muslims.

Why do people commit sexual violence?

Sexual violence is a crime rooted in control and patriarchy, including male entitlement. In India, society often still shifts blame onto survivors, shaming a survivor and her family into silence. This is especially true among those who are already marginalized within Indian society, leaving them particularly vulnerable to sexual violence. This culture of shame follows survivors into law enforcement, the court system, and hospitals, further silencing survivors' voices.

What are the barriers to justice for survivors of sexual violence in India?

Our 2021 report, Sexual Violence in South Asia: Legal and Other Barriers to Justice for Survivors, found the implementation of rape laws remain poor and survivors, particularly those from communities marginalized based on caste, class, and ethnicity, face many obstacles in accessing justice, including:

corruption amongst law enforcement officials,

failure of the police to register cases of sexual violence,

the continued use of the two-finger test,

difficulties in accessing support services for survivors including compensation and victim and witness protection,

pressure from families, community and panchayat members to enter into extra-legal settlements and many others.

Learn more about barriers to justice for survivors in India in our 2020 report Justice Denied: Sexual Violence & Intersectional Discrimination - Barriers to Accessing Justice for Dalit Women and Girls in Haryana, India, and our 2021 report Sexual Violence in South Asia: Legal and Other Barriers to Justice for Survivors.

What does the law in India say?

One of the major gaps in rape laws in India is the failure to criminalize marital rape. Laws which explicitly allow marital rape under the law treat women as the property of their husbands and render them vulnerable to sexual violence and abuse within marriage.

The law has a wide definition of rape which includes all acts of sexual penetration, as well as acts of oral sex (without a requirement for penetration). Indian law takes into account a broad range of coercive circumstances. Indian law presumes the absence of consent on the part of the victim in a broad range of circumstances such as rape by an individual in a position of authority, custodial rape, rape by a relative, guardian, teacher, person in a position of trust, or person in a position of control or dominance over a woman.

The law specifically provides that the previous sexual experience of the victim is not relevant in sexual violence cases. Indian law also has a specific provision prohibiting the defence from adducing evidence or asking questions in cross-examination relating to the general immoral character, or previous sexual experience, of the victim while proving consent or the quality of such consent.

What does international law say?

United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 calls for Gender Equality and enumerates several targets, including:

End all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere

Eliminating " all forms of violence against all women and girls in the public and private spheres, including sexual [violence]"

The adoption and strengthening of "sound policies and enforceable legislation for the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls at all levels."

What is Equality Now doing about this?

Equality Now aims to ensure our advocacy and communications are informed by the needs, experiences, and voices of women and children survivors who are of sexual violence and that all of our work is based on accurate information and evidence, as we work to help survivors in India identify the key obstacles they face in accessing justice.

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Sexual violence is a major problem faced by women and girls in India. It is already a challenge for survivors to obtain justice in the Indian legal system, and those from the country's marginalized communities face even more major barriers. There were 32,033 reported rape cases in 2019, with 33,356 in 2018.

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3 Idiots Movie Review {4.5/5}: Critic Review of 3 Idiots by Times of India

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3 Idiots Movie Review: Critics Rating: 4.5 stars, click to give your rating/review,Rajkumar Hirani says so much, and more, without losing his sense of humour and the sheer lightness o