Saumya Srivastava

20177034
WOMEN IN INDIAN FILMS

The first movie in the Indian film industry was, Raja Harishchandra which was released in
1913. During this time, there were no female actors since women were hesitant to appear on
screens. The role of women in this movie was portrayed by men themselves. The first time,
women were introduced in the industry was in the year 1931 with the movie ‘Alam Ara’. The
introduction of women in the industry changed the face of Indian Cinema.1 This paper analyzes
the changing role of women in the Indian Cinema and how different forms of their portrayal
on screen affects how women are treated in reality.

The Indian film industry, Bollywood is considered to be the largest film industry in the world.
Its reach comprises of almost, 4 billion people not just in India but, all over the world. In India,
different linguistic movies are produced in different states, leading to the production of more
than 1000 movies every year. A large part of India’s revenue also compromises of the profits
received from the production of these movies. Therefore, Bollywood plays an influential role
in the society since a large part of the population depend on it for their leisure and
entertainment. 2

However, Indian Cinema influences the Indian population not just in terms of entertainment
but, it also has a larger influence on the construction of views and opinions such population
forms on various societal and cultural values. The different themes of Cinema portrayed in
Bollywood shapes the social, political and cultural ideals of the India population. Majority of
the Indian population use movies as a medium to understand what is acceptable in a society
and what is not. 3

Women who form a large part of the population are often affected due to this mechanism. The
portrayal of women on screen in a way where already existing stereotypes of the society
regarding women are highlighted or when they are made to submit to a particular idea of ‘what

1
Sharma, Sonu, and Dr. JITENDAR SINGH NARBAN. “Indian Cinema and Women.” IJARIIE 2, no. 1 (n.d.).
2
Agarwal, Ruchi. “Changing Roles of Women in Indian Cinema.” Mahidol University International College,
January 2014.
3
Tere, Nidhi Shendurnikar. “GENDER REFLECTIONS IN MAINSTREAM HINDI CINEMA.” Global Media
Journal – Indian Edition 3, no. 1 (June 2012).
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a woman should be’ has affected their treatment in the actual world, outside the movie-screens.
The way a woman is portrayed on the screen is how the population would view the women
around her. For instance, in the movie, Kabir Singh, released in the year, 2019, the producers
of the movie have somewhat romanticized the act of showing violence towards someone you
love by portraying the woman as being highly submissive towards the male-lead. The director
of the movie, even went on to say on public-record, that “When you are deeply in love and
deeply connected to a woman, if you don’t have the liberty of slapping each other, then I don’t
see anything there.” 4 A large part of the population agreed with this statement of the director
and were wowed by the romanization of such form of aggression. Since the population end up
believing it is acceptable to show aggression towards woman in the name of ‘love’. Therefore,
everything detrimental about women that is portrayed in movies has an actual effect on their
lives.

The gender-bias prevailing in Indian Cinema in its practicality is visible at every level of the
industry. Firstly, there is a huge income gap between the female and the male actors wherein
women are paid much lesser than their male-costars. Secondly, the number of women in
authoritative position such as that of directors or producers is lesser than that of men in the
Indian film-industry. Thirdly, and the most important is the under-representation or the
misrepresentation of the women in the industry.5 There have been very few female centric
movies in the Indian film industry over the last 60 years and since, they are not commercial in
nature, a lot of the population is not intrigued by such films and therefore, these films end up
performing bad at the box-office with a have very limited reach. These films are hardly ever,
able to influence the population.

The universal test applied all over the world to judge the under-representation of the women in
any film industry is called the Bechdel Test. This test was developed by Alison Bechdel in the
year 1985. It was a measure developed to judge the representation of women in fiction works
and movies, calling attention to gender-inequality that prevails in movies. This test asks three
questions. First, whether at least two women are casted in the movie. Second, whether they

4
https://www.hindustantimes.com/bollywood/kabir-singh-director-sandeep-reddy-vanga-defends-film-says-if-
you-can-t-slap-touch-your-woman-wherever-you-want-i-don-t-see-emotion/story-
zbQdG4IbyrmslVhjY9WxXK.html
5
Tere, Nidhi Shendurnikar. “GENDER REFLECTIONS IN MAINSTREAM HINDI CINEMA.” Global Media
Journal – Indian Edition 3, no. 1 (June 2012).
 Saumya Srivastava
20177034
interact with each other. Third, whether their interaction comprises of something other than
talking about a man.6 If a film passes these three criterias, they have successfully represented
women. This test is not a representation of feminism but of how women are treated on screen.
When you apply this test to Bollywood movies, you will realize that a large number of films
fail the test. Recently, in the year, 2018, a survey was conducted on 10 major blockbuster films
in India, out of which 4 had failed the test.7 This included commercial films such as Sanju,
Stree, etc. Non-commercial films such as Raazi and Badhaai Ho passed the test. The sad truth
is that only commercial films have a wider reach in the Indian population and therefore, its
portrayals are largely followed by them.

The analysis of the portrayal of women in the Indian Cinema can be done through four stages.
The first period began in the year, 1950s which was right after independence. In this period,
the movies focused mainly on the cultural depictions of the rural sectors, family values, societal
norms and values. Therefore, the audience could identify with the movies since they portrayed
the realities existent in the society at that time. Here, women were given dominant roles in
movies. A prime example of such era was through the film, Mother India. 8 In this movie, a
female was the protagonist who was shown as someone, who was a traditional wife but at the
same time, also was independent and strong. She was protective towards her family and carried
on hard-labour in order to take care of them in the absence of her husband. Therefore, this
movie gave women an important role and the society portrayed women as being respectful.

The Second phase of the portrayal of women was in the year 1980s. This was the era when the
status of women in Hindi movies went downhill. During this period, women were portrayed as
props who were present in movies solely for scenes such as dancing, being kidnapped or raped
or just to add glamour to the films. In none of these films, the women were given an individual
identity and existed only as alongside the male-lead to give some form of support to their
character. Films such as “Mirch Masala” released in the year, 1989 shows how women were
objectified and were viewed as an object of lust wherein the male leads in the movie were
trading a woman amongst each other.9 This was the period that also introduced ‘item songs’

6
https://www.sg.ethz.ch/media/publication_files/Title-Gender-Asymmetries-in-Reality-and-Fiction-The-
Bechdel-Test-of-Social-Media.pdf
7
https://thelogicalindian.com/awareness/bollywood-hindi-cinema-bechdel-test/
8
Agarwal, Ruchi. “Changing Roles of Women in Indian Cinema.” Mahidol University International College,
January 2014.
9
Ibid
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wherein women are made to dance on songs which has no relation to the plot of the movie and
in these songs, their bodies are sexualized for the audience.

The third phase was from the year, 1990s which was not exactly that great. Herein, the Indian
movies tried to show women in a more liberal and independent light however, they failed in a
way. There was always a return to the ‘traditional’ view of how a woman should be. For
instance, in the movie, Hum Saath Saath Hai released in the year 1999, Sonali Bindre was
portrayed as a doctor, but nowhere in the movie was her professional life portrayed. She was
portrayed as a submissive daughter in law. And in Hum Aapke Hai Kaun released in the year,
1994, the female-lead was ready to give up her desires and dreams in order to respect the wishes
of her family. Therefore, in such movies, the heroes took the Centre stage and women were
viewed as the house-keepers while the men were bread earners, ignoring the reality of how the
society actually functioned.10

The last stage, which is the current period finally showed some development after almost, 15
years. Now, reality cinema is prevailing in Bollywood wherein issues such as exploitation of
women, poverty, crime, etc. Movies such as Raazi, No one killed Jessica, English Vinglish and
Queen are being produced wherein women are being given a larger screen space. And since
popular actresses such as Alia Bhat, Deepika Padukone are portraying such roles, such movies
are now reaching more masses of people. The monotony of appeal of only commercial films
for the Indian population is breaking. These movies are a great step for the feminist movement
since the individual identities of women are finally being recognized in Bollywood.

10
Sharma, Sonu, and Dr. JITENDAR SINGH NARBAN. “Indian Cinema and Women.” IJARIIE 2, no. 1 (n.d.).