Female characters in Indian entertainment industry are still trapped inside toxic stereotypes
3 years ago

Female characters in Indian entertainment industry are still trapped inside toxic stereotypes

Op India  

A video of a wedding is going viral on social media for the last couple of days. The ‘good girls’ are expected to put up with absolute crap behaviour not just from the prospective husband, in-laws and random relatives, but even within their own family. The hero has to be savior, the woman has to be ‘saved’ Portrayal of women in our movies and almost the entire entertainment industry, irrespective of the region or state, is just about reducing them to objects of sexual desires, or the usual dumb, incapable victims who have to be saved by the hero every time. In Allu Arjun’s 2019 superhit Ala Vaikunthapuramulo, the female lead is a successful entrepreneur, but she still needs the hero to ‘save’ her from everything in her life, from hostile business deals, to forced marriages. Pick up any movie of any superstar, of any language, the most common message is that the women can only be the victims, and when they are not victims, they are the ‘good wife’ or ‘good bahu’ stereotype who does everything that every ‘ideal woman’ is expected to do, to make a perfect case for the the hero’s heroism.

India Women Bollywood Female Entertainment Industry Good Her Husband Husband Girl Her Family Characters Female Characters Bahu  family  girl  woman  entertainment  industry  stereotypes  female  bahu  husband  trapped  women  insults  characters  toxic  inside  good  indian

History of this topic

Alia Bhatt in 'Gangubai Kathiawadi' to Nimrat Kaur in 'The Lunchbox': Revisiting Unapologetic Portrayals on Women's Day
2 weeks, 4 days ago

Alia Bhatt in 'Gangubai Kathiawadi' to Nimrat Kaur in 'The Lunchbox': Revisiting Unapologetic Portrayals on Women's Day

Firstpost  

On the occasion of Women’s Day, here’s looking at the female figures of Bollywood who not only broke the stigma around female portrayals but also shifted the perception surrounding women. Alia Bhatt - Gangubai Kathiawadi Alia Bhatt delivered a career-defining performance in her iconic film ‘Gangubai Kathiawadi’. Through ‘The Lunchbox’, Nimrat Kaur highlighted how the emotional needs of women are …

‘Cinemas, serials and advertisements endorse toxic patriarchal mindset’
1 month ago

‘Cinemas, serials and advertisements endorse toxic patriarchal mindset’

The Hindu  

“Cinemas, serials and She spoke on the topic ‘Beyond labels – understanding gender and building an inclusive society’ at an event conducted by Yi Madurai at Thiagarajar College here on Sunday. Women through constant monitoring and observation should identify the wrongful stereotypical portrayal of women characters in movies and “The wrongful portrayal which has been generalised by the dominant men …

Gender Agenda newsletter The strong, silent types
1 month, 1 week ago

Gender Agenda newsletter The strong, silent types

The Hindu  

Welcome to The Hindu’s newsletter that puts gender front and centre. “But it won’t be right to say that films in the past did not have strong female characters,” he said. was equally strong.” The term “strong female characters” has been brandished liberally over the past few years. There are even listicles on news websites urging us to check out …

Gender Agenda newsletter The strong, silent types
1 month, 1 week ago

Gender Agenda newsletter The strong, silent types

The Hindu  

Welcome to The Hindu’s newsletter that puts gender front and centre. “But it won’t be right to say that films in the past did not have strong female characters,” he said. was equally strong.” The term “strong female characters” has been brandished liberally over the past few years. There are even listicles on news websites urging us to check out …

Now, writers are building strong female characters
2 years, 5 months ago

Now, writers are building strong female characters

Hindustan Times  

Actor Pooja Chopra feels with revision of content and stories the focus has shifted on women centric films. But today, writers are taking creative liberty to build strong female characters and makers are readily investing in such projects. Last seen in theatrical release Jahaan Chaar Yaar, the actor says, “It was a feeling of an absolute creative-fulfillment for me to …

How are women breaking stereotypes and reshaping entertainment world, Bhumi Pednekar weighs in | EXCLUSIVE
3 years ago

How are women breaking stereotypes and reshaping entertainment world, Bhumi Pednekar weighs in | EXCLUSIVE

India TV News  

In a span of seven years, Bhumi Pednekar has achieved a feat that many Bollywood actresses aspire to. On the occasion of International Women's Day, India TV got in touch with Bhumi Pednekar to talk about reshaping the entertainment industry, her film choices that help change perceptions about the "ideal woman" and consciousness when it comes to brand endorsements. Excerpts …

Women characters of K-drama resonate big-time with audiences in India
3 years, 2 months ago

Women characters of K-drama resonate big-time with audiences in India

The Hindu  

I began to watch Korean dramas only a year ago. In a society rife with social taboos rather like our own, dewy-eyed young women get to date and eventually marry men their parents whole-heartedly disapprove of. Many of the writers and their teams are female, creating these dramas for a largely female audience; so it’s no big surprise that there …

‘Women carry a lot of internalised patriarchy’: Alankrita Shrivastava
4 years ago

‘Women carry a lot of internalised patriarchy’: Alankrita Shrivastava

Live Mint  

As in real life, all the crucial conversations in Bombay Begums unfold in the ladies restroom. Best known for writing and directing Lipstick Under My Burkha, Alankrita Shrivastava’s six-part series, which launched on Netflix on International Women’s Day on Monday, follows five urban women from different demographics. The last one is named after Virginia Woolf’s A Room Of One’s Own—it’s …

7 Women Characters in Hindi Films of 2020 That We Deserve in 2021
4 years, 3 months ago

7 Women Characters in Hindi Films of 2020 That We Deserve in 2021

News 18  

Someday, there will be no need to celebrate women characters; we will not write about movies representing the LGBTQIA community, we will not have hashtags like BlackLivesMatter. While this may have to do with the increasing number of women writers and directors who are determined to tell stories that they missed seeing on-screen while growing up, it also has to …

GenY filmmakers break lot of stereotypes: Madhu Shalini
5 years, 3 months ago

GenY filmmakers break lot of stereotypes: Madhu Shalini

Deccan Chronicle  

Madhu Shalini from Tollywood is one talented actress who seems in no hurry to add numbers to her kitty, despite touching a milestone - a decade in the cinema industry. With just two dozen films to her credit, the bubbly actress, who is a popular face in Tamil with films like Bala's Avan Ivan and Kamal's Thoongavanam, returns to K'town …

Where are the women in Indian theatre?
5 years, 11 months ago

Where are the women in Indian theatre?

Live Mint  

In Indian theatre, when it comes to drawing focus on women’s representation, there seems to be a gaping lacuna. On the 58th anniversary of World Theatre Day, Mint spoke to theatre practitioner Mallika Taneja, and veteran performing arts journalist-critic Shanta Gokhale, who made acute observations about the extent to which Indian theatre provides an agency to women’s concerns and aspirations …

Of Victorian Vices, Virtues and Indian Zipper Morals
6 years ago

Of Victorian Vices, Virtues and Indian Zipper Morals

Firstpost  

Late in the nineteenth century, a spectre was haunting Victorian-era Europe — and it wasn’t the prospect of violent revolution. Moral guardians such as the Society for the Suppression of Vice worked hard to make sure women and other commoners were protected from the ‘filth’, but this was not so easily done with the proliferation of pornographic images in the …

The Heroine gets Real, No Strings attached
6 years ago

The Heroine gets Real, No Strings attached

Firstpost  

Hindi mainstream cinema is seeing a surge in heroines who do not fit in a box, and audaciously defy societal norms even at the risk of appearing less affable on screen. Over the past decades since Shah Rukh Khan made the antihero popular, flaunting shades of grey was mostly the hero’s privilege in mainstream Hindi cinema. Unsavoury realism can also …

Stand-up for feminism: Indian women comics are making patriarchy the punch-line in their acts
6 years, 11 months ago

Stand-up for feminism: Indian women comics are making patriarchy the punch-line in their acts

Firstpost  

There’s an old desi joke that goes: “If you want to piss your parents off, become an artist.” The fact that this is a dated joke is apparent from the burgeoning number of artistic fields in India. There are clearly plenty of women who want to do comedy, because we always get more applications for our open mic than there …

Does Bollywood have a women problem?
7 years ago

Does Bollywood have a women problem?

Al Jazeera  

Critics say depictions of women in Indian cinema normalise misogynistic ideas and sexual harassment. Condemning the seemingly lax treatment of rape in the movie, the Indian film critic Anna MM Vetticad wrote: “A more troublesome superfluous moment comes during the song-and-dance accompanying the closing credits, during which Huma Qureshi throws come-hither looks at Dhawan, which is jarring since Raghu had …

What data says about patriarchy in films
7 years, 4 months ago

What data says about patriarchy in films

Live Mint  

In a letter denying permission to screen the award-winning film Lipstick Under My Burkha in India earlier this year, the Central Board of Film Certification wrote that the film was a “lady-oriented film. The researchers analysed trailers of 880 films released between 2008 and 2017 which were sourced from official sites and YouTube, and movie plots of 4,000 films going …

Anushka Sharma: The story should always be the hero in Bollywood films
8 years, 11 months ago

Anushka Sharma: The story should always be the hero in Bollywood films

Firstpost  

Anushka Sharma, who has produced and acted in NH10, says it is not male or female centric films, but those with a good storyline that work at the box office New Delhi: The trend of female centric films finding a place in Bollywood is hailed by many, but Anushka Sharma has an entirely different point of view. I think NH10 …

Angry Indian Goddesses: A Rare and Real Film on Female Bonding
9 years, 3 months ago

Angry Indian Goddesses: A Rare and Real Film on Female Bonding

The Quint  

Each of these gorgeous women has a story to tell and anger to share. What angers them is precisely what frustrates all of you – gender inequality, misogyny, sexual harassment, hypocrisy, double-speak, Pahlaj Nihalani. Angry Indian Goddesses is an ‘A’ rated film, talking to adult audiences about adult issues and yet we feel like 6-year-olds, with images of goddesses in …

Unsung heroines: Women in Tamil cinema
9 years, 11 months ago

Unsung heroines: Women in Tamil cinema

The Hindu  

This is a blog post from I recently watched the Hindi film 'Dum Laga Ke Haisha', a charming tale of an overweight wife and a frail husband struggling to make their arranged marriage work amid an extremely patriarchal set up. While that tale took to comedy to explain how inevitably a woman needs ‘good’ physical attributes to stay in a …

No more stereotypes: Recent films have redefined Indian women, says Amitabh Bachchan
10 years, 4 months ago

No more stereotypes: Recent films have redefined Indian women, says Amitabh Bachchan

Firstpost  

Noting that the visual representation of women has changed dramatically over the past two decades, Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan Monday saluted the way contemporary Indian films portray multi-hued female characters which have moved away from the pre-set stereotypes of wife, vamp or the sacrificing mother. Films recently released have redefined the Indian women.” Referring to films like “Chandni Bar” and …

Mainstream Indian cinema is sexist and misogynist: activists agree with UN report
10 years, 6 months ago

Mainstream Indian cinema is sexist and misogynist: activists agree with UN report

Firstpost  

At a time when one of India’s leading English dailies is getting slammed for its unapologetically sexist defence of why it believes an actress’s cleavage is news, comes a UN- At a time when one of India’s leading English dailies is getting slammed for its unapologetically sexist defence of why it believes an actress’s cleavage is news, comes a UN- …

Excerpt | Sharmila Tagore on sexism in cinema
11 years, 3 months ago

Excerpt | Sharmila Tagore on sexism in cinema

Live Mint  

In only her second movie role, Sharmila Tagore played a young bride whose father-in-law comes to believe she is a reincarnation of the goddess Durga. In her address at the 19th Justice Sunanda Bhandare Memorial Lecture in Delhi on 27 November, titled “Representation of Women in Indian Cinema And Beyond”, Tagore discusses some of the challenges facing women in present-day …

An ugly and unidirectional love
11 years, 6 months ago

An ugly and unidirectional love

Hindustan Times  

An attack on a woman student and the suicide of a ‘spurned’ boyfriend a while ago shocked the campus community at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in Delhi. Many new entrants to the university system, who come from a very wide variety of socio-economic backgrounds, envy and fear the economic and social independence of women, themselves often from Dalit and OBC …

Book chronicles rise of women in Indian cinema
12 years, 8 months ago

Book chronicles rise of women in Indian cinema

Firstpost  

Bollywood actresses have broken the Sati-Savitri mould and are no longer all about sugar, spice and everything nice, says a book that documents their journey from a time when cinema was considered a profession beneath the dignity of ‘respectable’ women to an era where women actors are icons and idols New Delhi: Bollywood actresses have broken the Sati-Savitri mould and …

Discover Related