A Study of the Portrayal of Women in the Bollywood Cinema of 21st Century

Abstract

Cinema in India has always been greatly dominant over society. Movies influence the Indian society in different ways, and sway individuals’ personal lives. Be it the clothes they wear, the way in which they speak, their social behavior, is all affected by commercial Bollywood films directly or indirectly. There is no doubt as to the entertainment such films provide, but it is often at the cost of women’s intelligence and dignity. Female characters in Bollywood are more often than not labelled as dumb, mindless creatures with only sexual gratification to offer. Objectification of women, as sexual objects is very common in commercial Indian movies. There are countless examples of such stereotypes. The heroine is never portrayed as an individual with intellect, her ideas and thoughts pertaining to anything other than romance or family are not portrayed. This paper examines the girl student(s) perception about the women portrayal in Bollywood cinema of 21st Century and how they observe the things which serve by the Bollywood cinema to the youth of Indian society.