Bollywood Research Articles

Subversive spaces and regulated desires: The heteronormative gaze in R. Raj Rao’s Hostel Room 131

Constructing a cultural framework, the heteronormative gaze operates as a regulatory force that upholds heterosexuality as the normative ideal, marginalizing and pathologizing non-heteronormative identities. By privileging heterosexuality, it perpetuates binary structures and enforces conformity within public and private spheres. Highlighting the inherent queerness within Indian social structures, R. Raj Rao has always advocated the homosocial fabric that characterizes male relationships in his different texts. Drawing from examples such as Bollywood films like Sholay, Rao illustrates how male friendships (yaar/dost) subtly reconfigure homosocial spaces, allowing non-heteronormative desires to be expressed in coded forms. These interactions, while appearing innocent, blur the lines between normative camaraderie and subversive queer expressions. In Hostel Room 131, Rao captures the pervasive impact of the heteronormative gaze on queer life, documenting the lived experiences of Siddharth and Sudhir as they navigate a society that alternates between normalizing and criminalizing public male affection. The novel explores how societal pressures, homophobia, and attempts at conversion therapy are wielded to enforce conformity, leading to psychic and physical trauma. This paper aims to explore the extensive impact of the heteronormative gaze and its repercussions on queer individuals as portrayed in R. Raj Rao’s Hostel Room 131. It seeks to understand how the novel critiques Indian social frameworks by emphasizing the friction between homosocial environments and the imposition of heteronormative standards. Through an analysis of the relationship between Siddharth and Sudhir, this study investigates how public expressions of male affection, though outwardly accepted, transform into arenas of both regulation and resistance.

Unveiling the Rhetoric of Victim Blaming: Perpetuating Language Patterns in Select Bollywood Films Depicting Sexual Assault

Unveiling the Rhetoric of Victim Blaming: Perpetuating Language Patterns in Select Bollywood Films Depicting Sexual Assault

Religious Hate Speech against Islam in Bollywood Cinema in the Context of Self-Orientalism: The Example of “The Kerala Story”

Hate speech, which refers to any form of expression intended to humiliate, harass, intimidate or incite violence against a person or group because of their religion, language, race, gender, political preference, physical disability or illness, occurs in different societies and in different media. Undoubtedly, one of the most common forms of hate speech is religious hate speech. Religious hate speech, which causes great harm to the individual, group or society, when carried out through cinema, causes victimization to increase and the discourse to spread throughout the world. Religious hate speech, generally produced by the West towards the East in cinema, sometimes comes to life with self-orientalist actions and religious hate speech is reinforced. From this point of view, the aim of this study is to reveal how religious hate speech against Islam and Muslims is realized in the context of self-orientalism in Bollywood cinema. In the study, critical discourse analysis method was used and the 2023 Indian film ‘The Kerala Story’ was analyzed. According to the results obtained in the study, the film, which was designed with a self-orientalist perspective, contains intense religious hate speech against Islam. In the film, Islam and Muslims are associated with terrorism through characters, actions, lines and plot.

Screening trans narratives: representation of transwomen in Indian regional cinema

In India, the cinema industry has gotten a facelift with the absorption of regional cinema into its defined and confined boundaries, which was earlier a monopoly of commercial Bollywood films as well as award-winning Hindi films. One of the pertinent problems it deals with is the societal, political, and individual negligence towards the marginalised and underprivileged gender minority communities in different parts of the country. This essay traces how transwomen are represented in Indian regional cinema and how the two representative South Indian films, Nanu Avanalla Avalu (2015) and Njan Marykutty (2018), chosen for study, become visual texts which mark clear demarcation from the existing trans narratives and call for a progressive perception to the representation of transwomen in regional cinema. A critical analysis of these films brings forth the nuances and politics of the representation of transwomen on screen by emphasising the construction and contestation of transfemininity and its association with the visible and invisible cisheteronormative patriarchal power play prevalent in society. It also examines the cinematic construction of transphobia directed towards transwomen and concludes on how such progressive narratives can pave the way for an inclusive society through sensitisation of their experiences and issues to a mass audience.

Colonization and Queerness in South Asia: Understanding Evolving Public Perceptions of Queer Identities in Pre- and Post-Colonial India

Ancient India has a strong history of accepting, highlighting, and celebrating queer identities, genders, homosexuality, and polyamory—often permanently commemorating these individuals in carvings, paintings, and other forms of art at Hindu temples and holy sites. Transgender, transexual, and homosexual gods are not only extremely popular, but also significant pillars of Hinduism and holy scriptures. As colonialism spread and the British Raj asserted more power over Indian culture, Western frameworks and definitions of “civil society” that mandated heteronormativity led to the outlawing of homosexuality under Section 377 of 1861. Although India gained independence in 1947, such discriminatory attitudes against queer people became embedded in Indian society and amplified over time—permanently altering the public’s perception and opinions on homosexuality. On September 6, 2018, the Indian Supreme Court ruling eradicated Section 377 and decriminalized queer sexual activities—a major advancement in the ongoing cultural decolonization of India and the growing LGBTQ+ rights social movements. These efforts are magnified by the growth of more queer characters in Bollywood movies and media and by creating spaces to openly discuss queerness in a socially acceptable manner. Advancing queer rights in India is part of the larger structural decolonization of the Western norms that were forcibly embedded in society through colonialism, and

Guthlee Ladoo: A Testimony of Persistence of Caste and Epistemic Injustice: A Critical Film Review

The Hindi film Guthlee Ladoo strives to address the lacuna in the constitutionally protected Right to Education Act (RTE) by depicting a Dalit boy’s arduous journey to educational rights in a caste-ridden rural setting. Exploring the film’s portrayal of the continuation of caste-based untouchability and the unequal power dynamics among different castes, this critical film review discusses the distinctiveness of the director’s art in attempting to formulate a Dalit cinematic lens with the movie. Additionally, the film demonstrates how the privatization of education becomes a weapon at the hand of the upper castes in debarring the Dalit students from school premises. Finally, it examines how the film’s picturization of manual scavenging instantiates an unprecedented sketch of the Dalit body’s proximity to waste and its concomitant epistemic injustice.

(Re)making menstrual hygiene discourses in India

ABSTRACT The exploration of menstrual hygiene management through the lens of feminist Science and Technology Studies (STS) reveals complex intersections between culture, science, and politics. The Hindi film Pad Man (2018) substantially raised awareness about period poverty in India, but it also highlights ongoing challenges in tackling menstrual stigma and spreading awareness of hygiene practices. A critical analysis of menstrual hygiene discourse before and after the film’s release reveals a shift toward recognizing menstruation as an integral part of menstruators’ lived experiences and identities, rather than merely focusing on the products used. However, religious and colonial footprints have further complicated these narratives by embedding patriarchal and casteist ideologies into scientific discourse. The preservation of gendered and cis-heteronormative frameworks within the scientific realm reinforced barriers for Indian menstruators. Using a feminist STS approach, this paper combines prevalent religious beliefs about menstruation in India with a bibliometric study of PubMed articles on menstruation, alongside an analysis of intersecting oppressions. It examines how the production of knowledge has constructed menstruation as an “impurity,” revealing that menstrual hygiene is not merely an individual issue but a structural one.

‘If Madonna can … ’: emergence of the female indipop star in the 1990s MTV cultural economy

ABSTRACT As cinema moved from exhibition theatres to cable television in the late-1980s pre-liberal License Raj 1 economy, the competitive music label market in India pushed its executives to look beyond the established modes of music making and selling. This development also collided with the growing cultural demand for new and ‘fresh’ female voices, and innovative audio-visual modes inspired by the MTV consumerism model of the West. Additionally, music videos of international popstars such as Madonna, Michael Jackson, etc. started making waves in India through direct and indirect channels. As a result, the influence of western music video culture led the music industry officials to rope in ‘westernized in style, desi at heart’ female performers to represent the new wave of alternative non-film popular music – collectively popularised by music labels and the media as Hindi Pop or Indipop. Moreover, the cultural impact of American popstar Madonna’s stardom, performativity, and politics also played a critical role in the way the emerging Indipop ‘divas’ projected themselves, both in and outside the diegesis of their music videos, during the 90s MTV boom in India. Engaging with the textual and extratextual world of indipop music videos that belong to the ‘new women’ of the neoliberal-90s – Jasmine Bharucha, Alisha Chinai, Shweta Shetty, etc.—this paper attempts to track and locate the emergence of these ‘non-film’ 2 female voices in the traditional ‘song and dance’ aesthetic substructure of Bombay cinema.

Popular media’s role in fostering sex education in middle schools: A comparative analysis of Netflix series Sex Education and Bollywood film Oh My God 2

India as a country has always been seen as a repository of culture and heritage. The historical ruins, temples, scriptures of this ancient land foster liberty regarding sexuality and its significance in the advancement of civilization. However, sex education is still a taboo and an alien topic in the Indian education system. On the other hand, in the USA, one of the most advanced countries, sex education is a mandate, but sadly, there are middle schools in many states in the USA, which do not ponder over the subject at all.The reason behind this is the fact that there is no unified National Policy regarding Sex-Education in the USA, it is vested with the states individually. The USA government had been promoting ‘Abstinence-only-until-marriage’ (AOUM) education till Obama came. Even after implementing an evidence-based sex education system, the overall status of comprehensive sex education is unsatisfactory in the USA. This research aims at dealing with the issues associated with implementing and practising sex-education in the middle school and how the popular media deals with it and influences it. The paper takes into account the famous Netflix series Sex Education which is hugely applauded for its candid and inclusive approach towards sex and sexuality of teenagers and the recent bollywood film OMG2 which serves as a critique of the Indian education system which fails to provide proper knowledge on the subject and jeopardises the adolescent life.

Mumbai to Dubai: Promotional strategies and the celluloid journey of Bollywood films to the UAE

In recent years, the cinematic migration of Bollywood films from Mumbai to Dubai has captivated attention, prompting a focused investigation. This study aims to scrutinize the promotional strategies used in distributing Bollywood films in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) through meticulous analysis of questionnaire responses. Executing an extensive survey for UAE moviegoers and industry professionals, the research seeks quantitative data on the efficacy of diverse promotional strategies. The study underscores the importance of cultural variables in Bollywood-UAE film promotion, examining cultural similarities between India and the UAE, portraying UAE culture in Bollywood films, and using cultural festivals for marketing. Economic factors driving this collaboration, including box office success, coproductions, and the impact of Bollywood tourism on the UAE economy, are systematically analyzed. The study explores technological advancements in film promotion—social media, internet streaming, and virtual reality—and their impact on the relationship between Bollywood and the UAE. The survey investigates audience preferences, advertising impacts, and awareness levels by examining specific advertising tactics in the UAE, such as premieres, endorsements, tours, and participation in festivals and award shows. In addition to providing a comprehensive understanding of the promotional environment, the questionnaire data analysis identifies trends influencing the trajectory of Bollywood films in the UAE, offering empirical support to film studies and marketing. The hypothesis is tested on the Chi-square, Pearson Correlation, and Mann‒Whitney. The research’s conclusions contribute to understanding the globalization of the Bollywood film industry, guiding producers, marketers, and researchers in cross-cultural film promotion and global industry partnerships.

Rhythm, noise and action: decoding R.D. Burman’s soundtracks of Bombay cinema

ABSTRACT The sustained use of ‘Western’ style orchestration in Bombay film music can be attributed to the trajectory of two kinds of musical practices, one tethered to the leisure economies developed by the colonial rule from the 19th century onwards, and second, the robust and frequent presence of travelling jazz bands from the early twentieth century. As a period of intense transformation, the decade of the 1940s saw musicians from different parts of the subcontinent move to Bombay to find work in the film industry. This process often involved adapting to new performance contexts, genres and instruments. Studios in the Bombay film industry became fecund spaces where musicians and arrangers trained in Western classical music came in heady contact with the jazz men of Bombay’s nightclubss. Focusing on the late 1960s as another transitional moment, this article traces R.D. Burman’s affective encounters with these ‘mobile musicking bodies.’ Biographies of his key musicians give us detailed accounts of their training and involvement in diverse sites of musical performance, before they arrived in the Bombay film industry. This detour informs my analysis of R.D. Burman and his team’s innovative film scores, underlining vocal effects, side rhythms and inclusion of edgy off-key sounds. Moving away from a song-driven approach, I focus on title tracks, background scores and extended instrumental set-pieces of crime and action genres that are now getting recirculated on the internet by R.D. Burman’s fans. Through a methodology that will combine textual analysis, internet ethnography and close listening, the article will argue that these new soundscapes carried the inscriptions of global music cultures and ‘extra-musical’ noise.

Impact of Item Songs in Hindi Films on Psychological Well-Being of Young Women in Pakistan

Movies are a popular form of mass media that helps shape ideas, develop images, and reinforce dominant cultural norms. The structure of the "lyrics and dance moves" of item songs objectifies women in the most humiliating ways. In Pakistan, there is massive viewership of Hindi films. This study focuses on the impact of Hindi item songs on the psychological wellbeing of young women in Pakistan. It also investigates the perception of self among young women after watching Hindi item songs. The study used the survey method to consider 150 female participants (aged 17-30 years). The findings of the study suggest that participants of the survey admire the self-confidence of the “item girl” portrayed in item songs, and they also see her as an “independent woman”. Though they do not prefer to watch item songs with family, they love to use it as a celebration song at weddings, parties and other gatherings and also like to perform on such songs compared to different songs. The study concludes that despite some otherwise conceptions, young women in Pakistan are convinced by the “depiction of confident women” in Hindi item songs. The uses and gratifications hypothesis posits that individuals consume various media types because they anticipate obtaining certain gratifications from such choices.

(Re)Looking at the Women of Indian Cinema in the Praxis of Conventional Rendering

Films significantly impact social consciousness as they have the power to shape opinions, influence perspectives, and contribute to cultural conversations. In shaping perceptions, films enable people to perceive certain issues, events, or groups of people from dissimilar viewpoints. This paper looks into the nuances of representation of Indian women in films, primarily in Hindi cinema, and how their portrayal differs when their identities are constructed by writers and directors of the opposite gender. It argues for an equitable position for representing women in cinema and highlights the role of intersectional relationships between race, class, sexuality, and ability for the same. With an emphasis on feminist film theory and its praxis, this paper traces the history of Indian cinematic renderings in giving agency to women in films and how the perspectives of women writers and directors seeps into their creations for a positive outcome, whereas the male centric industry hinders the proper portrayal of the lived experience. It finally advocates for an academic understanding of the lacunas that exist in the entire ecosystem and offers an expansive approach for devising actionable and sustainable solutions to the critical problem of representation.

The Sex Worker That She Is Not: Suggestion, Risk and Public Femininity in Contemporary Hindi Cinema

This paper argues for the significance of sex work as a figurative and affective reference point in the production of ideas of romance, risk and respectability in public culture through a reading of contemporary Hindi cinema. Reading the films Jab We Met (2007) and Pink (2016), I ask what the sex worker does in the films’ narratives when she herself is absented from it but brought up suggestively. I propose suggestion as a figurative technique deployed in the films to mediate a tension about knowing and identifying sex work as well as to produce an ideology of romance, personhood and injury, critical to assemblages of femininity in these films. This paper argues that such a reading of films that privileges the figuration of sex work through what may otherwise be seen as a minor invocation, presents the opportunity to critically examine naturalised ideas of romance, risk and respectability that find expression in them. It makes the case for the figure of the sex worker as an important node of affective intensification in the larger sphere of public sexuality.

Cinematic Kaleidoscope: Hindi Films Tranforming Gender Identities

Cinematic Kaleidoscope: Hindi Films Tranforming Gender Identities

“Jack and Johnny went up the hill”: Emergent homonationalism and the construction of a palatable queer subject in post-Section 377 Bollywood cinema

ABSTRACT This article interrogates an archetype it terms the “palatable queer subject” in post-Section 377 Bollywood cinema. It advances that the production of this subject reflects and reifies India’s emergent homonationalism in the wake of the 2018 decriminalization of homosexual relations. The palatable queer upholds nationalism while enabling India to present itself on the global stage as a progressive nation state. In the Indian context, decriminalization granted this particular subject access to a newly sedimented norm of queerness predicated on the exclusion of more marginalized queer communities. This article strives to excavate this archetype in Hitesh Kewalya’s Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan (Be particularly careful of marriage). It extends Jasbir Puar’s framework of homonationalism in new geographic and conceptual directions, arguing that the palatable queer subject in Bollywood cinema reveals that certain queer people – namely, cisgender upper-caste, upper-class men – have been folded into the nation state, at the expense of more vulnerable queer people.

Evolution of Female Desire and Fantasy in Bollywood Cinema: Perspectives from Male and Female Directors in the Post-Liberalization Era

The camaraderie between cinema and fantasy has a prolonged story, as one escalates the other. Since echoes of 'sexual fantasies’ and ‘gaze’ in cinema have been primarily celebrated and fantasized through patriarchal prisms, Bollywood and female desire have historically been fraught with challenges. However, Bollywood cinema has lately been undergoing significant landscape twists by featuring female fantasies in a bold and progressive manner at the forefront of narratives. In light of this, drawing from theoretical perspectives on the male gaze and psychoanalytic feminism, this paper will examine the evolving representations of female desire, fantasy and sexuality in contemporary Bollywood cinema. Through a nuanced analysis of nine key Bollywood films from 1996 to 2023, this paper will compare male and female directors' approaches to the male gaze when depicting female desire and sexuality on screen, examining how filmmakers' personal perspectives shape cinematic portrayals. It will also consider how economic liberalization affected the representation of female sexual desires and fantasies in Bollywood cinema, emphasizing the intersection of culture, economics, and gender in Indian popular culture. To conclude, this paper will illuminate how Bollywood cinema has become a powerful platform for the exploration of female desire and fantasy, serving as a catalyst for social change and challenging conventional gender norms in contemporary Indian society.

Political and Cultural Dynamics in Bollywood and Nollywood Films: A Comparative Perspective

Films are popularly believed to be reflection of reality as well as a representation of the societies in which they were produced. They are excellent windows into their societies of origin and could thus serve as good anthropological or historical documents containing data about socio-political events that have happened in their societies of origin. One of the multiple data one can extract/gather from films is the socio-cultural and political dynamics prevailing in the society in which the films subsist. This paper attempts to illustrate this thesis through a review of relevant Bollywood and Nollywood films. Specifically, the study hinges on a review of relevant selected films to show how Bollywood and Nollywood are a reflection of cultural and political dynamics in India and Nigeria respectively. The paper starts with a brief background which examines the extent to which Nollywood and Bollywood films could be considered a reflection of contemporary Nigeria and India. It proceeds to defining the concept of cultural and political dynamics, with strict respect to the Indian and Nigerian experiences. The paper ends up with an examination of how these cultural and political dynamics are reflected in relevant Bollywood and Nollywood films. It concludes that both Nigerian and Bollywood films reflect social and political dynamics in their societies of origin in the same way.

Leveraging history to invoke nationalism: from the annals of history to social engineering of present and future in Hindi cinema

ABSTRACT Nationalism calls for one’s loyalty and affiliation towards their chosen nation. Various versions of nationalism emphasise that one must prioritise said nation above themselves and their personal ethics, hence, allowing the nation to overpower the nationalist’s individuality. In this article, we use Critical Discourse Analysis to deconstruct the narratives of nationalism as portrayed in two popular films, viz. The Kashmir Files and Uri: The Surgical Strike, which are based on real historical events – the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus and the surgical strike by the Indian Army in retaliation to the Uri attack. Both films use narrative strategies to frame key historical events into certain ideological contexts, and hence they serve the populist purpose of swaying viewers’ opinion in favour of the dominant socio-political class.

Evolving Cinematic Techniques in Hindi Films: A Practice-Based Study on the Integration of Technology and Tradition

Evolving Cinematic Techniques in Hindi Films: A Practice-Based Study on the Integration of Technology and Tradition