Aadya Gupta, Week 12

 Does Bollywood have a Women problem? Al-Jazeera.

I wholeheartedly share the sentiments expressed in this article. A point that stood out for me what that since female characters are written by men, they are very stereotypical. The effect of such Bollywood movies is two fold: One, women watch a particular type of character on TV and try and emulate her, in order to be seen as more desirable by men. Two, men who watch these movies are subconsciously influenced, and their idea of what is sexy and desirable is shaped and molded through the medium of these movies.

An argument which I feel is undervalued is that simply because of its large reach, Bollywood has a responsibility to its viewers, for popular films and actors have the power to affect change in society like no one else. One has to only look at movies such as Padman and Pink, which the article also references, which have positive societal effects. The popular Amazon Prime show Made in Heaven was such one show, which had good female characters with depth, who were shown less as sexual objects and more as people. Bollywood films normalize stalking to a seriously dangerous level in society, that now a woman’s ‘NO’ is taken not a refusal but a request for further attention. In this way, women’s agency is completely eroded. While I understand that female actors do not get good roles, the characters they play on screen don’t personally affect them as they are from affluent socio-economic backgrounds, which protects them to a large extent from on-the-ground reality of even teasing and harassment. Since they are surrounded by bodyguards, they are further protected. The characters they portray however, influence the mindset of men, who will treat the women they see exactly the way the female actress was treated on screen. These pictures also normalize sexual violence, and erode the formal understanding of consent. There needs to be a large-scale demand from the public for better movies.