Films and Gender Predilections: A Look into Bollywood’s Shifting Directorial Narratives

Cinema, the greatest art of the twentieth century, emerged the most popular medium of mass consumption not only by playing a key role in the creation and moulding of opinions, but also by constructing images that reinforce dominant cultural values. When the processes of movie making was largely controlled and mediated by the male directors, actors and technicians, they inadvertently transferred the patriarchal values they believe in, to the functioning and hierarchy of the film industry and in the narratives they construct. The second wave feminism and associated movements gradually changed the way in which the film narratives were created. More and more female authors who entered the film world managed to do the maximum to hit upon a bias-less world, with agency in their films, which appeared to have changed the world view of how the gender should be treated in public and society. This study tries to find the parallels of this trend in Hindi films, as more and more female filmmakers are out there into Indian parallel and commercial film making.

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