Shifting portrayal of women and their relationships in Bollywood Films

ABSTRACTBollywood films have always had a major influence on societal values and have played an important role inpromoting Indian culture. It has not only created, but also communicated a shift in social transformation to a levelthat no other kind of visual art has ever achieved.However, even when the Hindi film industry has undergone a paradigmatic technological shift in the way storiesare told, the representation of women remains clichéd. Of the multitude of movies produced by Bollywood, a vastmajority of them continue to be hero-centric with the female lead having limited screen space and in some casesjust to provide gloss to the movie.This paper attempts to lay out the discriminatory and unchanging roles given to women in Hindi cinema (alsopopularly known as Bollywood), despite the fact that there has been an abundance of talented female actors in eachdecade. Furthermore, the chapter will weave together the exemplary work displayed by women actors over theyears whose work was widely recognized and at the same time did successfully at the box office. The depiction ofstrong woman characters have not only influenced to bring about a change in the traditional conservative prevailingmind-set of society but at the same time changed the lens through which the women were looked through.