A Study of the Portrayal of Female Characters in Bollywood Films

A study of the Bollywood films will always be incomplete without the portrayal of its heroines. Heroines have basically occupied a secondary position in comparison to their heroes. The commercial market which hovers around this film circle and the success of the box office is determined by many factors. These factors are some standards set by our patriarchal society. The success of the film mainly depends on the casting of the hero who almost independently carries the success of the film on his shoulder. Secondarily, the film depends on the heroine who conventionally has to be very beautiful, within a certain age and adhere to some of the pre-requisites of the trade. Bollywood films have mainly reduced the heroine to a subaltern figure. The Bollywood heroine can be studied through the lens of postcolonial feminism.