Individualization and Sexuality of Aging Women in Contemporary Women's Cinema of Bollywood

The depiction of aging women’s sexuality has undergone a decent transformation in popular culture. In film studies, Women’s cinema intervenes in the stereotypical depiction of women on screen and discusses various topics that have not been discussed exhaustively. Sexuality is one of the crucial topics among them. In Bollywood, Alankrita Shrivastava is one of the women directors who stood out among her peers. She discussed aging women’s sexuality comprising urges, desires, and fantasy, focusing on their identity, individuality, and self-actualization. The films discussed all these complexities of aging women’s sexuality with endearing sensitivity and delicacy. Using Beck and Beck-Gernsheim’s (2002) Individualization and McRobbie’s (2004) Female Individualization, this paper examined the sexuality of aging women depicted in the two films of Alankrita Shrivastava- Lipstick Under My Burkha (2017) and Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakate Sitare (2020). This study also analyzed these characters’ individualization of sexuality, which breaks the conventional barriers and their journey towards self-autonomy.