Just 26% of Bollywood film characters are female: TISS study flags gender bias

Leading Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone had a prominent role in one of the highest grossers of this year – ‘Pathaan’ – but it was clearly a Shah Rukh Khan starrer vehicle. Alia Bhatt, who ably helmed a spy drama like ‘Raazi’, ended up in just a smattering of scenes in the 2022 box-office hit ‘RRR’.

The over 90-year-old Bollywood film industry, which churns out more than 200 films a year, continues to give women a raw deal on the big screen and off it.

According to a recent study conducted by the Mumbai-based premier institution, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, the discrimination begins with the numeric representation of women on screen. The study states that just 26 per cent of the characters in Hindi films are female, while males corner a sizable chunk of screen time in theatres.

72 per cent of all the characters depicted in Hindi films are male, and queers suffer a worse fate with just 2 per cent of the characters depicting them.

Also, a majority of the leads and co-leads in box-office topper films are men (clearly this is visible in a Salman Khan, Akshay Kumar or a Rohit Shetty film), while women just play the role of a ‘romantic’ co-lead. Women strut or flit around in vacuous, glamourised roles in these box-office films. And, with India’s obsession with fair skin, according to the study, most women characters are “fair skinned with a thin body type” and are “Hindu and belong to dominant castes”.

These findings clearly show that in what was once called ‘Bombay cinema’ that revolutionised Indian cinema with path-breaking films from the 30s, ushering in the studio culture with powerful women like Devika Rani at the helm, women are treated shabbily and are nowhere on par with their male counterparts off and on the big screen.

The 18-month study, conducted by the School of Media and Cultural Studies, TISS, Mumbai (SMCS-TISS) through a grant from the US Consulate in Mumbai, showed that while there seems to be some “qualitative change” in Hindi films, there is a big need for gender equality in films in numeric terms as well as with references to the nuances of characterisation and dialogues.

The study concludes with asking for a “more conscious and clear strategy” to close the gender gap on and behind the screen.

Also read: Women on screen: How Bollywood films censor the appetite of its heroines

Troubles women face in Bollywood

In an interview with The Federal, Dr Lakshmi Lingam, TISS retired professor, who spearheaded the study says, “It’s just not about seeing enough women on the big screen with meaningful roles, Hindi cinema industry’s preoccupation with beauty is disturbing. Also, there are deeper issues such as the lack of recognition over installing an internal complaints committee on every film project to address women’s concerns or the lack of infrastructure like providing women’s toilets on sets.”

There’s ambiguity over whether effective PoSH committees are being set up by film production companies in Hindi cinema, points out Lingam. While working on the study, in which they had studied 1,930 characters in 35 films, the researchers came across screenwriters who complained about having to make their story pitches in informal settings like hotel rooms or producer’s homes at odd times of the day.

“Women screenwriters told us they feel highly uncomfortable and unsafe in such situations. It should be done more professionally and with women also in the pitching sessions. Why have auditions for female actors in hotel rooms too giving room for casting couch aspersions?” asks Lingam, who feels there is a huge necessity to talk about women’s safety in the Hindi film industry.

“Hindi films also must depict an alternative narrative about women’s employment,” says Lingam. Take the case of the film ‘Mission Mangal’, Vidya Balan’s character is constantly gaslighted by her husband for not caring for the family and home. She then turns around and asks him why he’s not taking the responsibility. “We need to have more pushbacks on the big screen like that,” says Lingam.

Female directors and gender sensitivity

In fact, in their ‘call to action’ ideas to the Hindi film industry leaders in the study, the researchers suggest filmmakers should show women in professions not traditionally ‘feminine,’ and in positions of authority and show men participating in domestic work, being caring and sharing parenting.

Lingham also gives the example of Zoya Akhtar’s ‘Dil Dhadakne Do’, in which, there is a big argument that breaks out between Farhan Akhtar and Rahul Bose, when Akhtar’s character objects to Rahul saying he “allowed his wife to work”. Or, Priyanka’s push back to violence in her marriage or Anushka Sharma’s willingness to give up her relationship not to compromise on her freedom.

Female directors are more sensitive and are able to slide in these “gender issues” in box-office hits but it doesn’t happen in non-female director helmed films, asserts Lingam. Some of the films under this TISS study included box-office hits like ‘Kabir Singh’ (a controversial film that celebrated male toxicity), ‘Housefull 4’, ‘Dabangg3’, ‘Gully Boy’, ‘Kalank’, ‘Student of the Year 2’, ‘Manikarnika’ and 10 women-oriented films like ‘Raazi’, ‘Lipstick under my burkha’, ‘Dear Zindagi’, ‘Margarita with a straw’, ‘Mardaani’ and others.

Also read: Priyanka claims she was “pushed into a corner” in Bollywood

Depictions of love and romance in Hindi cinema

Depicting love and romance in Hindi cinema is still fraught with problems, points out Lingam. Normalising stalking, inability to show a women express her sexual desire explicitly and sending what is referred to as “mixed signals” is worrying, she adds.

The TISS study in fact asks filmmakers to show women on the big screen initiating sexual relations or actively verbally consenting to a physical relationship and show more women pushing back against violence, sexualisation and toxic relationships.

There is another aspect which the study touched upon – the clear lack of women folk working behind the camera in the Hindi film industry. For every six men working in different departments in the film industry there is one woman, says Lingam highlighting the heavily-skewed ratio to drive home that the Hindi film industry is still male-dominated.

“Women are missing in most departments in the film industry, they are very poorly represented in departments such as cinematography, sound, editing, lyrics and script. And, are more visible in visual effects, production, music, costume and distribution,” says Lingam.

Says Dr Shilpa Phadke, the dean of SMCS-TISS, “What Hindi cinema needs today is more diverse representations of women and queer folks on screen, more women and queer folks behind the camera in cinematography, editing, direction, production making decisions and controlling the money.

OTT and change in women representation in film

On whether OTT has brought in change for women actors and artistes in Hindi cinema, Lingam replies, “It is true that OTT is providing a larger timescale to explore relationships with nuances and you see women of different age groups as well. They show women exploring their freedom without being judgemental and are subtly passing on messages and showing pushbacks to things taken for granted. However, not all the material on OTT is progressive.”

What the study hopes to achieve

Cinema is a much loved and watched visual medium and has significant power to impact the ways in which women are represented on the screen, says Phadke, hoping that with this study they reach out to the Hindi film industry and enable change, especially in areas like “providing infrastructure (like toilets and creches) on the sets, funding more female forward narratives and more films by women”.

“We also hope to see a greater representation of women as heads of departments,” emphasises Phadke.

The TISS researchers are next planning a round table to discuss the findings and their solutions with film producers. In their study, their actionable ideas for producers include the setting up of Internal Complaints Committees (as per the POSH Act) within unions, as well as production houses and film festivals and to address issues of sexual harassment.

Secondly, they want producers to ensure pay transparency as well as pay parity and to professionalise the process of auditions by conducting them in safe spaces with the presence of women in the selection teams.

For films that are likely to have intimate scenes, there needs to be an intimacy coordinator present during the filming, says the study. The contracts signed by actors should include the content and treatment of intimate scenes and the actors’ consent has to be taken and filming has to adhere to the contract.

The TISS study titled, ‘Lights, Camera, and Time for Action: Recasting Gender Equality Compliant Hindi Cinema’, will later be made available on the TISS web archive.