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Bollywood is sexist, researchers claim after analysing 4,000 Indian movies

Bollywood is sexist, researchers claim after analysing 4,000 Indian movies

Finally, there is more than rhetoric and Kangana's Bollywood Diva song to support the claim
25 Oct, 2017

Bollywood is sexist and finally we have more than just rhetoric and Kangana’s Bollywood Diva Song to back up the claim.

After looking into 4,000 Hindi films researchers at IBM, and two Delhi-based institutions, concluded that "different features like occupation, introduction of cast in text, associated actions, and descriptions... show the pervasiveness of gender bias and stereotype in movies”.

Researchers examined an IBM dataset of Wikipedia pages of 4,000 Hindi movies released between 1970 and 2017. They looked at film titles, cast information, plots, soundtracks, and posters. They also analysed 880 official trailers of films released between 2008 and 2017.

Female actors not only have less screen time as compared to the male contemporaries but their characters, even when they are playing the protagonist, aren’t holistic and are written in relation to the man.

Researchers also noted commercial Hindi films overwhelmingly portray female characters as an "ideal women" who is submissive, self-sacrificing, chaste, and controlled, while the "bad" woman is "individualistic, sexually aggressive, westernised, and not sacrificing."

And even though female characters are trivialised, researchers argue filmmakers continue to employ actresses, using them as bait to attract audiences.

"They want to publicise through (the actress) but when it comes to actual story, she has been sidelined," said Nishtha Madaan of IBM India.

And this stark on-screen disparity extends to off-screen discrimination as well. Women are increasingly missing from production teams, researchers added.

Read more: Wise words: 4 ways to navigate sexism in Bollywood, according to Anushka Sharma

But there has been some improvement as well ─ however staggering and minimal ─ in Bollywood producing more female-centric movies since 70s. Between 2015 and 2017, female roles were written as central characters in 11.9% of Hindi movies. In the 70s, this figure was closer to 7%.

The 40 years of sexism and oppression of women in Bollywood glares in your face. But if there's a silver lining, we'll hang on to it.

Comments

Saira Oct 25, 2017 05:42pm
And you are surprised?
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Chnakya Oct 25, 2017 07:32pm
What a waste of time, they could have simply asked us .
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Sobia Oct 25, 2017 07:49pm
Is this a news?? This is so very obvious. There is no need to make a CLAIM.
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bakwaas Oct 25, 2017 07:59pm
You don't need to study 4000 movies to do this. Look at any movie and this is obvious.
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Rahul Oct 25, 2017 08:00pm
Bollywood reflects desi society. We all want chaste, virgin wives but want to be free to go out and sow the wild oats with the boyz.
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Well wisher Oct 25, 2017 08:10pm
I wonder what they will say after watching Chain Aye Na and other Syeed Noor movies
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Haider Oct 25, 2017 08:26pm
Public likes this. So what?
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Anand Oct 25, 2017 08:37pm
lol.. why they wasted time analyzing 4000 movies
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Reality Oct 25, 2017 09:07pm
Wow what a research topic. Well even Hollywood is. What about Lollywood - equality of sexes?
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Jay Oct 26, 2017 02:37am
Wow it took the researchers so long to find what we have known for ever!!! Congratulations to them!!
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Bobby Oct 26, 2017 10:08am
They needed research to prove this ? This is a well known fact all over the world
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Disgusted Oct 26, 2017 10:44am
4000 movies!!! I could tell that by just one.
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Khwarizmi Oct 26, 2017 01:00pm
I know Indian families who have banned Bollywood into their homes because they feel it is against their values.
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M. Emad Oct 26, 2017 01:22pm
Young Pakistani actresses are flocking to Bollywood.
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Rajesh sajjanshetty Oct 26, 2017 02:00pm
Watch any Indian movie , Hindi, kannada , Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam etc. All are sexist. No need to watch 4000 movies.
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Ji Oct 28, 2017 10:14pm
They also analysed 880 official trailers of films released between 2008 and 2017.what sort of research is this
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Rashad Oct 29, 2017 02:57am
I'm surprised they had to watch 4000 movies to determine that!
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