AVNI GADODIA

BOLLYWOOD
EVOLUTION THROUGH THE YEARS

Introduction

1913, Dadasaheb Phalke, a fellow artist turned filmmaker, was ambitious that, ‘Indians
must see Indian movies on the Indian Silver screen.’ Often regarded as the ‘Father of Indian
Cinema’ his film, ‘Raja Harishchandra’ was India’s first feature film — a silent Marathi
full-feature film with mythological influences

Fact: For his film ‘Raja Harishchandra’ the producer, director, writer, cameraman, etc. was
Dadasaheb himself; talk about multi-tasking!
The silent era which started with the Lumier Brothers in 1896 and peaked with
‘RajaHarishchandra’ in 1913, continued until the year of 1930 when the progression of
technologyinfluenced ‘Talkies’ in Indian cinema.

The “Talkies”

As technology advanced, sound could

help make films a lot more interesting
and engaging. In 1931, Alam Ara (The
Light of the World) directed by Ardeshir
Irani became the first ‘talkie’ i.e. the first
film to employ speech and sound.

The movie was a costume drama about

two rival queens with many songs and
dances.

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It is also interesting to note that during this time, most of the films were historic-themed.
They were about nobility and observed the distinct Pre-British Raj grandeur which were at
large an attempt, a plea, a celebration of the undefeated spirit. Amidst the turbulence of
freedom struggle, World Wars and overall existential grievances, cinema became a
comforting escapism.

Vibrantly colored

As it is with any historical tragedy, bleak reality is followed up with a resurgence and
celebration oflife and all it has to offer. Similar was the case with Indian cinema where as
we progressed into the1950s, we observed the ‘Golden Age’ of Indian cinema with an
upsurge of filmmakers and films. One of the key reasons behind this was the inclusion of
color. The dreary monochromatic films were now enlivened with bright colors.

​Fact: ‘Kisan Kanya’ a humanist tale about the tough circumstances of poor farmers, was
Indian cinema’s first ever color film.

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The Era Of Realism

Dissecting human life under the cinematic spectacle was loved by audiences widely,
inspiring many filmmakers including Satyajit Ray to share their own vision. Life and
humanity were at the core of Ray’s films and Japanese director Akira Kurosawa once wrote:
“Not to have seen the cinema of Ray means existing in the world without seeing the sun or
the moon.”

Pather Panchali, a humble film about a poverty-stricken family navigating their tough
circumstances,was one of the breakthroughs not just for regional cinema but successfully
garnered globalrecognition at film festivals such as Cannes.

Other important filmmakers that were significant to the golden age of Indian cinema
included: Bimal Roy, Raj Kapoor, Mani Kaul, Kumar Sahani and so on. Bimal Roy’s Devdas
gave what Indian cinema (more particularly Bollywood) has so dearly attached itself to:

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antagonising love triangles. Love. Especially an unreachable, unfathomable and
unpredictable sort of love.

Dilip Kumar as Devdas

Be it Veer from Veer Zara, Ayaan

from Ae Dil Hai Mushkil or Sameer
from Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam,
the caricature of the “tragic” hero
albeit with different names or
stories continued to be at the heart
of storytelling in our cinema.

Hence the 1950s saw a little bit of everything: romance, drama, realism, musicals — all
while probing themes of life.

The Times Of Evergreen Films

Soon after watching the love-struck hero, the Bollywood silver screen in the 1960s and 70s,
welcomed a new kind of hero — the Angry Young Man. Violence replaced love, realism
replaced romanticism and actions replaced emotions. The breakaway from the traditional
mould of a filmy hero was propagated and quite frankly popularised by legendary actor
Amitabh Bachchan for his role in films like ‘Namak Haraam’, ‘Agneepath’, ‘Shahenshah’ and
so on. The ‘Angry Young Man’ trope was further litigated by actors such as Anil Kapoor and
Mithun Chakraborty. The most remarkable film to be released during this era, which played
a huge role in shaping modern cinema of India, was Ramesh Sippy’s ‘Sholay’.

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Amitabh Bachchan in Kaalia (1981)

The release of Sholay laid out the quintessential checkboxes for a successful Bollywood
film:

● A super talented (& star-studded) cast

● Brilliant script with iconic one-liners

● Music that gets the audience on their feet.

● Gripping plot with memorable visuals.

It was also during the 1970s that a number of Assamese movies were released; over 50 of
them. Bhaity was the first color film of Assam while new directors like Samarendra Narayan
Dev left an impressionable mark as a filmmaker in the regional cinema of Assam. It is
interesting to note how greatly the themes of regional cinema differed from that of

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Bollywood. With funding and sponsorship being the factors that consequently decided the
production value, much of the mainstream attention was directed towards Bollywood.

The 90s - The Era Of Nostalgia

The 90s was the period of romance and music and irrefutably, Shah Rukh Khan. The 1988
film, ‘Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak’ revoked the love for love with its Bollywood spin of the
‘Romeo-Juliet’ plot. There is no better way toprofess your love than to do it with a song; at
least that’s what Bollywood taught us. With romance-musicals gaining popularity, films such
as DDLJ, and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai set the stage (and benchmark) for how romance is
depicted on-screen.

Still from DDLJ

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As genres of romantic-comedy, family drama and musicals peaked, parallel cinema
emerged actively; producing alt/independent films most popularly Mira Nair’s ‘Salaam
Bombay’. Nominated for Oscars and winner of Cannes, Salaam Bombay became the
alternative voice to theotherwise commercialised cinema. Art films also strived, especially
after the release of Ram Gopal Varma’s Satya (1998), that kick-started the genre of Mumbai
noir (noir films exploring struggles of urban life). These auteurs experimented with a
distinct style and sub-genre, namely ‘Mumbai Noir’ — eclectic and untold stories of the city.

Still from Salaam Bombay

The 2000s

As we move onto another decade of films, Indian cinema grew tremendously not just in the
numberof films it produced but also the quality of the storytelling of the films. With growing
commercialisation, a lot more thought was put behind production design, costumes,
casting and script. As the millenia began, Lagaan starring Amir Khan led and set the path
for films that were loved by the audience as well as the critics.

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Shah Rukh Khan who dominated the screens in the 90s, shared his limelight with upcoming
actors like Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bacchan, Deepika Padukone, Aishwariya Rai and so on.
As for women characters, except performances delivered by Rani Mukherjee in Black and
Kareena Kapoor in Jab We Met, the Indian screen didn’t give enough credible female
characters.

Women In Bollywood

​The beginning of the ‘Golden Era' of cinema is considered to be a more idealistic portrayal
of society. The country was finding its footing as a sovereign society and this atmosphere of
hope and new beginnings manifested itself in Hindi cinema as well. The depiction of Indian
society in movies was more aspirational rather than realistic. Most of the movies that
performed well at the time were based around themes of overcoming class and gender
inequalities. Unlike the decade that succeeded this one, women had a solid role in the
narrative of the films. One standout movie of the era, Mother India (1957), captures the
essence of the identity of female characters of this period—the idea of women being
celebrated as the nation's pillar of strength—a thought that's perfectly represented in the
iconic movie poster that shows Nargis lugging a heavy wooden plough.

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While female characters were an important part of the narrative, they often portrayed
through a patriarchal lens. This made Waheeda Rahman's character in the 1965 classic
Guide an aberration. In the movie, her character Rosie left her cheating and unsupportive
husband to follow her passion and be with a man she chose. When he didn't turn out to be
what she thought he was, she left him too. Such agency was not something female
characters of that era enjoyed.

Movies of this era also say a lot about the way body image was perceived through cinema.
While it goes without saying that washboard abs and toned glutes were virtually
non-existent, the depiction of the female form was, more often than not, purely for the
narrative, and never gratuitous. For instance, in Sangam (1964), Vyjayanthimala Bali
appears onscreen wearing a bathing suit, while Raj Kapoor stands amongst the trees
singing to her. The camera switches between the two characters, but chooses to remain on
the focus of the scene, Raj Kapoor. There is no slow-motion panning of the actress'
scantily-clad body or lingering shots of her waist—shots that have become a staple of every
modern-day song.

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Female leads in Bollywood in the 1970s-80s
The idealistic bubble of the '50s burst resoundingly, giving way to a more realistic depiction
of how the audiences perceive women in their real life onscreen. This is the period when
women in Bollywood were largely relegated to the role of a mother or a dutiful wife. This
mother figure was often shown undergoing taunts and oppression in dutiful silence, and
getting her redemption in the end via paranormal or masculine intervention.

It's also important to note that this was also

the period when then Prime Minister Indira
Gandhi declared Emergency, revoking civil
liberties and censoring press. The uncertainty
of the times was perhaps manifested through
the way women were portrayed onscreen,
celebrating her as a more traditional mother
figure. Two movies that perfectly exemplify
this theory are Jai Santoshi Maa (1975), and
Hema Malini-starrer Seeta Aur Geeta (1972).

In both the movies, the ‘good' female

character was shown as a timid, oppressed
woman who suffered the mental, and often
physical, torture from her family members
without a word. Their silence in the face of
that much pain was heralded as a virtue that
all women must have. They eventually get
their happy end, but remain as subservient as they were before, with a happy ending for
the audience that comprised largely of men.

Female leads in Bollywood in the 1980s-90s

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The rise of the action star meant the emergence of perhaps the most problematic themes
in Bollywood: the use of rape as a plot device. The larger-than-life hero needed a reason to
deliver crowd-pleasing dialogue and beat up the bad guys in a choreographed fight
sequence, and the reason was, more often than not, the rape (or attempted rape) of his
sister, girlfriend or any other woman in his life. The female lead became a one-dimensional
character whose entire existence in the narrative of the story was to be at the mercy of the
bad guy first, and then her
brother/boyfriend/husband, who will valiantly
come and save her. This is not to say that there
weren't films that defied the norm, for instance,
Sridevi in Sadma (1983) and Chandni (1989).

The second wave feminism that was shaking the

western world in this era made its presence felt
back home as well. Women began exploring the
idea of leaving their houses to follow their
ambition. The power dynamic began shifting in
society, especially in the middle class. The female
lead of this era was liberated in that she had a job
that paid her well, but she had to rely on the
support of men to get what she wanted. In the
1994 commercial hit Mohra, starring Suniel Shetty, Raveena Tandon, and Akshay Kumar,
this hypothesis is exemplified.

Raveena Tandon, one of the three female characters who had speaking lines, played the
role of Roma, a newspaper journalist. While at the outset she's shown as a career woman
investigating murder convict Vishal Agnihotri's (Suniel Shetty) tragic story, through the
movie, which involves several twists and fights, Roma is relegated to the role of the damsel
in distress, despite being an educated and accomplished woman. Roma's ability to handle
situations is not established at any point in the plot, making her ‘liberation' a gimmick.
Ironically, what her character is most remembered for today are two dance numbers,
including one where she

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writhes in a wet yellow sari in the rain.

Female Leads in Bollywood 2000 onwards

The early 2000s marked Bollywood's transition from where it was to its current form. The
millennial generation was slowly rejecting the ideas previously held close by society. The
process was slow, but the results are evident now. Take Priyanka Chopra's role in Aitraaz
(2004), also starring Akshay Kumar and Kareena Kapoor Khan in lead roles. Chopra's
character, Sonia, is portrayed as a driven model who terminates a pregnancy for the sake
of her ambitions, and later schemes to get her ex (Akshay, who leaves her because of the
abortion) convicted for rape for dumping her. Sonia's hunger to get ahead, which was
strong enough for her to terminate an unplanned pregnancy, was enough to cast her as a
villain in the story. There's no denying that she was the clear negative character in the
story—trying to get back at an ex by accusing him of rape—but apart from that, the factors
that attributed to her being cast as the ‘bad guy'—driven, career-focussed, sexually
liberated, with bodily agency—would hold no ground today.

This is majorly due to the shift in the audience's awareness of the lack of equality in the
storytelling of these movies. With more women involved in the writing process, female
perspectives and opinions finally began to be explored. Through the exposure awarded by
internet and the increasing literacy, the audience grew with more examples of progressive
cinema from around the world and began rejecting the idea of a one-dimensional female
character, looked at through the lens of a man.

All this is not to say that

today is the Golden Era for
women in cinema. This
decade has seen the
propagation of an unrealistic
body standard, especially for
women. It was no longer
acceptable to just be a
woman existing in a movie's

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universe. The character should have a physique that would look good in a bikini, no matter
her profession. One look at the many action blockbusters from recent years will rid you of
any notion that we have finally eliminated the gender inequality issue in Bollywood.
Interchangeable female leads in inconsequential roles seem to be a theme in a majority of
hit movies.

The evolution of women in Bollywood has been a gradual process, with female characters
going from being one-dimensional to complex and multi-faceted. Some of the prominent
actresses who have contributed to this evolution over the years include

1. Nutan: She was one of the first actresses who challenged traditional gender roles
with her performances in films like Bandini (1963) and Sujata (1959).

2. Shabana Azmi: She was a pioneer in bringing strong female characters to the
forefront of Bollywood cinema. She is known for her performances in films like Arth
(1982) and Ankur (1974).

3. Smita Patil: Another trailblazer in Indian cinema, Smita Patil was known for her
powerful performances in films like Bhumika (1977) and Mirch Masala (1987).

4. Madhuri Dixit: She is one of the most iconic actresses of the 90s and helped change
the perception of women in Bollywood with her roles in films like Dil To Pagal Hai
(1997) and Hum Aapke Hain Koun..! (1994).

5. Kajol: Known for her unconventional looks and strong performances, Kajol helped
break the mold of the typical Bollywood heroine with films like Dilwale Dulhania Le
Jayenge (1995) and Kuch Kuch Hota Hai (1998).

6. Kangana Ranaut: One of the leading actresses of the current generation, Kangana
has become known for her bold and powerful performances in films like Queen
(2014) and Manikarnika: The Queen of Jhansi (2019).

These actresses and many others have played a significant role in the evolution of women
in Bollywood cinema, paving the way for more complex and diverse female characters on
screen.

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