Has Bollywood Developed a More Progressive and Diverse Culture over the Years?
The $2.1 billion (1.5 billion) industry produces hundreds of films each year and has a worldwide following of Indians. Fans worship celebrities, pray for their well-being, create temples in their honor, and even donate blood in their honor. Over the years, Bollywood films have been accused of being regressive, encouraging sexism, colorism, and gender biases, but no comprehensive research of their social prejudices has been conducted. Researchers lead by Kunal Khadilkar and Ashiqur KhudaBukhsh of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) in the United States selected 100 of the most popular commercial successes from each of the seven decades from 1950 to 2020 in order to fill that gap. The research team submitted the subtitles into automated language-processing algorithms to see if  and how  Bollywoods prejudices have changed over time. Films operate as a mirror of social biases and have a major impact on peoples lives, according to the researchers, and the study allowed us to understand how India has grown in the previous seven decades via the lens of entertainment. The researchers also chose 700 films from Hollywood and 200 critically acclaimed films nominated in the foreign film category at the Oscars to evaluate how Bollywood compared to other major film industries across the world. The survey revealed some intriguing findings: Bollywood is biassed, but so is Hollywood, albeit to a lesser extent on most categories. And that social biases have steadily decreased in both businesses over the last seven decades. The researchers wanted to know if Bollywood mirrored Indias well-documented predilection for sons, as well as if attitudes about a societal scourge like dowry had altered. The results revealed a significant drop. In the 1950s and 1960s, 74 percent of babies born in movies were males, but by the 2000s, that percentage had dropped to 54 percent. Even though there was a significant increase, the gender ratio remained imbalanced. The study drew attention to the tradition of Indias son preference for dowry, which was prohibited in 1961. However, in the vast majority of arranged marriages  and nine out of ten are still planned  brides families are expected to pay cash, jewelry, and presents, and thousands of brides are murdered each year for failing to deliver sufficient dowries. The study discovered that terms like money, debt, jewelry, fees, and loan were used alongside dowry in older films, indicating conformity with the practice. However, modern films have employed adjectives like guts and refused to show non-compliance, as well as divorce and problems to show the consequences of such non-compliance. Some prejudices remained unaltered, according to the study, such as Indias long-standing preference for lighter skin. The study also indicated a modest caste prejudice, with an examination of doctor surnames revealing a significant upper-caste Hindu bias, and discovered that while the representation of other religions has increased in recent years, that of Muslims, Indias largest minority, has stayed below the population percentage. In Bollywood, the great hero nearly always has a Hindu name, while the portrayal of Muslims is restricted and stereotyped. Audiences in India go to the movies to see spectacles, songs, and dance performances, so directors keep to the tried and true formula. It may be argued that there is one big film in Bollywood that will surprise you, but there will be ten more that will return you to the clich. It took a pandemic to demonstrate that people are willing to see past preconceptions. When audiences declare that they have the authority to demand more, directors will be forced to make better films. The Bollywood industry will have to evolve. Photo Credit: https://britasia.tv/5-classic-bollywood-movies-that-have-been-rebooted/  Like this: Like Loading...