A new research report by the School of Media and Cultural Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS), Mumbai, reveals that on- and off-screen women and queer representation in box-office hits remains largely stereotypical.
This statement in itself says a lot. It says, women and queer representation remains stereotypical in box-office HITS. Going by the summary of the research it can be concluded, as it does not matter how female actors are cast, it is the male actor who carries a film and it becomes a hit!
The research is exhaustively titled ‘Lights, Camera, and Time for Action: Recasting a Gender Equality Compliant Bollywood’. Such a clichéd title!
The research was carried out by TISS and funded by the US Consulate General in Mumbai. The report was released by the brand new celebrity, Guneet Monga Kapoor, thanks to her Oscar-winning feature, ‘Elephant Whisperers’, Vidya Balan and Nandita Das, along with representatives of the Producers’ Guild, Federation of Western India Cine Employees (FWICE) and Western India Motion Pictures and Television Sound Engineers Association (WIMPTSEA)!
Wonder what these three trade bodies have to do with casting of actors in films. In the Hindi film industry, unlike in the South, no trade body dictates terms to filmmakers. They and their members, in fact, depend on filmmakers for their existence.
The one producers’ body present there was the Guild. Is it going to tell its members that henceforth their films and television content should have women in dominating roles vis-a-vis male actors?
Talking of ‘Guneet Monga’, before her Oscar fame, she did make a few mainstream movies. She was one of the producers of the grossly violent and abusive film, ‘Gangs Of Wasseypur’, besides ‘The Lunch Box’, ‘Masaan’, ‘Aiyyaa’, ‘Zubaan’, and so on.
None of them bothered about gender equality compliance.
The casting of women is what the TISS report describes as stereotypical! In a woman-oriented film, ‘Aiyyaa’, guess what is the theme? ‘A woman goes on a hunt for her dream man!’
As for Vidya Balan, she has done some woman-oriented films and excelled in films like ‘Dirty Picture’ and ‘Kahaani’. ‘Dirty Picture’ was said to be based on the South Indian siren Silk Smitha; ‘Kahaani’ was about a woman on a mission to find and execute the wrongdoer, an enemy of the country.
Fine, she had the right to talk about the issue of gender representation, but that was till she did a sequel, ‘Kahaani2: Durga Rani Singh’. Here, Balan, the woman with determination and killer instinct of ‘Kahaani’, turns into a meek person. It was such a convoluted story that nullified the image and character she built for herself in ‘Kahaani’.
Why did Balan do the ‘Kahaani’ sequel? How can an artiste do a film totally contradicting the character she established in ‘Kahaani’? It is all about money. If Balan is so conscious about gender equality compliant Hindi films, the ‘Kahaani’ sequel did not show any signs of that.
Coming to the economics of filmmaking, how much did ‘Kahaani’, about a woman on a mission, collect at the box office compared with ‘Ek Tha Tiger’, a film about a man on a mission? ‘Kahani’, a rare woman-oriented hit, collected Rs 80 crore; ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ made Rs 194 crore.
Just two weeks back, a film titled ‘Neeyat’ with Balan in the lead was released. It collected Rs 3 crore or thereabouts as its lifetime business!
There have been films such as ‘English Vinglish’ and ‘Mom’ with Sridevi in the lead, and ‘Matra’ with Raveena Tandon as the protagonist. Such films are appreciated, but that’s about it. No box-office glories there. Appreciation may be good for the actor but does not help the producer.
Female stars also covet the National Award along with sundry others and take upon themselves to make films with awards in mind. Deepika Padukone produced ‘Chhapaak’, Anushka Sharma made ‘Phillauri’, ‘NH19’ and ‘Pari’.
What does Tata’s TISS and US consulate have to do with Hindi or the Indian film industry? Aren’t female stars in the US making some similar demands? What was the purpose of funding such a survey while you have the same problem at home, whether in films or in the corporate world. It is not for Tatas to get into doing such superficial studies. They have tried their hand at filmmaking and retreated, so they should know better.
Research generally means surfing Google and other available sources online. The fact is, there were times when women got equal or more prominent roles to play in Hindi films. Either they carried the film or complemented the proceedings. These female actors were Meena Kumari, Waheeda Rehman, Nargis and such. Wonder if such talent can be matched today.
Filmmaking is a business, creativity is incidental. And this business of research and seminars about films is humbug.
An actress is always at liberty to refuse a role if she feels it is not gender compliant!
–By Vinod Mirani