Masters' dissertation

Portrayal of Women in the films of Rituparno Ghosh and Shyam Benegal 2015
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PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN THE FILMS OF RITUPARNO GHOSH
AND SHYAM BENEGAL : A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS
A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED
IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT
OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE
MASTER OF SCIENCE IN COMMUNICATION DEGREE
OF BANGALORE UNIVERSITY
BY
MANJISTHA ROY
(Reg. No. 13RSBC2007)
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
Ms. SUDESHNA DAS
DEPARTMENT OF MEDIA STUDIES
GARDEN CITY COLLEGE
BENGALURU- 560049
ACADEMIC YEAR 2014-2015

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DECLARATION
I, Manjistha Roy hereby declare that the entire work embodied in this
dissertation titled “ Portrayal of women in the films of Rituparno Ghosh and
Shyam Benegal : A Comparative Analysis”, submitted in partial fulfilment of
the requirement of the Masters of Science in Communication degree of
Bangalore University, has been carried out by me under the guidance and
supervision and guidance of Ms.Sudeshna Das, Lecturer, Department of Mass
Communication, Garden City College, Bangalore. This dissertation or any part
thereof, has not been previously submitted for the award of any degree of any
university or institution.
Place: Bengaluru Manjistha Roy
Date: 13RSBC2007

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CERTIFICATE BY GUIDE
Certified that this dissertation entitled “ Portrayal of women in the films of
Rituparno Ghosh and Shyam Benegal: A Comparative Analysis” is based
on an original study conducted by Ms. Manjistha Roy (13RSBC2007) under my
guidance. I further certify that this research work has not previously formed the
basis for the award for any degree or diploma by the university.
Place : Bengaluru Ms. Sudeshna Das
Date: (Supervisor and Guide)

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
There are several people I would like to thank without whose help and support I
would not have completed my thesis.
Firstly, I express my gratitude to Dr. Joseph V.G. , the Chairman of Garden City
College. Secondly, I sincerely thank our beloved Principal Dr. Siddaramaiah
Pujar for permitting me to do this thesis.
I would like to express my sincere gratitude to my guide, Ms. Sudeshna Das,
Lecturer, Department of Media Studies for her supervision and guidance
throughout my research. Ms. Sudeshna Das has been supportive and has always
advised me on the progress of this research. She has always given her time and
ideas for the research to be objectively clear.
I would like to thank Mr. M. Manjunath, Head of the Department, Department
of Media Studies for providing me useful contacts for my research.
I would like to thank the persons who have taken out time from their busy
schedule and given me the interview and few suggestions for my research,
specially, Dr. Shoma. A. Chatterji , Mr. Kallol Lahiri and Prof. N. Manu
Chakravarthy.
I would also like to thank my parents without whose help and support I could
not have done this research.
I am also thankful to the entire 1st
year batch of Mass Communication and
Electronic Media and my friends who have helped me to conduct the focus
group discussion of my project.
I am also thankful to the rest of the teaching and non-teaching staff of
Department of Media Studies for their help and support.
Place: Bengaluru Manjistha Roy
Date: (2013RSBC2007)

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ABSTRACT
This thesis examines the portrayal of women in the films of Rituparno Ghosh and Shyam
Benegal. Since more number of research studies were not available particularly on these two
directors so papers loosely related to the topic portrayal of women are analysed for the review
of literature for the thesis.
Both quantitative and qualitative methods are used in this research. For quantitative method
content analysis of selected films are done and for qualitative method , indepth interview and
focus group discussion are done.
A content analysis of five selected films of each of the directors are done. The films are
analysed based on certain pre-defined parameters that goes well with the research, and the
results are coded on coding sheets and also presented graphically.
Indepth interviews are taken of five people belonging to the film fraternity and has good
amount of knowledge about these two directors.
Focus group discussion was conducted with the students of Media Department, Garden City
College, after screening a film of each of these two directors so that they can get an idea
about their works and analyse it. The discussion has been transcripted and attached with the
thesis.
After all the analysis it is found that in the films of Rituparno Ghosh and Shyam Benegal
there is no stereotypical portrayal of women, and there varities of shades in their roles, and
the female characters are shown to be more powerful than the male ones. The comparison
that can be drawn in their films is that they belong to two different time period so we get to
see a differences in culture, plot and the mental set up of the characters.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
SL. NO. CHAPTER PAGE
NO.
1. INTRODUCTION 10-21
1.1 A BRIEF HISTORY OF INDIAN CINEMA
1.2 THE INDIAN FILM INDUSTRY
1.3 PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN INDIAN CINEMA
1.4 THE CONCEPT OF ‘STEREOTYPICAL’ PORTRAYAL
1.5 RITUPARNO GHOSH
1.6 SHYAM BENEGAL
1.7 RATIONALE
1.8 PROBLEM STATEMENT
1.9 OBJECTIVE
2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE 22-34
2.1 FEMINIST FILM THEORY
2.2 THE CONCEPT OF ‘MALE-GAZE’
2.3 THE CONCEPT OF ‘COUNTER-CINEMA’
2.4 WOMEN IN RITUPARNO GHOSH’S FILMS
2.5 THE STEREOTYPICAL PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN
2.6 A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE FILM ‘DAHAN’
2.7 WOMEN IN SHYAM BENEGAL’S FILMS
2.8 THE IMPACT OF GLOBALISATION ON THE PORTRAYAL
OF WOMEN IN INDIAN CINEMA
2.9 THE BECHDEL TEST
2.10 GENERAL VIEWS OF SOME FILM SCHOLARS ON
PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN INDIAN CINEMA
3. METHODOLOGY 35-39
3.1 STUDY DESIGN
3.2 SAMPLING TECHNIQUE
3.3 SAMPLE SIZE

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3.4 DATA COLLECTION PROCEDURE
4. FINDING AND ANALYSIS 40-115
.
5. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 116-119
5.1 CONCLUSION
5.2 RECOMMENDATION
5.3 SCOPE
5.4 LIMITATION
6. BIBLIOGRAPHY 120-124
7. APPENDIX 125-140

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LIST OF TABLES
TABLE
NO.
TITLE OF TABLES PAGE
NO.
1 PORTRAYAL OF CHARACTERS IN PATRIARCHAL ERA 92
2 PORTRAYAL OF CHARACTERS IN FEUDAL ERA 95
3 LIVING STYLES OF WOMEN CHARACTERS 97
4 SOCIETAL NORMS AND TRADITIONAL VALUES AS
FOLLOWED BY WOMEN CHARACTERS
99
5 ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE CHARACTERS 101
6 DRESSING STYLE OF THE WOMEN CHARACTERS 103
7 PERSONALITY OF THE WOMEN CHARACTERS 105
8 ROLE PLAYED BY THE WOMEN CHARACTERS 107
9 TYPES OF WOMEN CHARACTERS 109

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LIST OF CHARTS
CHART
NO.
TITLE OF CHARTS PAGE
NO.
1 PORTRAYAL OF CHARACTERS IN PATRIARCHAL ERA 92
2 PORTRAYAL OF CHARACTERS IN FEUDAL ERA 95
3 LIVING STYLES OF WOMEN CHARACTERS 97
4 SOCIETAL NORMS AND TRADITIONAL VALUES AS
FOLLOWED BY WOMEN CHARACTERS
99
5 ECONOMIC CONDITION OF THE CHARACTERS 101
6 DRESSING STYLE OF THE WOMEN CHARACTERS 103
7 PERSONALITY OF THE WOMEN CHARACTERS 105
8 ROLE PLAYED BY THE WOMEN CHARACTERS 107
9 TYPES OF WOMEN CHARACTERS 109

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CHAPTER-1 : INTRODUCTION

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Cinema has always been a reflection of the ethos and ideology of any society at a given point
of time. The mediums to stress on this reflection varied from costumes to music to items of
luxury; but the most crucial medium became the characters. The mind-set, thinking,
apprehensions or the prejudices of the characters were the same as those of the general
public. And this same thing also goes with the portrayal of the women characters in the
cinema.
1.1 A brief history of Indian Cinema
The first exposure to motion picture was recieved by India in 1896, when Lumeire
Brothers’ cinematograph unveiled six soundless short films at Watson Hotel, Bombay on July
7. Hiralal Sen and F.B. Thanawalla were two Indian pioneers engaged in the production of
short films in Calcutta and Bombay in 1900.
Silent Era - Dhunraj Govind Phalke, more generally known as Dada Saheb Phalke was the
pioneer behind the production of India’s first fully indigenous silent feature film Raja Harish
Chandra which heralded the birth of the Indian film industry. The film was released on May
3, 1913.
The era of Talkies - The first Indian talkie Alam Ara produced by the Imperial film company
and directed by Ardeshir Irani was released on March 14, 1931. The talkie had brought about
major revolutionary changes in the entire film industry of India. Soon after, talkies were also
produced in Bengal and South India. This time period was also recognised as the decade of
social protest in the history of Indian Cinema.
Some memorable film makers and their works glorified the era of 40’s. Some of the
notable works include, V. Shantaram’s Dr. Kotnis Ki Amar Kahani, Meheboob’s Roti,
Chetan Anand’s Neecha Nagar and so on and so forth.
The first International Film Festival of India held in early 1952 at Bombay influenced
the Indian Cinema greatly. With the release of Satyajit Ray’s classic Pather Panchali in
1955, a great turning point came in the Indian film industry. Besides Satyajit Ray, few other

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notable directors contributed to the industry with their great works, like Bimal Roy, Raj
Kapoor, Ritwik Ghatak, Mrinal Sen.
In 1953 the first color feature, Jhansi Ki Rani was made. Some other successful
feature films include Mother India, Mughal-e-Azam, Sangam, Sholay etc.
In mid-seventies the trend of ‘new-wave cinema’ started in India with the release of
Mrinal Sen’s Bhuvan Shome. Some other ‘new-wave cinema’ includes Shyam Benegal’s
Manthan, Bhoomika, Aparna Sen’s 36-Chowringhee Lane, etc. Commercial cinema, art
cinema and middle cinema started existing side by side. But commercial cinemas always had
the lion-share in the industry.
The nineties’ era saw the revival of musical love stories in Indian cinema such as
Hum Apke Hain Kaun, Dil to Pagal Hain, Kuch Kuch Hota Hain, etc. Yash Chopra was the
first director who introduced the trend of shooting abroad. (Kundra, 2005)
1.2 The Indian film industry- An introduction
In the 60 years since Independence, Indian cinema has gone through a lot of changes
including a shift from classic mythological blockbusters to “Bollywoodised” remakes of
Hollywood’s blockbuster films. Women in the Indian film industry have played an important
role in the success of many of the renowned films. Their roles however have changed
overtime, from being dependent on their male counterparts to very independently carrying the
storyline and plot forward. The Indian film industry is one of the largest film industry in the
world. According to studies and surveys, Indian films are screened in over a hundred
countries and enjoyed by audiences of nearly four billion people world wide. More than 1000
films are produced each year in more than 20 languages where Hollywood and other film
industries produces less than 400 films per year, according to available statistics with the film
board. With the highest number of theatres and multiplexes being set up, about 3.3 billion
tickets are sold annually in India . Another set of statistics states about 750 films are made
yearly in 72 studios and shown in about 12,000 cinema houses to weekly audiences estimated
at almost 70 million. The Indian film market gets 90% of its revenue from non-English
language films, mostly in Hindi followed by South Indian and other regional language films .

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The CRISIL Research (2010) projects that the industry is expected to grow and emerge as
one of the largest film industry by 2015. Since this industry contributes a lot to the business
and the society, it is interesting to see the changing trends in Indian films from the past to the
present time. (Agarwal)
1.3 Portrayal of women in Indian cinema
The ideal Indian women: In traditional Indian Society, there are certain prescribed roles
which regulate the conduct of women. For example, the conception of the woman as Sita is
prevalent in Indian society and film. Sita is a character in the Ramayana, one of the great
epics, which embodies values and the differences between right and wrong. She is the wife of
Rama, who is representative of many virtues including honor, courage, and loyalty. Much of
Indian popular cinema is influenced by the Ramayana and the Mahabharata, another epic,
which involves the hero Lord Krishna. Sita is the ideal woman and wife that sees her husband
as an idol. Indian popular cinema represents this role of the ideal wife's admiration and
unfaltering respect. (Butalia, 1995)
The law of Manusmriti: According to the Manusmriti, an ancient classical work dealing
with laws, ethics, and morality, a woman should be subject to her father in childhood, in
youth to her husband, and when her husband is dead, to her children, especially her son.
Within the guidelines of the Manusmriti, women do not enjoy independence. Women are
supposed to adhere to the role of a happy figure who takes care of the household. They are
supposed to be obedient to their husbands and go to every length to honor them even after
death. (Butalia, 1995)
In India films are the most popular form of mass communication and Bollywood has
the biggest film industry in the world, producing over nine hundred films annually and
attracting over fifteen million viewers daily. Indeed, the Bombay film is alleged to be “the
opium of the Indian masses” (Gokulsing & Dissanayake 1998:88) and certainly popular
Hindi cinema purports to be nothing more than pure entertainment, enjoyed for the lavish
spectacles of dance and song, action packed adventures and glamorous actresses.

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Although, there is no particular way of portraying the Indian woman onscreen in
Indian cinema, it is very evident that their roles run parallel to the roles women get to play in
the society at particular points in time. Therefore, if we compare and analyse the journey of
women in Indian cinema today, there is no doubt in the fact that the “Indian woman” has
come a long way not only in reel life, but also in real life. (Ray)
The history of Indian Cinema had showed many shades in which women were
portrayed that not only touched the lives of the audiences but also showcased the strength,
beauty and complexity that define a woman. During its journey of 100 years, the Indian
Cinema has been a witness to a vast change in the presentation of the female protagonists.
From the very first film Raja Harishchandra, which had no female actors to the heroic mother
of Mother India, it has been a long journey of women in varied roles in Indian cinema.The
first women to act in Indian films in 1920’s were women of mixed British, European and
Indian origins referred to as “Anglo-Indians”. Indian films were always famous for its
“beauty”factor and the beauty of the movies were undoubtedly its heroines. Actresses like
Madhubala, Vaijantimala, Asha Parekh Wahida Rehman or Suchitra Sen were considered
the queens of the Indian Cinema during their reign. Then came the era of Hema Malini and
Rekha which was followed by Madhuri Dixit, Aishwariya Rai, Preity Zinta and presently
Vidya Balan. Generally the women actors in the industry start their acting careers quite early
than male and they also retire from the silver screen much earlier. It is however a common
sight to see an aged male lead opposite to an young female lead of 19. However old female
leads are always criticized by the audience, press and the industry to have lost their youthful
charm regardless of their acting capabilities.
For long time Indian film industry was male-dominated. The themes that were
presented in the movies were mostly from the point of view of a male audience and women
were considered a secondary actor compared to the male. Movies like Damani or Ram Teri
Ganga Maili shows how an innocent woman suffers and becomes a victim of the male-
dominated society who simply uses them as puppets. In both the cases the male character is
portrayed as docile or impotent who can’t do anything to revive their situation.

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The role of a woman was considered to be an entertainment factor or something that
provides audience with a visual pleasure. The stories played out on the screen are the men,
their conflicts, their dreams, their desires, their revenges, their tragedies and their heroism.
The women exist only in relation to men, as their wives, mothers, daughters or their lovers.
In most of the movies strong patriarchal values have been instituionalized as it would
meet the taste of the audience and it would be declared as a “blockbuster hit.” Movies like
Dahej(1950), Gauri(1968), Devi(1970), Biwi Ho To Aisi(1988), Pati Parameshwar(1988)
have depicted the women character as the perfect docile housewives which suits the Indian
tradition and culture. Audiences have seen to only praise the beauty of the women but have
hardly seen accepting women in bold and independent roles.
But film makers like Bimal Roy, Satyajit Ray, Guru Dutt, Mehboob Khan, Rituparno
Ghosh, Shyam Benegal and few others have marked an exception with their brilliant
presentation of woman excelling beyond their roles as wives, mothers or beloveds. They have
tried to portray their female figures as new woman or bold woman. These film makers have
depicted the women characters that exist in reality and to which we can relate ourselves.
1.4 The Concept of ‘stereotypical’ portrayal
Social Scientist, Walter Lippmann, first used the term ‘stereotype’ in 1922 to refer to
an image that individuals hold in their mind about a specific topic.
In his famous book, Public Opinion (1922), Lippmann explains that the way things
are in the real world are often not the same as the images that exist in the minds of people
within a given society, yet the dominant group takes in the inaccurate images. He acquired
the actual concept of a stereotype from the idea of the printing press. As the paper passes
through the press, the press produces exact copies according to what the person incharge of
the press has specified the print should look like. Much like opinion leaders in society, the
media directors can determine how society views specific groups within that society (DeFleur
& Dennis, 1998).

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He stated that, “In the great blooming, buzzing confusion of the outer world we pick
out what our culture has already defined for us, and we tend to perceive that which we have
picked out in the form stereotyped for us by our culture” (Kanahara, 2006, p. 306).
After Lippmann coined the term stereotype, many other social science theorists used
the concept with a variety of explanations; however, they all seem to focus around the same
idea of cultural and superficial beliefs about a specific group or subgroup within a given
society (Kanahara, 2006). Most often, social scientists defined a stereotype as a negative idea
or image which we conceive as true for every member of a specific group. These images for
the specific groups are inculcated in the minds of citizens by messages conveyed by media
and government. These beliefs become shared knowledge between members of the same
society and culture. In general, “stereotypes function to keep minority people in positions of
low power and prestige” (DeFleur & Dennis, 1998, p. 482).
Thus, the films or the television shows directed at a target audience consisting of
males will normally be inclined to portray negative stereotypic portrayals of female
characters.
Researchers generally argue that ‘stereotypes’ are tools that also question the power
of the majority that they enjoy over that of the minority or the subordinate class, and
unfortunately this is facilitated by media messages, which strongly help in this stereotypical
portrayal. Even though women technically and demographically falls under the majority of
the world‟s population, society has revered males as the dominant social group and so are
they portrayed in every forms of media. (Brewer)

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1.5 Rituparno Ghosh
Rituparno Ghosh was arguably Bengal’s most wildely known contemporary film icon.
After pursuing a degree in economics, he started his career as a creative artist in an
advertising agency.
In 1992 his debut film Hirer Angti was released followed by his next film Unishe
April which was released in 1994 starring Aparna Sen and it won the National Award for the
Best Feature Film. He was not only a talented genius but a prolific director and a most
prominent public figure. His films fall under the genre of “new-wave” cinema or most
commonly known as “ parallel cinema”. Ghosh’s film making was a strong influence of
Satyajit Ray’s movies as he was an ardent fan of him. In a span of almost two decades he
won atleast 12 National Awards and many International Awards. Most of the acclaimed
actors of Bollywood and the Bengali film industry have worked with him in his films.
Most of his films had some different story to tell. He was one such directors whose
films glorified womanhood and closely and sensitively portrayed woman’s feelings,
sufferings and emotions. Rituparno Ghosh was better known as a womanist than a feminist,
and very delicately he dealt with human emotions, and also expressed a choice of studying
the lives of the ‘third gender’, and gave them a place in his films and portrayed them as
somebody who is normal and one among us. Some of his notable films were, Dahan
(Crossfire), Bariwali, Titli, Utsab, Raincoat (an adaptation from O’ Henry’s The Gift of the
Magi), Subho Muhurat (an adaptation from Agatha Christie’s book The Mirror Crack’d from
Side to Side), Dosar, Khela, The Last Lear, Antarmahal, Sob Choritro Kalpanik and
Chitrangada (Crowning Wish).
In most of his films he has dealt the subject of women very delicately and showed
them in a different role which was hardly shown before. Houses, and the conflicted
relationships women have with them, are a recurring theme in Rituparno Ghosh’s works.
Many veteran actors and directors have said that Rituparno Ghosh had a wonderful
understanding of female psyche and this made his films all the more real. In most of his films

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his woman character is someone ordinary or simple like one of us and so audience can easily
relate them.
For example, in the film Dahan, Romita and Shrobona, the two important female
characters are portrayed as somebody who may be present among us. Again in the film Titli,
the mother-daughter relationship played by Aparna Sen and Konkona Sen Sharma is very
simple and real. The character of his films is lively and each of them belonged to the ordinary
middle class.
In an interview with Trisha Gupta( a writer and film critic based in Delhi),
Rituparno Ghosh had explained his intrinsic use of colours in his films. While explaining the
use of colour, he gave an example of the film Chokher Bali, where at the end he uses the
colour of Binodini’s shawl as red inspite of her being a widow. And he tells that in 1902
when Chokher Bali was written by Rabindranath Tagore ‘red’ denoted passion but in the 21st
century ‘red’ can also be associated with revolution, and he had portrayed the character of
Binodini as revolutionary. And he always called himself as an ‘anti-patriarchal person’, and
revealed the same message through his films also. In the interview when he was asked about
glorifying his women characters, he tells that while making films he understood that both
men and women are vulnerable to the greed and politics of an organised power system, and in
this context he speaks of his two characters from two films, ‘Bonolata’ from Bariwali and
‘Harry’ from The Last Lear, and tells that both of their conditions are almost similar, though
one being female and the other male.
Rituparno Ghosh had deep interest in the works of Rabindranath Tagore and had
adapted few of his works into films like Chokher Bali, Noukadubi(Boat Wreck) and
Chitrangada. He had also made a documentary on Rabindranath Tagore’s life named Jiban
Smriti, in which he had portrayed Tagore to be a lonely person rather than a successful
person.

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Bengali film director Gautam Ghose said that, “Rituparno Ghosh’s films with their
sensitive portrayal of human relationships, anguish, trauma and love in a fast-changing,
post-liberalization India charmed audiences. His brilliant story telling reflected
contemporary society like never before.”
Amitabh Bachhan while speaking on the changing role of women in Indian cinema in the
20th
Kolkata International Film Festival had referred Rituparno Ghosh for creating strong
feminist films with complex and penetrating subjects.
1.6 Shyam Benegal
“As a film-maker pure and simple it can be said with some accuracy that no director since
Satyajit Ray has done more for Indian films than Shyam Benegal......” “ Benegal’s films
whether cultural or political, are models of their kind, showing that his commitment is not
confined to fiction but securely based on facts as well as imagination......”
- Dereck Malcom
Dereck Malcolm is the famed film critic and the self-confessed lover of Indian Cinema.
Shyam Benegal is an acclaimed Indian screen writer and film director. He was
awarded the Padma Shri in 1976 and Padma Bhusan in 1991. He was also awarded the Dada
Saheb Phalke Award for life time achievement in 2007.
With his first four feature films, Ankur(1973), Nishant(1975), Manthan(1976) and
Bhumika(1977) he created a new genre of films known as “middle cinema” or “New-wave
cinema”. Unlike other directors of his time he never used mellodrama, romance or money in
his films, rather his films were true to reality and were mainly based on social issues. His first
film Ankur (The Seedling) which introduced Shabana Azmi and Anant Nag was based on the
theme of economic issues and sexual exploitation. He won the National Film Award for the
Second Best Feature Film.
Benegal has been very critical of portraying women in his films. He felt that “it was
time one looked at women in the way that they actually are”. His movies are always devoid
of that fantasy and glamour that one usually associates with Bollywood movies.

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In his movie Nishant we can see how he has portrayed a helpless husband whose wife
has been abducted and gangraped by four zamindars. His movie Bhoomika is a biopic on the
life of a Marathi stage actress Hansa Wadkar.
He made a trilogy on Indian muslim women which includes Mammo, Sardari Begum
and Zubeidaa. The script of these movies was written by film maker and film critic Khalid
Mohammed. These movies were a kind of biopic on the lives of the women related to Khalid
Mohammed. The movie Hari Bhari revolves around the life of five women who struggles
throughout to live the life in their own way.
Shyam Benegal feels that the Indian film industry are only concerned about the
entertainment factor but he feels strongly about the engagement factor, and he says that
sometimes both the entertainment and engagement factor should meet together in a film. His
films have forced us to confront the issues that paralyze our society rather than escape into a
world where women are reduced to mere objects of fantasy.
Amitabh Bachhan in 20th
Kolkata International Film Festival have referred Shyam Benegal
for “reflecting the change in women’s roles in society and giving us flesh and blood female
protagonists who have stood their ground to several vagaries of time.”
.

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1.7 Rationale:
This project will give a view on the versatile role of the women characters in the films of
Rituparno Ghosh and Shyam Benegal, which will pave the way for the other directors to get
inspired from them and follow their works. Their films are devoid of the glitz and glamour
normally present in most Indian films, and are more bent on exploring real and true issues.
1.8 Problem Statement:
In most of the films we see the stereotypical portrayal of women which caters only to the
traditional or cultural values of India. Very few directors like Rituparno Ghosh and Shyam
Benegal have actually given a new definition to the female characters of their films who are a
slice of the real life. This project focuses on how differently these two directors have
portrayed their female protagonists and a comparative analysis of the same
1.9 Objectives of the study are:
 To analyse the portrayal of women in Indian Cinema.
 To evaluate how women are alternatively portrayed in the films of Rituparno Ghosh
and Shyam Benegal based on the era and culture that they belong and the role that
they have played.
 To do a comparative analysis of the films of Rituparno Ghosh and Shyam Benegal.
.

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CHAPTER – 2 :
REVIEW OF LITERATURE

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Review of Literature is the basis for any project dissertation to be undertaken and the futher
research to be conducted. This serves as a foundation for conducting the research very
smoothly and identifying various similarities and distinguishes.
Prior to this different film scholars, film critics and students have done certain research works
on portryal of women in films (may be Hollywood or Bollywood). They have come up with
different parameters and findings and have given a new dimension to the concept of portrayal
of women in films and other media. In this chapter will have close look on those researches
and will have a brief analysis of the same.
2.1 Feminist film theory
Feminism is a social movement that has had an enormous impact on film theory and
criticism. Cinema is taken by feminists to be a cultural practice representing myths about
women and feminity, and men and masculinity. Issues of representation and spectatorship are
central to feminist film theory and criticism. (Smelik, 1998)
Claire Johnston was among the first feminist critics to offer a sustained critique of
stereotypes from a semiotic point of view. She put forward a view of how classic cinema
constructs the ideological image of women. It represents the ideological meaning that
‘women’ has for men. In relation to herself she means no-thing. (Johnston, 1991, p.25)
The Feminist Film Theory clearly shows how mass media constructs definitions of
feminity and masculinity (Gallagher 1992:4). Feminism seeks to explain how women find
their own power in a world filled with social stereotypes and stigmas. Particularly, according
to Knight (1995), feminist film theory is very much political in nature. “It seeks to expose,
not to perpetuate, patriarchal practices” (p. 39). This theory is derived from feminist theory
and feminist politics. Feminists have different approaches to film analysis. Semiotic analysis
of films by feminists show that women are presented in cinema as what she represents for
men not what she actually signifies.
It is about fighting for equal rights for women as a distinct social group, equal to men
in every way. “Identifying male sadism, especially towards women, and holding men at least

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theoretically culpable for such acts as rape, wife beating, and child abuse are major
achievements of modern feminism” (Clover, 1992, p. 226).
Feminist film theory emerged from an effort to find a place for women within film
theory. Feminists felt a need for scholars to explore images and representations of women, as
well as female spectators. (Brewer)
According to Knight (1995), “The examination of the representation of women in
cinema, the idea that “woman” is a sign, the question whether there is such a thing as
women’s desire, or a feminine language, or a subject-position for women as cinema
spectators-these and other topics in the history of feminist film theory have tended to emerge
as responses to theory, or to conceptualizations of desire, language, spectatorship,
subjectivity, and signification which are seen to be patriarchal, phallocentric, and/or
phallocratic” (p. 40).
Traditionally, media presentations are historically counter to the ideas of feminism,
particularly in film. In the beginning, feminist film critics were disappointed with the way
feminist studies seemed to ignore feminist work and critiques of film. Perhaps this was a
reflection of the unique status that feminist film studies occupied, as a member of both
feminist studies and general film studies. “Indeed, in its emerging years in the 1970s and
early 1980s, feminist film theory was more connected to film theory that it was to feminist
theory” (Mayne,2004, p. 1257).
Feminist film scholars have discussed the misogyny of the mainstream media, and
particularly the film industry, which often classifies women as objects. However, they do
note that the female roles in film today have expanded beyond their original stereotypic roles
that existed several decades ago. In the early years of media, filmmakers produced movies
that operated under a social value system designed to regulate women‟s sexuality, keeping
them virgins only for men to use them for pleasure and domination. They were to have no
real sexual desires of their own, but were merely there to serve the male desires. Feminist
film scholars identify the way the camera follows women on screen as sexual objects, a
concept called the “male gaze.” (Brewer) The early work of Marjorie Rosen and Molly

25
Haskell on representation of women in film had actually helped to make depictions of
women more real in narratives as well as documentary cinema.
2.2 The concept of “Male Gaze”
Laura Mulvey’s theory of “male-gaze” is rooted in the assumption that the audience is
composed mainly of males. Laura Mulvey in her 1975 essay, Visual Pleasure and
Narrative Cinema, has introduced the idea of “male-gaze”. The concept was present in the
earlier studies of gaze , but it was Mulvey who brought it to the forefront.
According to her, the male-gaze occurs when the camera puts the audience into the
perspective of a hetrosexual man. Further, Mulvey has stated that, “In a world ordered by
sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female.
The determining male-gaze projects its phantasy on to the female figure which is styled
accordingly.”
Mulvey has thus observed that, traditionally the woman displayed has functioned on
two levels, : as erotic objects for the characters within the screen story, and as erotic object
for the spectator within the auditorium, with a shifting tension between the looks on either
side of the screen.
The woman is passive to the active gaze of the men. The male protagonist or the male
character emerges as the powerful one , as the bearer of the look of the spectator. A male
movie star’s glamourous characteristics are not that of the erotic object of the gaze but are
more perfect, complete and powerful. This somewhat adds to the element of patriarchy,
which are not created by a male individual or the institutions created by men, but have
developed through ages and accepted by everyone.
This essay also states that the female gaze is same as that of the male gaze which
means that, women look at themselves through the eyes of men. Some Indian film writer and

26
scholar have argued that this theory is always not applicable with the Indian audience.
(Mulvey, 1975)
2.3 The concept of Counter-Cinema
Claire Johnston in her 1973 essay, Women’s Cinema as Counter-Cinema said that
female images in films actually do not reflect woman’s reality at all, but they are portrayed in
that form to satisfy the male desires. She uses this concept of myth to describe how sexist
ideology is transformed and transmitted in classical film.
Johnston specifically looked at the films of John Ford and Howard Hawks, two major
Hollywood film makers of the studio era, and showed how women exist in their films as
signs meaningful only within male fantasy and not as significant in themselves.
Johnston in her essay have always rejected the sociological analysis of women in
cinema, which makes her essay different from other feminist film scholars of her time.
Besides, analyzing the works of two male directors she has also analyzed the work of two
female directors of the Hollywood studio system, Dorothy Arzner and Ida Lupino which gave
a real touch to her essay. (Johnston, 1973) (Hollinger, 2012)
2.4 Women in Rituparno Ghosh’s films
“Alison Macdonald’s research paper, ‘Real’ and ‘Imagined’ Women: A Feminist
Reading of Rituparno Ghosh’s Films” tells us how Rituparno Ghosh had portrayed the
bold woman in his films in relation to a more general portrayal of women in Indian
commercial and art house movies.
While analysing the portrayal of women in Rituparno Ghosh’s films Alison
Macdonald has emphasized on the female body and feminine identity which are of prime
concern in the Hindu religion and cultural tradition. Women are expected to be dutiful, self-
sacrificing, submissive and respectful wives and mothers.The honour of a family and

27
preservation of class and caste boundaries is heavily reliant upon women’s behaviour and
control of their bodies (cf. Caplan 1988, Das 1988, Dickey 2000, Donner 2002).
Further Alison had stated in his paper about one important theme of popular Indian
cinema which relates to the ‘female body’ is good sexuality and bad sexuality (Uberoi, 1997).
The heroine is supposed to be the embodiment of bad sexuality , opposed to the vamp who is
the portrayal of erotic sexual behaviors.
Certainly Rituparno Ghosh’s cinema is not intended as a reaction to the stereotypes of
commercial Hindi cinema, as Ghosh claims that he “subscribes to his own tradition of cinema
that he has created” and this tradition takes deep root in the study of patriarchy, feminine
identity and the complexities of human emotion (personal interview given to Alison
Macdonald) and follows in the creative footsteps of Satyajit Ray.
According to Macdonald, Rituparno Ghosh draws upon the widely understood and
recognised notions of ‘body work’ at few important moments to represent women within an
alternative visual framework. (Macdonald, 'Real' and 'Imagined' Women: A Feminist Reading
of Rituparno Ghosh's films)
The women in Ghosh’s films emerge as multi-talented persons, equalising the terms
of their ‘dharma’ and ‘desire’ and finding a way to live within the complexities of a society in
transition. Rituparno Ghosh shows female subjectivity as operating within the social
structures and situations that holds them. The moral and social codes of the ‘female ideal’
exist in varying social processes, practices, situations and contexts and the ways in which
women respond to these situations on a day to day basis should also be thought of as a subject
of complexity. (Macdonald, 'Real' and 'Imagined' Women: A Feminist Reading of Rituparno
Ghosh's films)
Thus Macdonald finds out from his research that, “one of the strengths of Ghosh’s
films is that he effectively brings up widely recognised impressions of ‘body work’ to

28
demonstrate how women can simultaneously symbolise and uphold social values, as well as
strategically undermine them”.
Macdonald believes that the validity and strength of Rituparno Ghosh’s representation
of women lies in the fact that he does not deny modernity because his characters confront
traditional values and struggle to negotiate the ‘visibility’ and ‘invisibility’ of their positions
and roles in society that are only present precisely because a complex interaction exists
between the values of tradition and modernity; the very interaction that many, albeit older
Bollywood films tend to ignore. Rituparno Ghosh’s protagonists constantly re-interpret
restrictive traditional ideologies and thus challenge the fact that traditional expectations made
of women in modern society are unrealistic and in many ways at odds with the modern
‘lifestyle’ that places women into new and contradictory situations. (Macdonald, 'Real' and
'Imagined' Women: A Feminist Reading of Rituparno Ghosh's films)
2.5 The stereotypical portrayal of women
The research paper, “Stereotypical Portrayal of Women in Commercial Indian
Cinema by Sowmya Nandakumar” focuses on the different roles played by women from
the beginning of the Indian Cinema and how these roles are directly influenced by the socio-
cultural set up of the Indian society.
In this paper she discusses about the vicious cycle of the Indian Commercial Cinema,
where it is believed that, directors and producers have to make films that address audience
preference and also meet their profit margin. Audience is quite satisfied to see films that
uphold their value system and conform to it, because they live in that social value system
(Nandakumar, 2011). She believes that this cycle is hard to end, but still some directors have
tried to do so , and in this paper she discusses about the films of Deepa Mehta which had
created a social outrage.
Sowmya Nandakumar makes it clear that the phrase ‘portrayal of women’ refers to
both women pursuing film career off screen and actresses onscreen.

29
In her paper she has analysed the different female characters of the film Sholay. She had also
taken into consideration the viewpoints of other theorists and said that in the Indian
Commercial cinema women are portrayed either as mothers, wives or daughters, or as
immoral prostitutes and vamps. She found that the vamps or the courtesans can express them
more openly and errotically onscreen as opposed to the other sober characters. But both of
these characters have no self-definition or power of their own. They were always deciding,
choosing or doing as per the norms, culture and traditions of the society. But this is not so
with their male counter-parts.
2.6 A critical analysis of the film Dahan
“Nandana Bose in her research paper, Dahan: an exploration of sexual politics”
gives a detailed picture of Rituparno Ghosh’s film Dahan, based on a true story written by
Suchitra Bhattacharya. This film narrates a story of two women’s search for voice and justice.
In the film one of the women named Romita was molested near the metro station in front of
her newly married husband, who was portrayed as helpless. In that situation Srobona, another
women, who happens to be a school teacher comes to her rescue and also assures her of
justice. But Srobona fails to give her the justice because of the domination of the male
counterpart. Romita has her husband and Srobona has her fiancee who constantly reminds
them of the male-dominition in a patriarchal society. She bitterly criticizes the patriarchal
norms which stops them from getting the justice.
Nandana Bose thus observes that Dahan shows that struggle against dominance and
oppression is intrinsic to the lives of these women and that herein lies the essential energy
and collective spirit of any ongoing movement.
2.7 Women in Shyam Benegal’s films
In the research paper, “Portrayal of Women in Shyam Benegal’s films , Deepayan
Biswas”, had tried to show in which way Shyam Benegal’s films show a different image of
the woman which is more convincing and sensitive, and deviated from the streotypical
portrayal. He feels that Shyam Benegal’s films though falling within the Bollywood genre,
are devoid of the ‘superficial glitz and glamour’ normally associated with any other
Bollywood mainstream cinema.

30
According to Deepayan Biswas, Benegal’s films are more bent on exploring issues of
caste, religion,and gender, weaving in stories of Partition and subtly pointing to repressive
social conventions, and giving more emphasis on the struggle of women empowerment.
In an interview given to The British Film and Television Academy, Shyam Benegal
had said, “The Indian woman has always been portrayed as a victim who is unable to protect
herself and is not supposed to have any kind of sexuality.”(sourced interview).
He further feels that Benegal wanted to overcome this shortcoming in Indian Cinema
and this is the reason why his heroines seemed so real and different. (Biswas, Portrayal of
Women in Shyam Benegal's Films) He gave a critical analysis and an insight to few of
Shyam Benegal’s films like Ankur, Bhoomika, Nishant, Hari Bhari, Mammo and so on to
give a clear picture of how the female character has been portrayed in each of these films.
Though Benegal reveals the hardship, certain women face under pressure of
traditional class, religion, and gender constructs, he does not vilify mainstream society. His
nuanced portrayals and absence of hard-line political philosophy makes it difficult to discern
his personal views; his cinema raises questions, but doesn‟t take sides. (Biswas, Portrayal of
Women in Shyam Benegal's Films)
Rather than serving as blatant political statements, Benegal‟s films go only as far as
to raise questions, such as, what is the place of a respectable Indian woman? Should religion
be a determining factor in marriage or citizenship? Can a woman be invested in both career
and family? Is living on the fringes of society necessarily a bad thing? Benegal only hints at
answers. (Biswas, Portrayal of Women in Shyam Benegal's Films)
Benegal in an interview has mentioned that ,“the film industry talks about
entertainment, I talk about engagement. But the engagement and entertainment concepts
must meet at some stage.”(sourced interview)

31
Deepayan Biswas also mentions about some other directors, like Madhur Bhandarkar,
Milan Luthria, Manidh Jha, and so on, whose films bring forth the real issues of women that
are prevalent in Indian society.
Thus, it is in times like these that young film makers must look up to the works of
stalwarts such as Shyam Benegal, who forced society to confront issues that plague our
society rather than escape into a world where women are reduced to mere objects of fantasy.
(Biswas, Portrayal of Women in Shyam Benegal's Films)
2.8 The impact of globalisation on the portrayal of women in Indian
Cinema
Sangeeta Datta, a film director and an author to several film books, in her
research paper, Globalisation and representation of women in Indian cinema discusses
about the importance of cultural identity or a personalised nationality that has evolved as a
more portable and useful term. In this she has mailny focussed on the process of gender
representations in Indian cinema, and how larger ideological forces and market forces impact
this process.
As the women’s movement gained strength in India and highlighted women's
oppression and a struggle for an egalitarian society - a series of women film makers brought
women from the margins to the centre of their texts. An alternate view point and a female
gaze brought a focus on female subjectivity. A number of films were made by Aparna Sen,
Sai Paranjpye, Vijaya Mehta, Aruna Raje and Kalpana Lajmi - which were sensitive
portrayals of women protagonists, in search of social and sexual identity, women firmly
located in specific socio-historical contexts. (Datta, 2000)
Fundamentally consumerism is set to objectify masculine ideals. Postmodern
techniques of parody are simply serve to maintain the male domination of representation. In
Indian mainstream cinema we continue to see a patriarchal version of female sexuality.
Masculinity is defined as the muscular body and physical aggression. (Datta, 2000)

32
Every scene of male violence signals the consolidation of criminality and
‘vigilantism’ with an increasing displacement of the state's law and order role. Criminalising
rape identifies with a progressive legal position but at the same time induces the voyeuristic
pleasure prompted in the cinematic representations of rape. These films force us to reconsider
the limits and possibilities of equating rape and revenge scenes and the masochistic
underpinning of the rape scenes in this genre. These revenge films retain the rule of targetting
modern urban women as victims - fashion models, college teachers, newlywed wives,
policewomen. The metaphor of the city and the criminal/ psychopath lurking in the streets
doubly exposes the vulnerability and the threatened or real violation of these women. (Datta,
2000)
2.9 The Bechdel Test
The Bechdel test is normally used to identify gender bias in films. This test is named
after the American Cartoonist, Alison Bechdel, and it was actually introduced in her comic
strip Dykes To Watch Out For in 1985.
The Bechdel Test asks:
 Are there two or more women in the movie with names?
 Do they talk to each other?
 Do they talk about something other than a man?
If a film can answer ‘yes’ to all three questions then it passes the Bechdel Test, even if it is
only one scene that passes.
Originally this test was conceived for evaluating gender bias in films but now it is used as an
indicator of gender bias in almost all forms of fiction.
The test moved into mainstream criticism in 2010, and has been described as “the standard by
which feminist critics judge television, movies, books and other media.

33
2.10 General views of some film scholars on portrayal of women in Indian
cinema
 Film scholar and author Shoma Chatterji feels and have said in an interview that,
“ Women in Hindi cinema have been decorative objects with rarely any sense of
agengy being imparted to them. Each phase of Hindi cinema had its own
representation of women but they were confined largely to the traditional, patriarchal
framework of the Indian society. The ordinary woman has hardly been visible in
Hindi cinema.”
 Sunder Rajan suggests that more often than not, seamless packaged ‘imaginary’
women that pertain to a socially constructed and deeply mythological model of
idealised feminine identity and behavior, what I refer to throughout as the ‘female
ideal’, form the dominant portrayal of women in the media, where ‘real’ women are
marginalised or completely absent. (Rajan, 1993)
 Purnima Mankekar found in her ethnographic study of female representation on
Indian Television that these feminine portrayals are at odds with how women perceive
their own individual lifestyle.
“We are in the middle, we are niether very modernized, nor have we been able to
leave behind our old culture................ we are neither here nor there.”(ibid:1999:131)
(Mankekar, 1999)
 Lalitha Gopalan in her essay on “ Avenging Woman in Indian Cinema” says that
visual representation of rape in Indian cinema also reminds us of the authority of
censorship regulations and suggest the possibility od sado-masochistic pleasure
structuring these rape scenes. Even while revenge narratives provide female stars with
more dominant roles, women’s access to avenging power in these films is intimetely
predicated on rape. (Datta, 2000)

34
 Maithili Rao in her essay, “To be a Woman”, says that, “women’s response to
popular cinema is a ceaseless love–hate thraldom because the film image ostensibly
celebrates her eroticism while reducing her to a passive sex-object” (1995: 241)

35
CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY

36
3.1 Study design:
The study design used for this project is both qualitative and quantitative method. The
qualitative methods used in this project are indepth interviews and focus group discussion.
The quantitative method used in this project is content analysis.
the requirement of the project.
3.2 Sampling technique:
The sampling technique used in this project is purposive sampling.
Purposive sampling means deliberate selection of sample units that conform to some pre-
determined criteria.
3.3 Sample size:
A content analysis is done on the five selected films of Rituparno Ghosh and Shyam Benegal.
Rituparno Ghosh’s-
 Bariwali
 Dahan
 Unishe April
 Chokher Bali
 Subho Muhurat
and Shyam Benegal’s-
 Bhoomika
 Sardari Begum
 Hari Bhari
 Ankur
 Nishant
are chosen as samples for analysis as per the requirement of the project.

37
3.4 Data collection procedure:
The primary data for the project is collected through:
 Indepth interviews-
Interviewing is a form of qualitative research, and it may be defined as a two-way
systematic conversation between an investigator and an informant, initiated for
obtaining information relavant to a specific study.
In this project five interviews are taken of persons belonging to the film fraternity -
 Dr. Shoma A. Chatterji, freelance journalist, film scholar and author, and the
National Award Winner for Best Film Critic, and the Best Book on Cinema.
 Prof. N. Manu Chakravarthy, Associate Professor, and Head of the
Department of English, NMKRV College for Women, and the recipient of
“Swarna Kamal”- the Best Film Critic Award for 2010 at the 58th
National
Film Award presented by the President of India.
 Mr. Kallol Lahiri, creative writer, film-maker, and visiting lecturer, Dept. of
Media Studies: Film and Television, Calcutta University.
 Prof. Ulaganathan Ganesan, Consulting Editor for Property Guru published by
REBI, and was a member of the Regional Censor Board in Hyderabad for a
term of two years.
 Mr. Sayantan Mukherjee, Assistant Producer, Viacom Motion Pictures.
 Focus group discussion-
Focus group discussion is a form of qualitative research in which a group of persons
are asked about their perceptions and opinions about any concept or idea which may
be relevant to a particular study. Questions are asked in an interactive group setting
where participants are free to talk with other group members.

38
In this project a focus group discussion was conducted with the students of the
Department of Media Studies, Garden City College after screening Ankur of Shyam
Benegal and Unishe April of Rituparno Ghosh , which gave them an idea about the
works of these two directors.
There are 8 participants for the focus group discussion, and three facilitators or
mediators.
The participants for the focus group discussion are:
 Mr. Sudipto Chakraborty
 Ms. Priyadarshini Nandi
 Ms. Pratiksha Mishra
 Ms. Kurup Neha Vasan
 Ms. Sreedevi. T
 Mr. Zobin
 Ms. Vrinda
 Ms. Dhimoyee Debnath
In the focus group discussion a total of 8 questions were asked based on the topic of the thesis
and also on the films that were screened to them.
 Content Analysis-
Content Analysis is described as the scientific study of content of communication. It
is the study of the content with reference to the meanings, contexts and intentions
contained in messages. Content analysis can be done in both quantitative and
qualitative way. In this project I have done the content analysis in quantitative method
by using coding sheet representing it in a table format.
Content analysis is done on the above mentioned films of the two directors on the
basis of some selected parameters, such as-
 Portrayal of characters in the patriarchal era:
This parameter refers to the features of the female characters that matches with
the patriarchal era.

39
 Portrayal of characters in the feudal era:
This parameter refers to the features of the female characters that matches or
not matches with the feudal structure.
 Living style of the characters:
This parameter refers to the different kinds of living style that the female
characters have in the cinema, which may refer that whether they are married
or single or may be a widow.
 Societal norms and traditional values followed by the characters:
This parameter refers to whether a female character follows all the traditional
norms and values of an Indian society in the cinema.
 Economic background of the character:
This parameter refers to the particular economic background that the character
has in the cinema, which means that whether they are from the middle class,
upper middle class, upper class or lower class.
 Dressing style :
This parameter refers to the dressing style that the female characters follow in
the cinema, whether, traditional, non-traditional or the mix and match of both.
 Personality of the women characters:
This parameter refers to the quality of the women character, which may refer
to whether the character is educated, career oriented or may be religious.
 Role played :
This parameter refers to particular role palyed by the women character in the
cinema, it can be the leading role, or the supporting role or the main
supporting role.
 Types of women characters:
This parameter refers to the particular role played by the woman character in
the cinema, it can be that of a mother, daughter, wife, lover, or a friend.

40
CHAPTER 4:
FINDING AND ANALYSIS

41
INDEPTH-INTERVIEWS

42
Interview with Dr. Shoma.A.Chatterji,
freelance journalist, film scholar and author,
and the National Award Winner for Best Film
Critic and Best Book on Cinema
1. What is your view on the portrayal of women in Indian Cinema?
This is a tough question to respond to because we have completed 100 years of cinema and
the portrayal of women has changed from one phase of social history to another. So one
cannot draw a monolith about the portrayal of women in Indian cinema just like that. Women
in the silent era were mainly representing mythological characters. When sound came, the
portrayal was dented with a larger-than-life figure of Fearless Nadia who countered the
mythological and other submissive portrayals of women. This is a question that can and
should be answered in an entire book and not just in a paragraph or two.
2. Do you think that the stereotypical portrayal of women in Indian Cinema had
actually alienated their characters? Why?
What exactly do you mean by the phrase ‘alienated their characters’? ‘Alienated’ from what
and from whom? What ‘characters’ and in which films? You would need to first have a clear
idea about ‘alienation’ because it changes meaning in different situations and in different
contexts. The audience is always looking for closer identification with the characters they
watch on screen. So scripts and filmmakers try to work on this. But since the society is
largely patriarchal and so is the audience, they do not like to see women breaking patriarchal
norms such as the woman did in several early films of V. Shantaram such as Aadmi. Within
the same scenario however, Nadia was a super duper hit but her entire audience was male!
However, the definition of ‘patriarchy’ has also undergone changes over time so today, films
with woman-centric subjects where the woman is also into action such as Mary Kom, NH10,
Mardaani, Queen and so on are being warmly welcomed and appreciated by the audience.
Yet, some of them are commercially compromising. For example, in Queen, the girl remains

43
a virgin even in Paris though she shares a room with four other men, gets sozzled in a pub
and walks the streets till late into the night but sex? That is a big no no because she has to
come back and get married and she needs to remain a virgin! Right? Is she sexually frigid?
Any other young woman would have fallen head over heels for the Italian Chef who likes her
so much. But Queen? Never ever!
3. What differences in portrayal of women do you notice in the films of Rituparno
Ghosh and Shyam Benegal from other directors of their era?
This is a very tough question to answer in a general way. No director makes films with a
conscious design or thought that “I will now make a woman-centric film.” The story or script
evolves in a way that makes it woman-centric. Of course there is a conscious attempt
sometimes with reference to Rituparno Ghosh who chose stories that dealt with the woman
question in the early phase of his career. I have not studied Benegal in great depth but I can
say that he did not consciously choose woman-centric themes as far as I know. Please refer to
Sangita Dutta’s book Shyam Benegal to get a clearer picture. Hari Bhari was a commissioned
film by some government department. Ankur was more about the exploitation of the Dalits by
the feudal landlord class and the woman question just happened to be a part of it. The three
Muslim women films you have mentioned are extremely strong statements on three different
aspects in the lives of Muslim women. But whether they are based on real life women related
to Khalid Mohammed or not is a big question because they are openly fictional. How can
three or four very different women with three different backgrounds and histories be related
to Khalid who was brought up in Mumbai all his life?
Ghosh’s films are more openly woman-centric with stronger statements than Benegal’s which
does not mean that Benegal is a lesser filmmaker than Ghosh but only that Ghosh had a
completely different perspective on the woman question than Benegal did. Benegal was not
consciously designing a film to deal with the woman question but sometimes, Ghosh’s films
reveal that he was. For example, his choice of Suchitra Bhattacharya’s Dahan which deals
with the oppression, humiliation and insult of women in different ways spells out that he
chose the film because of its strong political statement on women. There are many women

44
characters in Dahan and each one suffers from one kind of humiliation/oppression or another
not necessarily by men but by the patriarchal society itself.
4. In any Indian Cinema the male-gaze is always present. How far is this “male-gaze”
present in the films of Rituparno Ghosh and Shyam Benegal?
Laura Mulvey’s theory of the male gaze is rooted in the assumption that the audience is
composed mainly of males. This is not true of the Indian audience. The male gaze in the films
of Benegal hardly exists at all. For Ghosh’s films too, they are mainly incidental to the script
and the story. If intimate love scenes can be taken as an indication of the ‘male gaze’ it is
there in Ghosh’s films. But here too, one must remember that women in the audience equally
enjoy intimate love scenes and have voyeuristic tendencies.
5. Do you think that the films of these directors fall within the paradigm of
patriarchy? Or is there a shift in the paradigm? Why?
Of course they fall within the paradigm of patriarchy because they can be read as critiques of
patriarchy. They do not really offer alternate channels of women’s expression. They can also
be read as different ways of presenting patriarchy. Benegal and Ghosh’s films are different
from others because the characters their films portray have closer connections with real life
women and are not distanced from real life situations. If at all one is looking for ‘alternate’
paradigms, one might read it in the closure of Dahan in which Jhinuk’s older sister says in
her letter that she is not sure whether she will return or not and when Jhinuk walks out of the
gate of her grandmother’s old age home, we, the audience are not very sure whether she will
go through with her marriage or not. In the book, the ending was different and definite. Here,
it is open. In Bariwali also, the leading lady goes down to repair the fuse herself, which
suggests that she has accepted that she will after all, have to fend for herself like she did
before and the mirage the director offered her was his way of exploiting her loneliness, her
beautiful home, her artefacts and her emotions. It is a beautiful closure.
Ghosh is perhaps the only Indian filmmaker who had the courage to point an accusing finger
at himself as an example of how filmmakers as creative artists often exploit others to get their

45
work done so that their film bags awards at festivals or makes money at the box office or
both. He said so himself in several interviews. He did it again in Abohomaan and Aar Ekti
Premer Golpo. Bariwali shows how the director had earlier exploited the character portrayed
by Roopa Ganguli.
6. Delineate your favourite female character from the flims of these two directors.
I loved Benegal’s Zubeida the most not only because of the fiery, rebellious Zubeida herself
but also because of the other woman characters – her humiliated mother who is conditioned
to silently accept her husband’s atrocities, the Anglo-Indian actress (Lillete Dubey) who is
now an alcoholic who shows Zubeidaa a different way of living her life, never mind whether
it is according to societal norms or not and then Mandira Devi, Zubeidaa’s co-wife, much
older than her, confident, and also adores Zubeidaa in a way. The mother’s character evolves
over time as we witness her when sitting with her grandson, she cries as she watches that
single reel her daughter danced in, the only concrete trace of her vibrancy and her power.
I think Dahan is the most memorable and strong woman-centric film for the same reasons I
have given above – the other woman besides Jhinuk and there are so many. One is her
mother, content in her cocoon of a happy family where her husband is planning to buy a plot
of land, daughter is engaged to a young man with prospects and is also teaching in a school,
son away at Kharagpur whose world collapses when her daughter begins to fight a battle for
another woman she witnessed being molested outside the Tollygunge Metro. The newly
married bride who was molested is another woman who is subjected to marital rape by her
husband even when she is completely traumatised by the incident. Her older sister-in-law
who tells her to learn and accept her position within the conservative values of the extended
family, her older sister who decides to go to US and does not know whether she will come
back and of course, her strong, unconventional grandmother. So many women in the same
film. Another very strong element is the young girl who is the fiancee of the main rapist who
attends the court sessions everyday sitting at the back and listening to everything. It is
implied that she might refuse to go ahead with marrying this man accused of rape. She
belongs to an affluent family and the boy is non-Bengali which gives us a microcosm of

46
women in Kolkata today. There is this very strong element of ‘communication through
silence’ in the silent telephonic calls when the young molest victim calls up Jhinuk several
times but does not talk or the rapist’s fiancée who watches Jhinuk in the courtroom but does
not come forward to talk to her but empathises with her situation all the same.
7. Is the sexuality of the female character in the films of these two directors portrayed
in the positive or negative light? Why?
In my opinion, sexuality has not been consciously put into the script but became part of the
entire narrative and it was mostly positive. Take for example the Dalit wife of the deaf-mute
slave- labour in Ankur. She responds to the seduction of the landlord’s son quite readily
because the script is silent about her sex life with her husband. This is low-key and
underplayed beautifully. Zubeidaa is openly passionate about her love for her husband and is
angry when he busies himself with the election campaigns. Jhinuk gives in to the physical
whims of her fiancé even within her parents’ home probably because she has no objection.
The negative element comes out when the young bride is molested outside the metro station
and then, raped by her own husband who takes out his anger against the comments by his
office colleague on his wife. The old lawyer questioning Jhinuk in the courtroom is also
verbal sexual exploitation of a different kind.
8. Sometimes the directors build their characters through various camera movements.
Throw light on the various camera movements that you think are normally used by
these directors to portray their female characters.
I am a technically ignorant person and the only comment I can make is the mute and aesthetic
lighting used by the cinematographer for both Benegal’s films and Ghosh’s films. Every
frame is well-thought out beforehand by the director and the cameraman and later, the editor
sits with the director to make the right cuts, swipes, fade-outs and so on.
The editing strategy used in Dahan for the scene that shows Jhinuk is very sick and lying
within the mosquito net as courtroom scenes flash through her raging fever in small
flashbacks is brilliant. The use of the dupatta floating in the blue sky both as a framing

47
device as well as a time-leap editing strategy in Zubeidaa by Benegal to symbolise a free
spirit that refused to be trapped by social norms or anything else is another telling strategy
consciously and beautifully used by Benegal. The reel of film, Zubeidaa’s diary her mother
hides from her grandson, the song sequence – main albeli in the reel is devices that put
together the protagonist who is already dead when the film opens. Rahman’s haunting
signature theme music in the film spells out the pathos of this woman in life and in death.
The other positive strength in both directors lies in their command in extracting the best
performances from the acting cast. Ghosh brings out the best in actors who are used to doing
commercial masala films. Benegal earlier worked with serious actors and also gave great
breaks of actors who later became institutions unto themselves. Smita Pail is the best
example.The dialogue in Ghosh’s films is everyday, casual minus melodrama or intellectual
bravados and twists that the audience can easily understand and that is another technical
strength.
In Unishe April, concrete details are offered minus dialogues which tell everything. One
example is the one-date calendar showing April 19 in Aditi’s room decorated with flowers to
denote that it is a special day – her father’s death anniversary. The elaborate preparations of
her suicide – the aluminium foiled pills, the suicide note written in a clear hand say much
more than dialogue would have done. The fuse in Bonolata’s home, the brass candelabra, are
other examples from Bariwali.
9. What are your views on the devices that are normally used by these two directors to
project their female characters?
As far as my knowledge goes, no director uses separate ‘devices’ to project female characters
except for what is already in the script. But sometimes, the script is also improvised right on
the sets so in that sense, one cannot take the script as the last word on the filmmaking
process.

48
10. How is the portrayal of women in Rituparno Ghosh’s films different from that of
Shyam Benegal’s films?
This question has been already answered.
11. Do you think that the films made by Rituparno Ghosh and Shyam Benegal, which
are mostly woman-centric, got a commercial success in the industry? Why?
Benegal’s films are not all women-centric. Ghosh also veered away from woman-centric
films from Dosar when he shifted to other areas such as man-woman relationships, literary
adaptations, self-reflexive films and alternative sexuality and so on. Unishe April and Dahan
turned out to be hits after the National Awards. Bariwalli hardly got back the money and after
that, there were hardly any box office hits from the Ghosh stable. Benegal’s films are not
commercially successful except Manthan which was produced by the Gujarat Milk
Cooperative so it appears it did fair business there. Their films have won plenty of awards
everywhere but commercially, they have not done good business also because the marketing
and promotional strategy adopted by the production houses could not compare with the kind
of money poured in marketing and production by Bollywood today.

49
Interview with Prof. Ulaganathan Ganesan,
Consulting Editor for Property Guru
published by REBI, and was a member of
the Regional Censor Board in Hyderabad
for a term of two years from 1992
In a majority of Indian movies, a woman is merely an ornamental piece, a glamour doll
who is there only to provide relief and satisfy the frontbenchers. Only in 2 out of 10 films
women have meaty roles.
2. Do you think that the stereotypical portrayal of women in Indian Cinema had
The fault lies with the story writers who fall back on mythology and model their women
as subservient to men. In most of the film they are There only for song and dance
sequences. I don’t see this changing in the near future unless more women directors
emerge.
Ghosh comes from traditional Bengali family and even in his films like Raincoat or Chokkar
Bali it is not the character that dominates but the heroine Aishwarya Rai who haunts you.
He has to make movies with newcomers or unknown actresses in lead roles. Then only we
can judge his commitment to strong women characters.
Shyam Benegal is certainly different as he comes from Pune Film Institute and has been
exposed to European cinema of the 17th
and 18th
centuries. And as an added value, he had
two powerful women actresses in Shabana Azmi andSmita patil. So he succeeded but he

50
certainly will not be able to make such films with the present crop of actresses who depend
more on glamour than histrionics.
4. In any Indian Cinema the male-gaze is always present. How far is this “male-gaze”
Very much. There are strong men like Ajay Devgan, Naseeruddin Shah, but they cleverly
underplayed their characters to elevate the performances of their co-stars. Doubt if any of the
present day heros would agree to do that.
The question is not applicable.
6. Delineate your favourite female character from the films of these two directors.
Aishwarya in Raincoat and Shabana in Ankur and Nishant.
Positive because they are the central characters in their movies.
Usually either long shots or close-ups.Ghosh used more close-ups while Benegal kept his
camera at a distance.
Not clear

51
Ghosh’s women fight for their own survival and self satisfaction while Benegal kept them as
the focus of society in which they lived in.
Yes,because there is certainly an audience for their kind of films And also they make films
with a shoe-string budget and so the box office returns are safe and also critical acclaim is
larger than financial returns.

52
Interview with Prof. N. Manu Chakravarthy,
Associate Professor and Head of the
Department of English, NMKRV College for
Women , and also the recipient of “Swarna
Kamal”- the Best Film Critic Award for 2010
at the 58th
National Film Awards presented by
the President of India
To answer this question I think I need to divide the Indian Cinema into three phases, i.e.
early phase, middle phase and the later phase. The portrayal of women in Indian cinema
is related to how the Indian society has changed over the period of time. In the times like
1908-1910, a person named France Austen made a film called Achuth Kanya starring
Ashok Kumar and Devika Rani. This movie was about an untouchable woman, and this
movie was made at a time when we cannot even expect women to act on stage. Even I
also want to talk about another film made by Shantaram in 1920’s , Duniya Na Mane
which shows about the protest against some societal norms for women , and even at that
point of time the portrayal of the woman character was very bold and daring . Here I also
want to mention about a Tamil film of that age named as Kanya Shulkam which about a
protest against the dowry system. Here I would also like to mention about the outrageous
portrayal of Nadira with Hunterwali, a story about a cow girl. In the early eras of Indian
cinema , women were mainly portrayed as a suffering character oppressed under the male
dominated society. But in the middle phase, the portrayal of women changed to women as
glamourous models. Even when we think of the regional films the Bengali film industry
has produced some best films featuring bold women. Film-makers like Satyajit Ray,
Mrinal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, have made some notable films like Meghe Dhaka Tara,
Bhuvan Shome, Subarnarekha etc. The two directors that you have chosen for your films
should be located both in Indian context and their respective regional context to justify
the portrayal of women made by them. In the earlier times we would see the radical

53
energy in appearance of women in the cinema, but in recent times I do not find anything
radical about women exposing themselves onscreen. Some few notable films that I have
mentioned are the ones which stay within the landscape of cultural milieu. I also feel that
it is a serious question as to what the Indian society is doing with the lives of women.
2. Do you think that the stereotypical portrayal of women in Indian cinema had
I normally think that the stereotypes comes from the mainstream cinema.Mainstream
cinemas made in Hindi and in other Indian languages normally gives a stereotypical
portrayal of women. Whereas the films that do not fall under the mainstream category are
the ones which interrogates question and protests against the streotypical portrayal of
women. I would like to mention here about Girish Kassaravalli and some of his notable
films on women like Gatta Shraddha, Haseena, Gulabi Talkies, but I never find any kind
of stereotypical portrayal of woman in them. So I want to pose few questions here as to
who generates stereotypes?, how are stereotypes generated?, and how are strerotypes
broken?. So I think that stereotypes would also mean social values. Stereotypes come
because people subscribe to unquestioningly accepted cultural and social values. Another
stereotype comes with the commodification of women body. The cutural stereotype does
not deal with the sexuality of the women but it mainly concentrates on the subjugation of
the women character in the film.
3. In any Indian cinema the male-gaze is always present. How far is this “male-gaze”
My first comment on this question would be we must not use western theories to Indian
societies, as they do not work with any Indian concepts. Now I will pose a question that is
male-gaze common to all male-audience in the world? Then how can we use this theory
to judge the Indian male audience. And in Indian context we even find equal number of
women audience also. Does the theory of male-gaze by Laura Mulvey ever defined which
male she is talking about? Indian male or Western Male? Then how can we use this
theory? So I feel that we must contextualise theories as theories can never be bigger than

54
the text. Films are very culture specific. Therefore we must use theories that match with
that particular culture. The element of gazing itself is context bound, and not context free.
I think I have already answered the question.
I think when you look at the earlier films of Shyam Benegal like Ankur, Nishant you
would find a certain leftist orientation or ideological orientation in his films, which is not
a paradigm. Most of Shyam Benegal’s films fall within the ideological context, and deals
with subjects like zamindari system or feudal system. But again his film like Bhoomika is
just a biopic of a stage actress Hansa Wadkar. Therefore I feel that Shyam Benegal
operates at different levels and different layers.
But for Rituparno Ghosh I feel that he certainly does not primarily deal with woman but
deals with the third gender. He tries to bring out the feelings of a male character inside a
female body, as we have seen in Chitrangada. Its not the usual category of man- woman,
but the third gender. He studies the woman as sometimes man-woman or woman-man.
For Rituparno Ghosh I like the character Chitrangada in the film Chintrangada because I
see the character as someone coming to terms with the notion of the self. I would not
carry my notions into the character’s being rather I am more interested in the struggle and
inner turmoil of the character, the problem of evolution, the complex problems of self-
identity of Chitrangada.
For Shyam Benegal I would certainly like the muslim characters like Sardari Begum,
Zubeidaa or Mammo. Though I feel Bhoomika is not such a great film but still like the
complex layering of the self of Bhoomika. Here the simplistic ideology does not work

55
.
7. Is the sexuality of the female characters in the films of these two directors portrayed
I would not use the term positive or negative but would rather feel that sexuality is a
matter of self understanding. Sexuality in these films is a part of self consciousness, and
has nothing to do with sexual experience, and it is a philosophical struggle with the
identity of one’s physical being.
8. Sometimes the directors build their charcters through various camera movements.
Usually the directors use heavy lighting, close-ups and the kind of aesthetic expressions.
It is very difficult to look at techniques isolated from inner struggles. All the camera
movements , lightings and other techniques are used to dramatize the scenes. There is a
politics of the camera which deals with how you place the camera, or what background or
foreground do you use, and accordingly your character is build. Placing the camera in a
certain position is always not the aesthetic choice but also the political choice.
I would say that they have used certain camera movements or technical devices that have
brought me closer to the characters and the characters closer to me and made them larger
than life without unnecessary exaggeration or dramatization. I ,as an audience can move
to the interior spaces of the character without mellodrama or sentimentality. So the
characters are not glamourized or made dramatic, and we can feel that a personal
relationship is built between the character and the audience which would never been
possible with dramatization or exaggeration of the characters. There is a certain kind of
good artistic distancing or detachment which I like in both of the directors. The directors
have provided a certain kind of space between me and the characters. So the character
doesn’t really envelop me or engulf me.

56
I feel that it is not possible to compare the films of these two great directors only some
contrasting images can be taken into consideration.
I think there was not really a commercial success for these films in the industry. These
films are never made for the commercial purpose. If we talk about super-hits in the box
office then these films would never be. I think these films should get some social
recognition and should be made part of the cinema culture, and that would be more
important for these kind of films. These films would never be super boxers so commercial
in this sense should mean that they should not run in huge loss. And part of commercial
success also means that theatres being made available for them, because if they do not get
an opportunity to be screened at all then where is the question of their doing well or not
doing well. So commercial success can again be not able to understood in relation to
mainstream cinema. Again commercial success or failures should be understood in
relation to the budget of the film. So there are multiple perspectives before we evaluate
their success. Normally some mainstream cinemas spend some two to three crores on a
particular song sequence but on the other hand some of these films are made within a
budget of one crore or sixty to seventy lakhs only.

57
Interview with Mr. Kallol Lahiri, Creative
Writer, Film maker, and Visiting Lecturer,
Dept. of Media Studies: Film and
Television, Calcutta University
1. What is your view on the portrayal of women in Indian cinema?
When we talk of the portrayal of women in Indian cinema then normally we can talk
about the mainstream cinema which predominantly deals with the sterotypical portrayal.
Portrayal of women in Indian cinema has however changed with the course of time. If we
look at the films before independence and compare them with the films after
independence then we can observe a lot of change in portrayal of women. I want to make
a special mention of the film Mother India where at the end we see the death of the son in
the hands of the mother, which can be seen as bold portrayal in contrast with the era in
which it is made. Again in the film Devi we can see an ideal woman strictly adhering to
the patriarchal and societal norms. After 1955, we can see the making of parallel cinema
and the emergence of some great directors like Satyajit Ray, Mrinal Sen and Ritwik
Ghatak. If we judge the portrayal of women in the film Pather Panchali, that would be
entirely different from what we normally see in a mainstream cinema till then.
Film makers like Raj Kapoor or Mehboob have also portrayed their women characters
differently from other directors of their era. In the 1980s film makers like Aparna Sen
have made films like Paroma where a housewife have come out from the patriarchal ties
and have explored with her life and sexuality. Film makers such as Girish Kasaravalli and
Mani Ratnam have also depicted bold women in their films. Here I want to make a
special mention of the film Roja.
I think if we take a look on the portryal of women in Indian cinema the list would be
endless, because it is a journey of 100 years. Even in the films of today like Kahani,
English Vinglish or Queen, we can see how the portrayal of women characters have
changed over the period of time.

58
2. Do you think that the streotypical portrayal of women in Indian Cinema had
In almost all of the mainstream Indian cinema the stereotypical portrayal of women
characters can be observed.
If we talk about the films of Shyam Benegal, then in most of his films we have seen a
protest that too in time period of mid seventies, like in Ankur, Nishant where protest was
done by a Dalit woman. Here I would also like to mention about Mrinal Sen’s film Ekdin
Protidin, to make difference in the portrayal of women character in this film.
If we take Rituparno Ghosh’s films we find a different plot and also a different portrayal.
His films like Unishe April or Titli, we find a strong mother-daughter relatioship and the
truths and facts related to that relationship, and can easily relate those characters with our
own daily life, and this kind of portrayal we have not seen often in any other films of his
era. I feel that both Rituparno Ghosh and Shyam Benegal had a different viewpoint while
establishing their female characters.
4. In any Indian cinema the male-gaze is always present. How far is this “male-gaze”
In the films of Shyam Benegal an inter text direction of male gaze is present. His films
like Mammo, Manthan, Nishant, Ankur, Sardari Begum the women protagonist has an
individual space of their own, and the content of the film relates to the world of the
women.
But in the films of Rituparno Ghosh the male character is always shown as someone who
is weak, or may be helpless especially in films like Utsab, Bariwali , Dahan. So I pose a
question that do a male-gaze actually exist in his films? Even in his film Chitrangada,
there is a conflict whether Chitrangada wants to be a man or a woman.

59
Normally I feel that the paradigm of patriarchy defines what characteristics of a woman
should be portrayed onscreen and what should not be. So taking this in mind normally
most of the films follow the patriarchal rules. Even to a certain extent Shyam Benegal and
Rituparno Ghosh adheres to the patriarchal rules but they have shown many instances in
their films where they have deviated from the patriarchal rules. Like in many films of
Benegal he has protested against the caste system or dowry system that exixted in our
society. Benegal has also portrayed an independent women in Bhoomika and Ankur.
In most of Rituparno Ghosh’s films like Unishe April, Bariwali, Subho Muhurat we have
observed an independent women who does not depend on her male-couterpart for her
existence.
Before Rituparno Ghosh and Shyam Benegal had made films, Satyajit Ray had also
portrayed a bold woman in most of his films. A special mention would be of Mahanayak,
where we see a house wife goes out to earn money for the family.
For Shyam Benegal my favourite female character would be Mammo in the film Mammo,
because I like the way the character struggles to live in a country which is her own, and
the pain undergoes when she was been taken away from her sister’s place by the police
because her visa got expired. Apart from Mammo I also like the character Zubeidaa in the
film Zubeidaa.
For Rituparno Ghosh my favourite female character would be Bonolata in the film
Bariwali, because she consciously depicts the pain, sorrow and lonliness of a single
woman, and the inner conficts and struggle that an unmarried, lonely woman would face.
I don’t think so that the sexuality of the female characters in the films of these two
directors have been portrayed in the negative light. I feel that they have consciously
portrayed the sexuality of their female characters, and have never used the sexuality

60
factor to market or sell their films, or bring a commercial success. The amount of
sexuality that is being used in their film is according to the film language and is justified
with the script.
these two directors to portray their female characters.
I would like to say here that while making a film there are usually two parts in it. The
inner part of the film is made by a well written script with proper dialogues for the
character, and also establishing the character. The outer part of the film is made by proper
camera movements and proper lighting. Both Rituparno Ghosh and Shyam Benegal have
used low camera angle perspective in their films. They have mainly used all the camera
angles and movements consciously and according to the script.
I feel that both of them have constantly tried to capture the time through their lens. They
have judiciously used the technical devices to portray the particular era, culture and
history in their films. Films like Manthan, Mammo, Dahan, Ankur or Chokher Bali are
live examples of them. They have always given special prefernce to time in their films
and their female characters are also portrayed accordingly.
I have already answered the question.

61
In the times of 80’s and 90’s after the era of Satyajit Ray people have stopped watching
Bengali cinema and have thought that Bengali cinema had no future. In this time it was
Rituparno Ghosh who had again brought back the interest of the audience in Bengali
cinema and gave a rebirth to it. Again the middle-class people and also the house wives
started going to the theatres to watch his films. And I think that there can be no big
success than this for a director. These types of films can never be judged on the basis of
profit earned from a particular film.
Shyam Benegal has dealt with different subjects in his films. He catered both the rural as
well as the urban audience. He has made films for women which had reached the
International level also. Both of them made films for the educated middle-class audience,
and they were no doubt successful in reaching their target audience.

62
Interview with Mr. Sayantan Mukherjee,
Assistant Producer, Viacom Motion Pictures
1. What is your view on the portrayal of women in Indian cinema?
I feel that in the journey of 100 years of Indian cinema women have been portrayed in
different shades and in different forms. Starting from the silent eras there were various
forms in which women were portrayed. There has been both strong and protesting
characters and also weak characters. Overs the years directors have explored with
different types of female characters and themes in their films.
We get to see a different portrayal of women today with films like Queen, Mary Kom,
Mardaani or NH 10.
2. Do you think that the stereotypical portrayal of women in Indian cinema had
Firstly I want to comment that stereotypical portrayal of any character is actually the
perception of an audience that varies from one audience to another. What is a stereotype
to me may not be the stereotype to another person. Sterotypes generally exist with
mainstream cinema. Sometimes the character is intentionally stereotyped for the
marketing of the film because the director feels that it certainly matches with the
psychology of most of the audience.
Other directors in the era of Rituparno Ghosh and Shyam Benegal have given a general
portrayal of the women characters, most of them we cannot relate with ourselves.

Masters' dissertation

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