Bollywood has always been greatly influential in our society and people's lives. Be it grand marriage functions, the set-up of a fashion trend, or family gatherings. Cinema has shaped our beliefs and affects our thinking. Over the years, Bollywood has succeeded in convincing some stereotypes. That is still in the person's mind. Some stereotypes portrayed in cinema are:
Stereotypes about communities
Bollywood has always had stereotypes about some communities like the Sikhs. In Indian films, Sikhs are foodies, abusive, and drunkards. Sometimes they portray a dump and just comic character like Diljit Dosanjh in " Good News " and Anupam Kher in the movie "Mohabbatein." The other type of movie 'Jo bole so Nihal, Gadar, where Sunny Deol plays angry Punjabi Jat, but Sikhs are not always like that. Panjabi fathers are normally shown as composed and calm, But Rishi Kapoor's character in Patiala House is a different type. Punjabi mothers only focus on their children's marriage, like Kinar Kher's role in Khoobsurat, Total Siyapaa and Dostana. Or erectors like to train their daughter to make round chapati and tasty sabji like Shahin Khan in Gurinder Chadda's 'Bend It Like Beckham.
Muslims often play as a terrorist. It increases general bad impressions about Muslims. Bollywood has an audience not only in India but in other parts of the world. Indian films play an important role in preserving stereotypes. Its entity not only obliterates a person's identity. It has its dangers too. After independence, Muslim characters were shown to be aristocratic families, men were characterized as nawab and women as a mistress. The stereotypes of Muslims and Kashmir are shown in Maniratnam Roja (1992) The film shows an idea of the narrative about Kashmir and the Muslim community. Kurbban, Sarfarosh and Fanaa had territories Muslims.
The Bengali community also experienced this trend, Bengali is portrayed as an oily hair artist character, overly intellectual and a poet, who is fluent in Ravindra Sangit and the English language. But they are subsequent with Panjabi. Films like Vicky Donor and Bullett Raja show this type of character. Director Sanjay Leela Bhansali's 'Devdas" can well serve as stereotyping a community. Paro's character ( Aishwarya Rai) successfully presented with her excessive dressing. Paro could be spotted with vermilion on her forehead and Alta on her feet or palms. The reality is that Bengali women do not wear red colour everywhere in their bodies, and at all times.
As for South Indians, Bollywood's impression is that only Tamils are in the south, but there are Malayalam, Kannada and Telugu language speakers also living here. In movies, south Indians mostly speak in English and Hindi with a distinctive accent. Typical words like Amma, Appa, and Ayyo are frequently used in sentences just like Delika Padukon in Chennai Express and Mahmood in Padosan. Bollywood's ridiculous stereotypes, they think that south Indians mostly keep Rajnikanth's photo along with their deities in their house. But the reality is that not every South Indian likes Rajnikanth. Bollywood presidents such as South Indians are excellent at Bharatanatyam or Kuchipudi dance these dances require years of long training.
Parsis used to be offered as comics in a big old car full of kids and piloted by a little man wearing a black conical hat. Films show deeper than stereotypes, films shed light on some communities' cultures and lifestyles. And the Parsi setting of the film "Khatta Meetha" in 1978s Ashok Kumar's movie, a story about avoiding any emotional or social issues around a widow's choice to marry again, hence, films shed lovely and relatable light on its minority communities life. One of the other best examples is Julie in 1975. This movie beautifully presents Christian family culture, the difference from which Hindu boyfriend family. And Basu Chaterji's film " Baton-Baton me" show two Christian families, and sweetly check themselves in any other films about two young people's (Amol Palekar and Tina Munim) love, but their parents are eager for finding them suitable partner. More recently, director Homi Adajania's "Finding Fanny", points to detailed specimens in an outlined Goan Christian community's life story.
Gender stereotypes:
Bollywood movies portray wrong gender perceptions and problematic, orthodox, and stereotypical roles. Some famous films show Dialogues that support gender stereotypes-
Mard- Amitabh Bachchan’s famous movie, his popular dialogue " mard ko Dard Nahi Hota", shows the toxic masculine idea, and it is not relevant. But why do men not feel pain?
Jab we met- It is remembered as a lovely song and story. But one of the dialogues means that "a girl who is alone is like an open drawer full of money," this is the idea to promote girls as sexual objects.
Main Tera Hero - It is full of double-meaning dialogues, Varanasi Dhawan tells a fat girl "If she ( fat girl) ever steps on a weighing scale, instead of a number, the scale would show a message of to be continued.
Malama- in this film dialogue "Agar khoobsurat lacking ko na chemo to vo bhi to us beizzati hot hai na" is a full promotion of eve-teasing.
Fat women are always used as comic characters in Bollywood. In many old movies, Uma Devi ( Tun-Tun) was used as a fat woman and cast in films only for the comic role. She was ashamed badly by the industry. In the movie " Kal ho na ho" Naina ( Pretty Zinta) tell her friend Sweetu, she never finds a boyfriend until she loses some weight. And they pretend to be a neighbour and friend.
As Shyam Benegal says about gender stereotypes in an interview- "conventionally, traditionally that the woman's place is in a home. Her job is to be a dutiful daughter, a faithful wife, and a giving mother. And if she fulfils those, then she is like a Goddess. So audiences accept women in a tradition very easily. Now, one of the things, in my case, was to constantly challenge that notion from the very beginning, whether it was Ankur, whether it was Nishant, Manthan, Bhumika or Mandi, because of me equality is more important, the traditional way has to go otherwise there will be no equality."
The stereotypes are not just limited to the heterosexual community. How they present LGBTQ+ in movies is a problem too. Hindi cinema has mostly ridiculed homosexuals or reduced the character in the films. In the movie "Kal ho na ho", the only purpose of Kanta Ben was to show her hate and shock and slightly insult that she thinks Saif Ali Khan is gay. Whereas In Kapoor and Sons", Fawad Khan played a gay man who lied to his family, while keeping a relationship abroad.
The movie has a complex story and characters whose story didn't revolve around his sexuality. In the movie "Dostana" gay couples are only for cheap laughs. In the song a picturization "ma ka ladla bigad gaya", is full of shock and anger reaction by the mother (Kiran Kher) who thinks her son is gay. Bollywood has shown the LGBT community with wrong stereotypes and insulting portrayals.
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