Five Situations We Do Not Want Bollywood Heroines In

Bollywood heroines and stereotypes: The festive season is upon us. Things are looking bright, shiny and positive. No, not COVID wala positive. But the life-will-finally-move-on kind of positive. Vaccinations are going on in full swing, markets are opening up, and offices are calling us back to work. It doesn't seem too soon to be hopeful now. And viewers might soon want to take this positivity to the cinemas. While we are still very cautious and theatres continue to operate at 50 percent capacity, one hopes that sometime next year we will get to splurge on popcorn, recline our seats a bit and complain about the air-conditioning being too cold as we visit a movie theatre to watch a film, instead of craning our necks over our smartphones.

The lull of box office might have given Bollywood some time to introspect as well. Will it make a strong comeback with fresh ideas, news scripts and bolder subjects? Or will it stick to the formula-based stories, letting macho men beat bad guys and women fall for their stalkers? We think that entertainers are going to burst on the scene with a variety of offerings, with films and themes that will appease every possible palate.

However, we can only wish that filmmakers don't put our Bollywood heroines in these five situations henceforward: 

1. The abla naari who has to be protected by our main man. This trope needs to be sent back to where it belongs - in the 80s. There was a time when every film had a sequence where a villain would attack a heroine who would scream for help and then our knight in shining armour would beat the goons and save her izzat.

While the depiction of such incidences is not so on the nose, heroines or women characters still are portrayed as helpless beings who have to be saved by our dear heroes. We have seen so in films like Simmba, Singham and many more.

Instead, Bollywood needs to start a healthy dialogue about consent. Women are not tigers who need protection, they are living breathing humans who deserve an equal status.

2. The bad small town girl: She smokes and parties with friends late into the night. She drinks with her boyfriend and even has premarital sex. Bollywood's idea of wild women is a rebel daughter who is reined in by the love of our hero. Once she is in love she leaves behind her "wayward" life becomes a sanskari heroine.

What exactly do such depictions try to teach the youth? That women who drink or smoke are easy to score? That your girlfriend is only faithful and devoted when she gives up her way of life and pins her existence to your likings?

3. Shopping addicts: Even as late as 2019, there have been films like Pati, Patni Aur Woh, in which there are sequences depicting women as maniacs who don't know when to stop while on a shopping spree. Poor men can't do anything but carry their girlfriend's shopping bags, silently curse them and pretend to be a victim of some kind of bizarre shopping torture.

No woman likes a grumpy guy next to her while she is out shopping. That's why most women prefer to shop with friends or let their boyfriends/partners enjoy a cold beer at a nearby sports bar so that they can purchase in peace.

4. Immature but spirited: One of the most popular releases of 2019, Gully Boy shows Alia Bhatt's character beat another woman for texting her boyfriend. "Mere boyfriend see gulu gulu karengi to dhoptungi an usko," her character famously says. In another scene, she breaks a beer bottle over the head of a woman whom her boyfriend kisses, consensually.

These scenes are supposed to convey to us that Bhatt's Safeena is a spirited possessive woman, but in reality, they do nothing more than portraying her as short-tempered and immature. She doesn't think twice about the kind of legal troubles her actions can get her into. Is this the right kind of messaging for young women?

5. I slap you, you slap me: Yup, you know where we are going with this. Need we elaborate? Intimate partner violence is not romantic. No matter who slaps who, or whether the slaps exchanged are equal, this is an act that needs to be criticised. Bollywood needs to stop the slapping game between couples and romanticising domestic violence, period.

Suggested Reading:

Invisible Lives: Where Are All The Older Women In Films And TV?

Five Hindi Films That Broke Stereotypes To Redefine Romance

Hindi Films That Broke The Mould And Made You Rethink Gender Roles