One of the biggest complaints against the Hindi film industry is the way it has historically and continues to treat its women. There are only certain kinds of roles that Bollywood wants its women to play. We tried to break it down for you.
1. Mothers. It is the most important thing in a woman’s life if you ask the countless filmmakers that have worked and continue to work in the Hindi film industry.
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2. There’s the wife (the girlfriend cos 21st century, duh), whose only job is to be loyal to her partner, no matter what.
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3. Then there is the ‘homewrecker’, whose sole purpose of existing is to get the committed dude to cheat on his partner. Because men don’t have minds of their own, apparently.
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4. There is also the nerd-tomboy mix, because apparently they are the same people. Anyhow, this person most likely wears glasses or dresses up in ridiculous jump suits, only to magically become hot by taking off her glasses.
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5. She could also be the sister of the hero, whose whole identity is dependent on the fact that she is basically the sister to her brother’s whole gang of friends.
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6. She could be the innocent victim, who goes through something traumatic that gives the hero enough motivation to kick ass. She exists solely for the purpose of sacrificing herself so that the hero’s character arc develops further.
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7. She could also find herself randomly dancing to item songs with sexist lyrics, that are out of context and have no relevance to the film.
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8. Never forget ‘The Vamp’, of course. This creature exists out of spite and has been written by someone who asked a woman out and she said no and he’s never been able to move on from that tragedy. Also, evil is directly proportional to the size of their bindis.
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9. The ‘liberal’ is a woman, who according to Bollywood, only smokes, drinks, has a job and multiple sexual partners. They don’t realise that there is a lot more to feminism than just that. Make no mistake, none of that is wrong either but it’s not the only thing feminists or liberals do.
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10. The Clingy girlfriend, is someone you will find most often in Kartik Aryan Dudebro CoolGuy69 movies. She will be the worst thing men fear, like a woman who loves and genuinely cares for you and wants you to take a bath and clean your room. But she’ll play the evil queen here.
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11. The ‘Geet’ is typically a woman in her mid-twenties who loves herself and can’t stop talking about it but her entire life revolves around boys.
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12. The 30-something-single woman who is still looking for love. Because apparently ‘settle hona’ is the ultimate goal.
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13. The feisty small town girl, who is such a badass that she’ll eventually break down her walls and fall in love with a boy.
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14. The ‘Athlete’ is a new invention. It’s modern but also caters to the fragile male ego. These women want careers but are willing to give it up for love or being a mother among other things.
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15. The one-dimensional woman covers a lot of ground. For example, if the director has established her as a sex symbol in the begining of the film, that’s what she’s going to be for the rest of the film. No matter, if her mum just popped off to the pearly gates, she’s gonna be a sex symbol.
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16. The ‘B*tch’ also covers a lot of ground. But mostly, it’s used to refer to characters that have rejected the good-natured hero despite his many attempts to woo her.
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And here we thought women didn’t have any roles.
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