Bollywood’s Toxic Masculinity: The Problematic Portrayal of Men & Women in Popular Hindi Cinema​​

Saurabh Samraat
Jindal Global Law School, India.

Volume IV, Issue I, 2021

Bollywood or the Hindi Film Industry went through different trends in the last 70 years. After the 60s, problematic themes started being presented, which led to far-reaching negative implications. Subsequent decades of the 70s, 80s, 90s and 2000s followed with their own problematic themes. In the present decade, we have witnessed the release of many pseudo-progressive movies, which although claims to be progressive, do not give women their due part. Theories like the Social Cognitive Theory and the Cultivation Theory provide us with enough evidence to show how such a problematic portrayal affects the audience. Male domination in the industry remains the prominent cause of such a portrayal. Among these problematic movies, some really progressive movies are breaking this stereotypical, sexist, toxic, and misogynist spell of Bollywood. Production of such films, when clubbed with social initiatives, can potentially remedy the wrongs done by years of problematic cinema produced by Bollywood.

DOI: http://doi.one/10.1732/IJLMH.25574