Picture Abhi Patriarchy Hai: Representation of Gender and Sexuality in Bollywood Cinema

In the year 2017-18, the CSGS facilitated a research project for a team of Young India Fellows – an analysis of the representation of gender and sexuality in Hindi cinema. The project has culminated in a detailed report produced by the students that looks at quantitative parameters such as analysing dialogue distribution between gender-based identities, looking at their corresponding number of scenes, as well as accounting for the number of incidents relating to sexual harassment. 

The data in this report is supplemented by qualitative analyses which talk about these numbers in depth, asking some crucial questions—what are the kinds of visual settings where male and female characters are typically located? How does the male gaze get translated on the cinematic screen? How is sexual harassment normalized at the level of representation?

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