Centring Women in Bollywood Biopics
Empowerment and Agency in Contemporary Indian Cinema
by Chandrava Chakravarty and Sneha Kar Chaudhuri
Average rating:
0 | rating | ![]() |
0 | rating | ![]() |
0 | rating | ![]() |
0 | rating | ![]() |
Your rating: -
Book Presentation:
This book explores the dramatic rise in popularity of the women’s biopic in contemporary Bollywood, within the context of wider cultural shifts over the past decade.
Delving into the societal shifts reflected in the genre, both on and off screen, the book explores the contours of individual agency and the centring of women in Indian cinema. The book offers new insight into women-centric Hindi biopics, a fast-rising genre carving out a tradition of its own, with female directors and actors contributing to this rising postfeminist celebration of women’s agency and individuality. The authors posit that the alternative narratives, created by Bollywood and accepted by mainstream audiences, have become a catalyst to elevate women or female actors to protagonists, without the need to conform to the sexist mores of mainstream Bollywood.
This book will be of interest to scholars, researchers and upper-level students in the areas of film studies, media industries, gender and feminism, and South Asian studies.
About the authors:
Chandrava Chakravarty is Professor, Department of English, and the Director of Centre for Studies in Gender, Culture & Media at West Bengal State University, India. Her research interests include Literature of the Long Eighteenth Century, Colonial Bengal, Gender and Cultural Studies.
Sneha Kar Chaudhuri is Head and Associate Professor of English, West Bengal State University. Her areas of specialization and research interests include Neo-Victorian Studies, Adaptation Studies, Gender Studies, historical fiction and historical cinema.
See the publisher website: Routledge
> From the same authors:
The Films of Shyam Benegal (2024)
Dir. Sneha Kar Chaudhuri and Ramit Samaddar
Subject: Director > Shyam Benegal
> On a related topic:
Bollywood's New Woman (2021)
Liberalization, Liberation, and Contested Bodies
Dir. Megha Anwer and Anupama Arora
Changemakers (2018)
Twenty women transforming Bollywood behind the scenes
Wanted Cultured Ladies Only! (2009)
Female Stardom and Cinema in India, 1930s-1950s
Listening With a Feminist Ear (2023)
Soundwork in Bombay Cinema
Women Filmmakers in Contemporary Hindi Cinema (2023)
Looking through their Gaze