Bollywood too is an Agrahara. Caste and then Nepotism is the criteria for recruiting actors. The “mainstream” actors and directors are overwhelmingly Upper Castes (UC). Even the so-called strugglers are UCs as well. There is no representation of Bahujans except in the film set crew. 

The word mainstream is in quotes because I consider strugglers like Ayushmann Khurrana and Sushant Singh Rajput as mainstream as well because UC surnames have been mainstreamised in Bollywood. Bahujans don’t get to occupy that space as well. 

Naturally, the film industry in a caste society is caste-based as well where the privileged castes call the shots and monopolize the space. The pool from which the actors and directors belong to is a tiny pool. It is just 15% of the Indian population. Even in that, 5% Brahmins dominate the field. 

Hence this results in a very homogeneous group of people competing against each other. These are often rich UCs as well, hence they lack lived experiences of the characters they play, which results in unrealistic acting, writing, and direction. Ergo, this results in mediocrity. 

That’s why most movies are a trashy, cacophonic mess. No wonder no Indian movie has ever won an Oscar. (The Oscars too has been in a controversy regarding their overwhelmingly white management team. Also, they rarely nominated any black actors and ignored movies that centered on black characters for the Best Picture nominations thereby leading to a fitting outrage against this discrimination which also lead to the creation of #OscarsSoWhite Twitter hashtag. But now even they are addressing this issue by having a diversity requirement in place). Every once in a while some “progressive” director and actor makes a mediocre film by doing the bare minimum direction and acting and we jump on to call them legends.

We, the audience, normalize mediocrity. UC mediocrity is king when actual, real talents are killed in farms, factories, and sewers. We settle for the Ayushmann’s and the Sushant’s. We’re least interested in knowing if there could be talents who’re 100% of a better grade than them. 

Some “woke” UC Buncles and Baunties direct movies having important social issues like caste and gender viz. Article 15, Thappad, etc. Since they’re meritless UCs they naturally end up diluting these critical issues as they have a superficial understanding of the same. 

When the subaltern directs movies, their art is invisibilized and sidelined. But when a UC director makes a movie by adding masala & cashes in on the same issue, they’re made heroes. We admire them for taking such initiatives even though they’re trashy. Such is our hypocrisy. 

Most often Bahujans are portrayed in a bad light. Bahujan women are sexualized and fetishized. Most characters portrayed are UCs. Bahujan surnames are given to problematic characters and Brahmin surnames to the heroes. Rape, casteism and eve-teasing are normalized in these movies. Rahul Ramchandani (@RAHULROB), a film writer based in Mumbai has compiled a list of Bollywood movies where this kind of blatant casteist portrayal was done by filmmakers. 

“Casteism in Hindi films is evident with a white hero and a black villain.” Here are a few examples. Please note that his list is not exhaustive. 

1) Film – Shool; Hero – Samar Pratap Singh (Upper caste Rajput); Villain – Bachchu Yadav (Lower caste Bahujan); Writers – Niwas (Brahman), Varma (Brahman), Kashyap (Rajput/Brahman)

2) Film – Gangajal; Hero – Amit Kumar (Bhumihar); Villain – Sadhu Yadav (Lower caste Bahujan); Writer – Jha and Raghavan (Brahman)

3) Film – Apaharan; Hero – Ajay Shastri (brahman); Villain – Tabrej Alam (Muslim); Writer – Jha and Tyagi (Brahman)

4) Film – Calcutta Mail; Hero – No surname; Good guys helping hero – Rastogi (Baniya); Villain – Paswan (Dalit); Writers – Mishra, Narain, Shukla (All brahmins)

5) Film – Dabang; Hero – Chulbul Pandey (Brahmin), Villain – Cheddi Singh (Lower caste), Writer – Shukla (Brahmin)

6) The Family Man; Hero – Srikant Tiwari (Brahmin); Villain – Muslims/Christians, writers (Upper caste)

7) Film – Haasil; Hero – Anirudh Sharma (Brahmin); Villain – Ranvijay Singh (Assuming lower caste since he is warned by a brahmin youth leader Gorishankar Pandey not to raise pichdo ka jhanda); Writer – Dhulia (Upper Caste)

8) Film -Bahubali; Hero (Aryan); Villain (Indigenous tribes i.e Adivasis), Writer – Vijyendra Prasad (Upper caste)

9) Film – Dangal; Hero – Phogat (upper caste) ; Villain – Kadam (lower caste, surprisingly the real-life coach was upper caste but was fictionalized as a lower caste guy); Writers – Tiwari, Jain, Mehrotra, Pandey ( all upper castes)

10) Film – Khakee; Hero – Anant Srivastav, Shekhar Verma, Gupte (All upper caste), Villain – Angre (Koli, lower caste); Writers – Santoshi, Raghavan (Upper Caste)”

Source – The Hindu (In Bollywood, storylines remain backward on caste – https://www.thehindu.com/news/national/in-bollywood-storylines-remain-backward-on-caste/article7362298.ece)

Dalit characters are shown as victims and UCs as saviours. No Dalit assertion is shown in the movies even though there are several examples in society. This shows how UCs imagine us in their minds. They want us to be shabby, dim and battered so that they can create victim porn. 

Bollywood is managed by very powerful UC men. Strong female roles are rare. Men misuse their power, manipulate and sexually abuse women. Casting couch is a known issue. #MeToo helped some actresses voice out against such predators. Who knows how many women still remain trapped? 

When Bahujan filmmakers like Pa Ranjith (@beemji), Nagraj Manjule (@Nagrajmanjule), and other direct movies like Kabali, Fandry, etc. they portray Bahujans as assertive, tough and moral. These movies don’t just win international awards, they inspire us all. That’s why the representation of Bahujans is so important. 

These movies are truly non-mainstream movies. They are free from the Brahminical notions of patriarchy, casteism, and communalism, and mainly mediocrity. Yes, they’re not perfect but they’re genuine and rooted in empirical reality.

The major issue for Bahujans is finance. Making decent films or short films costs a lot of cash. If this obstacle is resolved, then we shall definitely overshadow Bollywood. Many regional filmmakers have already made amazing films. Efforts like Bahujanwood are commendable. 

Film institutes like FTII are Agraharas as well. They don’t have any space for Bahujans. The Brahmins of this country do not want us to leave our caste jobs and act and direct. We need our own institutes as well as our own film industry.

Read this to know how Manuwad functions in FTII: http://roundtableindia.co.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=8240:bearded-brahmanism-an-essay-on-the-ftii-controversy&catid=119:feature&Itemid=132

Author – Shogun Gaikwad