Author – Sanjana and Chhotelal Kumar

The universe of Cinema in India is broadening, with erstwhile considered ‘just’ regional movies picking up blockbuster status and finally attracting the ‘north-Indian gaze’. For decades, not only south-Indian movies which itself is a diverse palette with Telugu, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam creative energies being dubbed into Hindi for a certain audience, other regional movies have shared the same fate. Bollywood has been the dominant force in the Indian cinematic universe. The lack of representativeness in Bollywood movies which are made by and for the Hindi-speaking heartland is disheartening. Moreover, the overwhelmingly racist overtones in most Hindi movies that attempt to sketch a ‘south Indian character’ make them an object of ridicule. Chennai Express is a case in point. Sword-carrying barbaric, extremely loud, dark skin shade of side characters being used for comical elements, and portraying them as belonging to somewhat alien culture reinforces the south Indian stereotype. This linguistic dominance of Hindi and Bollywood being the equivalent of Indian cinema robs the majority of Indians their reflection on their movie screens.  

Bollywood has even remade several South Indian films but none of it solves the problem of representation of the other parts of India. Many commercially successful films like Hera Pheri(2000), Ghajini(2008), Wanted(2009), Singham(2011) have often paid little credit to their Tamil/Telugu/Malayalam counterparts. However, the recent success of films like Baahubali, Pushpa: The Rise, RRR, and KGF at a pan-India level is challenging the hierarchy of Bollywood and is enabling southern films to directly represent themselves to their audience in the North.

The success of South Indian movies is also a hope for greater representation of the native people in the south and their culture facilitating an exchange of ideas and characters.  Not only are south Indians misrepresented but people from the lower caste are almost absent and misrepresented. They often play the helpless or the weak characters that play minor roles lending support to the protagonist. It is interesting to see in Bollywood, the down-playing of caste and religious complexities. Take for instance, the caste of the protagonist is latent to invisibilize the discrimination that exists both in reality and the industry. Silence on these matters reinforces artistic expression as the pantheon of elites in society. Nepotism and sexism isn’t the only infestation, afterall! These are important to address but often, the discourse of caste is tactically marginalized. 

Film commentator and Professor Harish Wankhede argues that Dalits and Adivasis are portrayed stereotypically. He further contends the Dalit character is an independent hero who can battle criminal elements without fear and is yet to find a respectable space in mainstream Bollywood. Similarly, Professor Dilip Mandal also criticizes Bollywood for portraying Dalits as Kacchra, and for him, Django is still chained. With a few exceptions, Bollywood has usually failed to present a Dalit or an Adivasis/Tribal protagonist in a film.    

Wankhede notes that the Southern Film Industry, particularly Tamil films, has done much better in making films about eminent day-to-day social issues in the country and also portraying Dalit heroes as protagonists who fight social problems and class oppression with courage and power (and extra-cinematic effect!). Pa Ranjith’s Kabali(2016),  Kaala(2018), Sarpatta Parambarai(2021), Vetrimaaran’s Asuran(2019), and Mari Selvaraj’s Karnan(2021) established that Dalit-Bahujan characters might be depicted in heroic roles and appreciated by the film audience. With these movies in public, Dalits are now displayed as brave and can perform heroic characters. A Dalit is the leader of Malaysian migrants in Kabali. In Kaala, he is the good-hearted mafia don who fights the ruling class’s rule in Mumbai. In Asuran, he is an enraged man who resorts to violence to protect his family from feudal rulers. In Karnan, he is a local rebel who executes a vindictive act of justice by killing a police inspector. These are violent stories about the social struggles, aspirations, and desire for justice among Dalits. Dalit characters emerge as equal claimants to well-known heroic traits in these films. Most of these movies have been commercially successful as well. A Dalit hero, as an independent figure is yet to find a credible place in mainstream Bollywood cinema. Dalits are seen as subaltern subjects needing a rescuer from the upper caste. 

But not all is glory in the “kingdom” of south Indian movies as well. The patriotic theme of Bollywood movies like Airlift, Uri, Bell Bottom, Sooryavanshi and others have been high commercial successes projecting a masculine, aggressive, “protector” protagonist image that given the political climate is pushing a warrior like image of a certain community while othering and stereotyping the ‘other’ as a criminal, traitor and terrorist. The wheels of propaganda have been set in motion! (The script is so familiar that the authors do not even have to mention it explicitly!) South Indian movies have followed suit.  While Baahubali might have given Indian viewers their own Indian superhero, it has reinforced a sense of aggressive masculinity, strong female characters but only as mothers and wives and cut a Maryada purushottam’ sort of figure in the hero! It played on familiar stereotypes in most natural and hierarchical manners that the movie’s offensive symbolism is shadowed by its towering success. The more recent south Indian movies that are defining the mainstream pop culture are following a similar theme of showing ‘patriotic’ (super-)heroes, ready to fight and emerge victorious! RRR, shows Bheem and Ram with the former being the protector of a tribe and the latter a cop fighting against the British. The formula of epic-action drama by south Indian film subscribes to religious undertones that seem outwardly aggressive. For instance, Ram the lead character in RRR takes a bow and arrow infusing the imagery of Lord Rama, bheem mounting the character Ram on his shoulders. The point is not to dismiss the imagery but its implicit political impact in mainstreaming characters from an epic into the cinematic universe.

The way characters are represented- the presence of stereotypes and the absence of a better, diverse representation affects the way people perceive each other. Films are not and should not be seen as mere entertainment. Actors, Directors, and Producers should be more responsible and held accountable given that films have a profound impact on the people and their behaviors. Much as Bollywood has disregarded its casteist, racist, sexist overtones, the south Indian movies seem to be doing better in this regard but often fall back in the same “stereotypical” trap that has now also found solace in larger than life, fictionalized tunes of patriotism. The cinematic universe is broadening but also penetrating our lives in a somewhat problematic manner.   

Photo by Jeremy Yap on Unsplash