From Jolly to Bauua, Bollywood's small-town heroes are always upper caste The Hindi film industry needs to cater to the socio-cultural diversity of India in its story writing, instead of repeating mundane plots focused on Savarnas
Lead characters who belong largely to ‘upper’ caste/Savarna Hindu families have been an unwritten rule in Bollywood movies. Whether it’s NRIs living abroad, middle class families of metropolitan India or the alternate movies of Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Bollywood has mostly showcased the stories of Savarnas alone. This trend has not changed with Bollywood’s new-found love – the smaller towns of north India.Zero, which hit the screens last Friday, is about a dwarf, Bauua, played by Shah Rukh Khan. But Bauua has one more distinction – he is from an upper caste family in Meerut, Uttar Pradesh.
The director, Aanand L. Rai, emphasises on the protagonist’s caste background by flaunting his janeu, the ‘sacred’ thread worn by Brahmins.Rai has a history of showcasing Savarna lead characters in his films. In Raanjhanaa, Dhanush plays the role of Kundan Shankar, a Tamil Brahmin from Varanasi. In both the Tanu Weds Manu films, Madhavan plays Manu Sharma, and Kangana plays Tanu Trivedi – both Brahmins.In Zero, Rai ensures that focus remains on Bauua’s ‘sacred’ thread from start to end; it is shown clearly in the film at least 7-8 times. The storyline, though, does not warrant a Savarna lead. A Bollywood problem It would be wrong to blame Rai alone. Zero merely underlines the social definition of Bollywood movies – stories of upper-castes Indians. A careful social analysis of Hindi cinema, including small-town Bollywood films, proves that Zero is the latest example of that definition, and by no means an exception.A study published by The Hindu showed that a “substantial proportion” of Bollywood movies in 2013 and 2014 had upper caste lead character names. Only two movies that released in 2014 were found to have lead characters with explicit backward caste names.One may think that at least in movies based in small towns, Bollywood would have shown more OBC and Dalit characters, who together outnumber the Savarna Hindu population by nearly a 4:1 ratio. However, that is not the case. Primary characters are rarely called Yadav, Paswan, Jatav, Kushwaha, Mourya or Rajbhar; heroes are mostly named Sharma, Trivedi, Shukla, Dubey or Pandey. Here’s a small recap from 2017 and 2018 CLICK HERE ↔BS
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