Abstract
This chapter traces the representation of the actress in popular Hindi cinema in order to interrogate the ideological framing of the actress-figure within circulating discourses of morality and respectability. How is the popular portrayal of individual actresses on screen influenced by the power dynamics of an industry dominated by men? To what extent is the idea of ‘respectability’ (or lack thereof) of an actress shaped by class and caste divisions? Considering the immense visibility and influence of film actresses today, is it possible to look at contemporary performance arts as a subversive site of female emancipation? Through this analysis of the dominant moral configuration of the actress as a ‘bad woman’, I also hope to draw attention to the lived realities of women from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds who found in the world of performance a space for creative self-expression that was otherwise denied to them.
Amiya Chakrabarty and Nitin Bose, Kathputli (1957). Lata Mangeshkar; ‘Bol Ri Kathputli’; Music by Shankar Jaikishan. All English translations are the author’s.
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Notes
- 1.
Mukherjee (2011: 56).
- 2.
The narratives of actresses that have emerged in the recent #MeToo movement in India, beginning with Tanushree Datta’s allegations of sexual assault against Nana Patekar, offer a glimpse into these networks of gendered inequities and entrenched power that have long shaped women’s experiences in the Hindi film industry.
- 3.
The narrative consistently privileges such seemingly objective, detached observations by media persons and male actors in order to construct the ‘true’ persona of the emotionally unstable female star.
- 4.
Bhattacharya (1998: 11).
- 5.
Peterson and Soneji (ed) (2008: 17).
- 6.
Khote (2006: 33).
- 7.
Ganti (2012: 128).
- 8.
Pande (2006: 1649).
- 9.
Ghosh (1967: 354).
- 10.
Jain (2013: 16).
- 11.
Needham (2013: 48).
- 12.
Wadkar (2013: 45).
- 13.
See Somaaya et al. (2012: 96).
- 14.
- 15.
Amiya Chakrabarty and Nitin Bose, Kathputli (1957).
- 16.
Dwyer in Brown and Vidal (ed), (2013: 80).
- 17.
Govindan and Dutta in Kavoori and A. Punathambekar (ed), (2008: 194).
- 18.
“Silk Smitha’s Bold Interview,” Filmfare, December 2, (2013: n.p.)
- 19.
Rowena (2012: 2).
- 20.
Tasker and Negra (2007: 2).
Works Cited
Films
Abhinetri, director Subodh Mukherjee, producer Subodh Mukherjee, 1970.
Bhumika, director Shyam Benegal, producer Lalit M. Bijlani and Freni Variava, 1977.
Dil Toh Pagal Hai, director Yash Chopra, producer Yash Chopra and Aditya Chopra, 1997.
Heroine, director Madhur Bhandarkar, producers Ronnie Screwvala, Madhur Bhandarkar, Siddharth Kapur, 2012.
Kaagaz Ke Phool, director and producer Guru Dutt, 1959.
Kathputli, director Amiya Chakrabarty and Nitin Bose, producer Ajit Chakraborty and Amiya Chakrabarty, 1957.
Om Shanti Om, director Farah Khan, producer Red Chilies Entertainment, Eros Pictures, 2007.
Rangeela, director Ram Gopal Varma, producer Jhamu Sughand and Ram Gopal Varma, 1995.
Teesri Kasam, director Basu Bhattacharya, producer Shailendra, 1966.
The Dirty Picture, director Milan Luthria, producers Ekta Kapoor and Shobha Kapoor, 2011.
Books
Bhattacharya, Rimli. My Story and My Life as an Actress, by Binodini Dasi (New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1998).
Ganti, Tejaswini. Producing Bollywood: Inside the Contemporary Hindi Film Industry (New York: Duke University Press, 2012).
Ghosh, Manmohan ed. Natyasastra ascribed to Bharatmuni (Calcutta: Granthalaya Private Limited, 1967).
Khote, Durga. I, Durga Khote: An Autobiography. trans., Shanta Gokhale (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2006).
Needham, Anuradha Dingwaney. New Indian Cinema in Post-Independence India (Oxon: Routledge, 2013).
Peterson, Indira and Devesh Soneji, eds. Performing Pasts: Reinventing the Arts in Modern South India (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2008).
Somaaya, Bhawana, Jigna Kothari and Supriya Madangarli. Mother Maiden Mistress: Women in Hindi Cinema, 1950–2010 (New Delhi: Harper Collins, 2012).
Tasker, Yvonne and Diane Negra, eds. Interrogating Postfeminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture (London: Duke University Press, 2007).
Wadkar, Hansa. You Ask, I Tell: An Autobiography, translated and edited by Jasbir Jain and Shobhha Shinde (New Delhi: Zubaan, 2013).
Articles and Book Chapters
Abbas, K. Ahmad. “Indian Films & Stars on the Air” in Baburao Patel ed., filmindia, Vol. 6, No. 2 (Feb 1940), 39. https://archive.org/stream/filmindia194006unse#page/n103/mode/2up
Dwyer, Rachel. “The Biopic of the New Middle Classes in Contemporary Hindi Cinema” in T. Brown and B. Vidal ed., The Biopic in Contemporary Film Culture (New York: Routledge, 2013), 68–83.
Govindan, P. P. and B. Dutta. “‘From Villain to Traditional Housewife!’ The Politics of Globalization and Women’s Sexuality in the ‘New’ Indian Media” in A. Kavoori and A. Punathambekar ed., Global Bollywood (New York: NYU Press, 2008), 180–202.
Judas. “Bombay Calling” in Baburao Patel ed., filmindia, Vol. 8, No. 1 (Jan 1942), 9–11. https://archive.org/details/filmindia194208unse/page/n19.
Mukherjee, Debashree. “Letter from an Unknown Woman: The Film Actress in Late Colonial Bombay”. Marg, Vol. 62 No. 4 (2011), 54–65. https://www.thefreelibrary.com/etter+from+an+unknown+woman%3A+the+film+actress+in+late+colonial...-a0261871977
Pande, Mrinal. “‘Moving beyond Themselves’: Women in Hindustani Parsi Theatre and Early Hindi Films.” Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 41, No. 17 (April 29, 2006), 1646–1653.
Rowena, Jenny. “The ‘Dirt’ in The Dirty Picture: Caste, Gender and Silk Smitha”. Round Table India (Oct 8, 2012). http://roundtableindia.co.in/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5822:the-dirt-in-the-dirty-picture-caste-gender-and-silk-smitha-part-2
Smitha, Silk. “Silk Smitha’s Bold Interview”, 1984, Filmfare (Dec 2, 2013). http://www.filmfare.com/features/silk-smithas-bold-interview-4813-1.html
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Kothiyal, S. (2019). “naye naam nit naye roop dhar” (Don New Names and New Forms Daily): The Figure of the Actress in Popular Hindi Cinema. In: Sengupta, S., Roy, S., Purkayastha, S. (eds) 'Bad' Women of Bombay Films. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-26788-9_20
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