Stereotypes Of Indian Cinema

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OUR CINEMA V/S THEIR REALITY: CONSTRUCTING MINORITY AS THE CULTURAL OTHER IN HINDI CINEMA
Devendra Kumar Gora and Sapinder Singh
Research Scholars, Centre for Comparative Literature, Central University of Punjab, Bathinda, Punjab, India

ABSTRACT:

Over 1200 movies are released every year in India so we can assume the role it plays in society being the most influential medium of art. Bollywood remains cluttered with stereotypical portrayal of the Christians community, with hardly any room of innovation. This paper explores how Indian cinema leads to construction of stereotyping of particular groups of society, creating a cultural other in society.

Indian society is undoubtedly a class, caste and religion biased society. Majority creates for itself a superior platform and whosoever is not a part of this so called majority becomes minority. The same is depicted in our cinema since it is a commercially driven enterprise. This paper focus on the limited characteristics which are attributed to minority, how this leads to the stereotyping of a social, ethnical and religious group in our society and how deep rooted these stereotypes are, how effectively they get eternalised through the popular cinema in our society.

This paper primarily focuses upon Christians in India. How they have been caricatured in Hindi cinema since 70s till now. This paper puts forth the limited freedom provided to Christian minority in Hindi cinema. They