Presentation Schedule
Beyond the Suffering Heroine: How Modern Indian Media Is Rewriting Female Agency (112612)
Session Chair: Kenji Kaneko
Tuesday, 10 November 2026 15:45
Session: Session 3
Room: Room A (4F)
Presentation Type:Oral Presentation
While Indian women have made massive strides in public life and legal standing over the last few decades, their daily lives are still heavily monitored by traditional family expectations, patriarchal honor codes, and social biases. This paper explores how female roles navigate these cultural pressures by looking at the shift between older Indian cinema and modern films and OTT platforms. By comparing traditional, submissive cinematic tropes with recent, realistic narratives—like Thappad (2020), The Great Indian Kitchen (2021), and Gangubai Kathiawadi (2022)—this study maps how female independence is represented on screen today. Crucially, this research avoids looking at Indian women through a purely Western feminist lens. Instead, it anchors the analysis within India’s unique social structure, where a woman's freedom is closely tied to caste, religion, and family dynamics. Our findings show a clear evolution. Where older Indian cinema largely normalized rigid, submissive archetypes—such as the suffering, self-sacrificing mother or wife—contemporary Indian media serves as an active social toolkit. By bringing everyday domestic labor, marital consent, and female ambition to the forefront, new-age films are forcing traditional audiences to rethink deep-rooted prejudices. Ultimately, this media shift doesn't just reflect society; it actively helps normalize female independence and authority within the Indian household.
Authors:
Padmavathy Dhillon, Indian Institute of Management Sambalpur, India
About the Presenter(s)
Padmavathy Dhillon I am currently working as a Faculty at Indian Institute of Management Sambalpur, Odhisha
Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/padmavathy-dhillon-b2145a146/
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