Anatomizing the screen presence of disabled characters in Hindi Feature films

Abstract

Cinema and society are mutually reflective, influence each other in both constructively as well as precarious manner. While the practices of society pilots the ideas of filmmaking, the society also mirrors the values of its movies in various ways. The concerns of physically disabled (differently abled) group of the society has also attracted the filmmakers throughout the world including many from Indian movie industry a.k.a. "Bollywood". Many mainstream Bollywood movies have depicted the experiences of differently-abled people either as a part of the plot or as the main subject of the story while exploring varied ways of fascination with the topic. This paper is an attempt to shed light on how Bollywood mainstream cinema incorporates the idea of disability in their movies, and what is the level of sensitivity when it deals with issues of disability? Whether the idea of disability has been romanticized or patronized in Bollywood movies? Whether B'town uses the idea of disability just to garner commercial success or to communicate about the concerns of a disability type? Quality content analysis of Bollywood feature films dealing with some physical dis-ability has been done to fulfil the objectives of the paper.