The Transition Of Female Characters In Indian Bollywood Movies Since The 21st Century

Since the first Indian movie Raja Harishchandra was shot in 1913,one hundred years have passed.After India built the industrial movie base whose core is Bollywood in 1995,Bollywood has become famous in the world for its splendid performance,colorful scenes,outstanding stars and romantic affairs between men and women in only twenty years.Especially after the 21 st century,female characters in Bollywood movies have gradually changed with the development of Indian economy,the spread of western feminism and the influence of Indian society.Also,the change of female characters in Bollywood movies is the reflection of Indian society.Throughout the 21 st century,the change of female characters in Bollywood movies could be divided into three stages: still stage,breakthrough stage and awakening stage.Still stage existed before 2003.In this stage,features of female characters in Bollywood movies persisted the features of female characters in the last century with the influence of Indian social custom,religion and many other aspects.At this point,the spread of western feminism did not influence that much in this South Asian Sub-Continent.At this stage,female characters in Bollywood movies were still oppressed by patriarchy and their roles were simple.The main scenes of female characters were in families and the roles were mostly mother,wife and daughter.The breakthrough stage existed from 2004 to 2008 when India carried out its 10 th five-year plan.In this stage,female characters gradually got rid of the shackles given by men and they could speak out their opinions bravely.Under the influence of globalization,the trend of feminism was raised immediately at that time.But the power of India traditional social custom was still strong,so “new thought” and “old thought”,“new change” and “old tradition” were clashing in movies.Besides,female characters were dissatisfied with the traditional male-dominated society and they had more independent self-consciousness.Roles of female characters in Bollywood movies became more various.Office ladies also began to appear whose careers were diversified.The simple role of female characters had changed a lot.Awakening stage exists from the 11 st five-year plan of India to now.After the symbolic Indian movie Three Idiots was released in 2009,Indian filmmakers has concerned more about the real situation of Indian women.In this stage,modern liberal feminism features of femalecharacters are becoming more obvious.Female characters has power and ability to handle their own fate and they can control their own lives tightly.The decision-making right was not a charity any more and they could handle it by themselves.They also criticized and questioned masculism.Besides,female characters' view towards gender relations is also opener than before which shows the feature of feminism's sexual freedom.These female characters are also an important element of promoting Bollywood movies to integrate into international society and occupy the international market.Female characters in the movie Hindi Medium which was released in 2017 had distinct features of international modern women.It also suggested that female characters in Bollywood movies were becoming more and more free,modern and international.What's more,movies could lead the change of Indian women's thought and the development of Indian women.