Evolving Representations of Women in Bollywood Cinema, 1980–1993

Authors:

Dr. Krushna Chandra Mishra

Pages: 6-16

Abstract:

This paper analyses the transformation of female representation in mainstream Hindi cinema between 1980 and 1993, a period bridging the moral melodrama of the 1970s and the liberalized sensibility of the 1990s. Drawing upon six key films—Maang Bharo Sajna (1980), Insaaf Ka Tarazu (1980), Arth (1982), Mirch Masala (1987), Khoon Bhari Maang (1988), and Damini (1993)—the study maps the shift from sacrificial virtue to civic agency. Combining feminist film theory and Peircean semiotics, it interprets how Bollywood’s emotional idiom internalized feminist concerns while preserving melodramatic pleasure. The analysis shows a steady movement from the devotional icon of womanhood to the ethical interpreter of justice, revealing cinema’s contribution to India’s democratic pedagogy. The conclusion links these cinematic negotiations with the moral framework of the National Education Policy 2020, arguing that 1980s Bollywood anticipated the policy’s call for empathy-based civic learning.