Bollywood vs Indian Television

I heard a quotation a long while ago – The main distinction between portrayal of masculine and feminine characters over the two platforms is quite opposite in nature – In Television, we idolize the feminine characters while fantasizing the masculine characters. Whereas in Bollywood, we idolize the masculine characters and fantasize the feminine characters.

It has been literally several years ever since I heard this for the very first time… and all along this quote – this stark difference, has stuck with me and I have been consciously or sub-consciously analyzing all the shows or movies that I watch to find examples to refute this. Now, I do not say that every single show and every single movie is based on this. Neither do I say that the feminine characters on television are not worth fantasizing. All I say is that if you check on the whole, this will always be put to a truth outcome.

Honestly, I might have mentioned this earlier as well but I spent a good Sunday watching a few movies and then browsing through some old series that I really enjoyed.

So if you consider – women are often shown delicate in the movies. Delicate does not meet helpless or pitiful. It just means that they get into problems and then the hero swoops in to save the day. There are so many movies where the female lead is cast but not given any substantial role. For instance, Kareena Kapoor Khan was amazing in Bajrangi Bhaijaan but what difference would it be to the story had the female character not been written in the script? There might be a tweak as to some other character being written who would support Bajrangi when for a few moments he was shocked to find Munni being a Muslim. But Bajrangi’s character was such that even if he would have realized it himself, that would not have gone out or against the character. Rather it would be more in character since he himself decided to go to the brothel and save Munni, to go to another country and save her and all other things. He did not need any persuasion then. Even in movies in Singham or Simbaa, the female leads were just to support the male lead and provide him wisdom in some times of distress. Interestingly in movies such as Naam Shabana or Chennai Express where the female lead was the center focus of the story, there were other females cast to bring in some glamour quotient or the story was modified to somewhere either shift focus to the male lead or show events where the female lead would be helpless or succumb to the situation and would need some rescuing. We do not even leave warrior women characters such as Avantika and Devasena and do show them in some feminine element – colorful clothes, songs, singing, dancing and yearning for their hero.

In all the above instances and more, we can not help but fall in love with the male characters for being larger than life. The worst of all happens in movies such as Hum Tum, where they start with showing the male character in some sort of a bad light (not a negative character but generally stupid or not likeable) and then show an arc where the character takes a larger than life role to help the girl and then as audience, you like the male character more than you would like the female character.

Meanwhile on television, the roles get reversed.

The female characters written for the Indian Television are pretty and glamorous, no doubt. But their striking quality is being righteous. They would do anything – I mean anything to not be bad. Or rather, the story is twisted in every shape and form to keep them in white light. Even the antagonists or the popularly known vamps are also shown to move in and out of the grey area. Irrespective of which light they are shown in, they are shown strong. They might cry to fill oceans and lakes but they will then rise with a will-power to even make the mountains move. Nothing is shown impossible. Even smaller things such as cooking, cleaning, going to office or simply pursuing their dream is shown as a great feat that they are accomplishing. We have had several examples such as Balika Vadhu, Bade Acche lagte hain, Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi and plenty more where even if the female protagonist kills someone – she is sympathized with. If she remarries, she will still be faithful and loyal to her first husband and entire family. In other shows such as Yeh Meri Life Hai, Left Right Left, Geet and the likes – female characters just charge out with to their targets.

All the time, the male characters are written as rich and extremely (like seriously extremely) supportive. They do mistakes just to show a contrast that the female characters are pretty amazing at not doing any. They cheat on their wives. They also do not bear any responsibility towards their first wife if they have remarried – until the second wife runs away and then they realize that their first wife was their true love and they come back to her. Even in shows such as CID, in episodes where they start showing any slight form of love angles, the women suddenly become important and right. Also, the male characters are pretty handsome and have a raw appeal to them.

These are just my observations and I do not wish to make any generalized statements or imply that in any place the male or the female are less in comparison.

This difference arises due to the format and the intended audiences.

The television is a medium mostly for middle ages women who will sit in their homes after having a meal and watch television to pass their time. They are going through their life in general and thus showing everyday life and the women coming out as the stronger of the genders is something that is relatively better deserved. At the same time the men are shown to the handsome as hell – to obviously keep the audience engaged. They are also shown to agree with the female characters. This is just a way to psychologically boost the morale which is otherwise quite the opposite in real life for most people.

The main issue with movies is time. Television shows continue for weeks and months.. sometimes even years. But for movies, we have just three (or four if you are Ashutosh Gowarikar) hours. The important part here is to leave an impact as soon as possible. The biggest impact comes from some heroic deeds which the heros are given – action and being larger than life. The female characters are, unfortunately but honestly, put to add the glamour to appeal the audience and sort of give them the star struck feeling. These are women people can not relate to but can aspire to. Whereas the heros need to make you fall in love with them. They are absolutely handsome but they need to be more so you can fall in love quickly… they do not have the leisure of spending all weekday evenings with you.

This thought came back to me when I saw Haseen Dilruba. There is a line in the movie (just one line, I promise. No spoilers) where Vikrant asks Tapsee what kind of a man she wanted to marry and she lists quite a few qualities. Meanwhile if you really see Tapsee’s character – she embodies each and every one of those qualities but for her they want some fashionable sarees or cute hair-dos.

Well, I do not complain but let’s hope to get more examples proving this quote wrong!