Disability and Cinema in India: Representation of Women with Disabilities in Bollywood since 1970

This study aims to examine the representation of women with disabilities (sensory impairment) in the Indian cinema, focusing on the Hindi speaking Bollywood. Three popular movies shown in Bollywood have been selected in order to investigate the way in which women with disability are represented. The movies include Koshish (i.e. ‘Effort’, (1972), Lafangey Parindey (i.e. ‘Cheeky Birds’, (2010) and Kaabil ([i.e. ‘Capable’, (2017). The year 1970 has been selected as the beginning of the time frame because it is the closest time to the first Bollywood movie (Koshish, 1972), in which a disabled woman is depicted as a leading role. To analyze the movies, Critical Disability Theory (CDT) was selected as the study’s theoretical framework, and Qualitative Content Analysis (QCA) has been applied as the study’s research method. Results reveal that the representation of women with disability has undergone significant positive changes over time, which includes variations in social status, ability and achievements, issues and concerns, patterns of pleasure, presence and acceptance, social attitude, words and phrases used, as well as changes in policies related to women with disabilities.