Portrayal of disability in Hindi Cinema: A study of emerging trends of differently-abled

Cinema is considered to be a powerful medium that reflects the happenings in a society. While it is caught up between the real and reel life, it still performs as an important medium of entertaining people, educating them and bringing a behavior change in their practice and attitudes. While there are people who believe in the power of cinema to change the world, there are others who say that its chief purpose is to entertain people. In case of portrayal of disability in films swings primarily between two extremes-pity, fun, caricaturing, sympathy, and awesome heroism are at one end of the spectrum while discrimination, coping-up, emotional swings and aspirations of the human soul are at the other end. However, there has been a third trend which emerged in the beginning of the new millennium is a major contribution of films in India. The present study is an attempt to identify the variation of portrayal of disability in earlier days and the present trend which perhaps justify the contribution of Bollywood to the society. And the recent trend is an effort of filmmakers to make the disabled people differently-abled and uncover many hidden disorders related to disability for creating awareness among the audience in India. While formulating the research design for this paper, one pertinent question raised-whether the recent trend is a self-initiated or a response to continuous critics of Bollywood's stereotype portrayal of disability. Through a historical analysis method few questions of similar nature has been analyzed in this article.