Various issues of representation of women in Indian Cinema

In India, today films are the most popular form of mass communication and Bollywood has the largest film industry in the world, producing over nine hundred films annually and attracting over fifteen million viewers daily. Indeed, the Bombay film is assumed to be “the opium of the Indian masses” and undoubtedly popular Hindi cinema purports to be nothing more than pure entertainment, enjoyed for the lavish spectacles of dance and song, action packed adventures and glamorous actresses. Indian Cinema has been portraying the different images of women and it has also influenced the society to a great extent. However, the reflection of women through cinema has also raised various issues that need to be addressed and this paper is an attempt in this direction.