ABSTRACT
The big Bollywood hits of early 2018 were Padmaavat, a retelling of an ancient mythological ‘poem’ that ends with the ritual jauhar of a Rajput queen and her kinsfolk, and Pad Man, a true story about a Tamil man who invented a low-cost sanitary towel. ‘Bollywood’, as the Hindi film industry is almost universally known to the dismay of many of its practitioners, pumps out almost four times as many movies each year than does Hollywood. Traditional mainstream Bollywood fare tends towards the melodramatic; its themes are often religious with a strong moral dimension. The first represents the tradition of mainstream, big budget, all-singing, all-dancing Hindi movies with strong religious undertones. Indigenous brands are less likely to ape the west but rather to look within, to see themselves within a current Indian context – one where traditional values have a place but where modern sensibilities, including gender roles, are tested.
