Skip to Main Content
HBS Home
  • About
  • Academic Programs
  • Alumni
  • Faculty & Research
  • Baker Library
  • Giving
  • Harvard Business Review
  • Initiatives
  • News
  • Recruit
  • Map / Directions
Faculty & Research
  • Faculty
  • Research
  • Featured Topics
  • Academic Units
  • …→
  • Harvard Business School→
  • Faculty & Research→
Publications
Publications
  • Fall 2021
  • Article
  • Business History Review

Emboldening and Contesting Gender and Skin Color Stereotypes in the Film Industry in India, 1947–1991

By: Sudev Sheth, Geoffrey Jones and Morgan Spencer
  • Format:Print
ShareBar

Abstract

This article examines how the film industry influenced prevailing gender and skin color stereotypes in India during the first four decades after Independence in 1947. It shows that Bollywood, the mainstream cinema in India, shared Hollywood's privileging of paler skin over darker skin, and its preference for presenting women in stereotypical ways lacking agency. The influence of film content was especially significant in India as audiences often lacked alternative sources of entertainment and information. It was left to parallel, and often regional, cinemas in India to contest skin color and gender stereotypes entrenched in mainstream media. As conventional archival sources for this history are lacking, the article employs new evidence from oral histories of producers and actors.

Keywords

Bollywood; Film Industry; Hollywood; Tamil Cinema; Male Gaze; Stereotypes; Social Impact; Gender; Race; Ethnicity; Film Entertainment; Motion Pictures and Video Industry; India; United States

Citation

Sheth, Sudev, Geoffrey Jones, and Morgan Spencer. "Emboldening and Contesting Gender and Skin Color Stereotypes in the Film Industry in India, 1947–1991." Business History Review 95, no. 3 (Fall 2021): 483–515.
  • Find it at Harvard

About The Author

Geoffrey G. Jones

General Management
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • 2025
    • Faculty Research

    Institutional Entrepreneurship and Climate Change

    By: Ann-Kristin Bergquist and Geoffrey Jones
    • February 2025
    • Asian Business & Management

    Deep Responsibility, SDGs, and Asia: A Historical Perspective

    By: Geoffrey Jones
    • 2025
    • Faculty Research

    Sustainability and Green Business in Latin America

    By: Geoffrey Jones
More from the Authors
  • Institutional Entrepreneurship and Climate Change By: Ann-Kristin Bergquist and Geoffrey Jones
  • Deep Responsibility, SDGs, and Asia: A Historical Perspective By: Geoffrey Jones
  • Sustainability and Green Business in Latin America By: Geoffrey Jones
ǁ
Campus Map
Harvard Business School
Soldiers Field
Boston, MA 02163
→Map & Directions
→More Contact Information
  • Make a Gift
  • Site Map
  • Jobs
  • Harvard University
  • Trademarks
  • Policies
  • Accessibility
  • Digital Accessibility
Copyright © President & Fellows of Harvard College.