How feminism, not Bollywood, drew global audiences to Indian cinema in 2024

In 2024, when Bollywood struggled to find its footing, a small Indian women’s film that tells a fictional story made national and international headlines.

In May, Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s All We Think of as Light made history by winning the Grand Prix at the Cannes film festival.

In the months since, All We Imagine As Light has become a juggernaut of indie cinema, sweeping film festivals and the awards circuit. It has been adjudged the Best International Film by prestigious organizations including the New York Film Critics Circle and the Toronto Film Critics Association. It has also picked up two Golden Globe nominations, including for Ms Kapadia as director.

It is also on the list of best movies of the year, including a BBC and and the New York Times.

And it has a company.

Director Shuchi Talati’s coming-of-age drama Girls Will Be Girls won two awards at the Sundance Film Festival. Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies (Lost Ladies) spent two months in the top 10 Netflix series in India and was nominated as the country’s Oscar entry.opposites election). Laapataa Ladies did not make it to the Academy shortlist. Which made it an Indian film by British director Sandhya Suri Santosh, which was nominated as the UK presented Oscars.

Is this sudden success of Indian movies a fluke or a long-awaited change in the global mindset?

“It’s the end of it all,” says film critic Shubhra Gupta, saying these films “were not made overnight”.

For example, Shuchi Talati, the director of Girls Will Be Girls, and her co-star Richa Chadha were in college together when they came up with the idea for the film. “They have been working for years,” says Gupta.

“It’s great that 2024 was the year that these movies were released, and started a conversation together.”

This lucky arrangement has become a movie dream. The international impact of these films stems from their quality and exploration of universal themes such as loneliness, relationships, identity, gender and resilience. With strong female voices and unconventional female stories, these stories go to areas not seen by many Indian films.

In All We Imagine As Light, a film made in Hindi, Marathi and Malayalam, three migrant women in Mumbai navigate compassion, courage and social connection. The story deals with the themes of loneliness and political culture, especially the analysis of Hindu-Muslim religious relations as seen by Anu (Divya Prabha) and her relationship with Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon).

Kapadia told the BBC that even though the women in her films are financially independent, they still face obstacles in their lives, especially when it comes to love.

“For me, love in India is very political… women seem to have a lot of respect for the family and the protection of the clan of other people. So if she marries someone of a different religion or a different race, this is difficult for me, and the way to control mothers is to raise babies,” he says.

Talati Girls Will Be Girls explores adolescence, gangs and generational conflict through the story of a 16-year-old girl who attends a boarding school in the Himalayas and her strained relationship with her struggling mother, Anila. unresolved feelings.

“It’s a kind of coming-of-age movie that we don’t do in India,” says Gupta. “It looks at women from a sympathetic, very warm perspective.”

“The time when people felt obsession with their bodies, their emotions, this kind of exploration but without amplifying the experience – it was not part of Indian television,” he adds.

Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies did not do well at the box office but received positive reviews from viewers and critics. At the BAFTA screening in London this month, Ms Rao described the moment as “very special for women from India”, expressing hope that such stories will continue.

Her film is a comedy about two newlyweds who are accidentally swapped on a train because of their veils. It offers a sharp commentary on freedom, awareness and gender roles, a change from decades of mainstream Indian films that focus on men.

“Most of us who think about our parents are usually like that because that’s how we were brought up,” Bollywood star Aamir Khan, who is co-producing the film, said after filming. “But we have to be understanding, at least to try and help each other even to get out of this kind of thinking.”

The biggest surprise this year came from the UK, which chose the Hindi-language film Santosh, directed by British-Indian filmmaker Sandhya Suri, as its Oscar entry. Shot entirely in India in a 44-day schedule, it featured many women. Starring Indian actress Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajbhar, Santosh was produced by people and companies in the UK, India, Germany and France.

The film is an Indian story about violence against women, which turned out to be a very entertaining film.

Goswami says that the success of Santosh and All We Think of as Light shows the convergence of boundaries and the expansion of the film industry, creating a space for cross-pollination and exchange.

“We often think that these Indian films are needed [specific] culture, but they don’t. Any film inspired by an idea resonates around the world, regardless of where it comes from,” he told the BBC.

Three films – All We Imagine as Light, Girls Will Be Girls and Santosh – share one thing in common: they are co-produced by different countries.

Goswami agrees that this could be the way of the future.

“With a French artist, for example, the film gets the chance to be seen by a French audience that will follow the artist or many film companies. This is how it becomes universal and relevant,” he says.

Even in Bollywood, some women-led films have been a big hit this year. Stree 2, a horror drama about a mysterious woman who fights against a monster that preys on free-thinking women, was the second biggest grosser of the year, playing in theaters for months.

On streaming platforms, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s opulent Netflix series Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar, an exploration of brutality and brutality in the lives of courtesans in pre-independence India, was among Google’s most searched TV shows of the year.

Their success seems to reflect the growing interest in such subjects, their wide appeal showing that cartoons can tackle important issues without sacrificing entertainment.

Despite the challenges of the system, 2024 has highlighted the global power of women’s voices from India and the importance of different issues. Speed ​​may be necessary for the Indian film industry to diversify its independent films and pave the way for diversity and equality.