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

In 2024, as Bollywood was struggling to find its footing, small films by Indian women telling understated stories made national and international headlines.

In May, Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia Everything 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 an indie cinema juggernaut, sweeping film festivals and the awards circuit. It was judged as Best International Film by prestigious organizations including the New York Film Critics Circle and the Toronto Film Critics Association. It also garnered two Golden Globe nominations, including one for Ms. Kapadia as best director.

It’s also featured in several of the best movies of the year, including this one BBC again the New York Times.

And it has company.

Shuchi Talati’s young drama Girls Will Be Girls won two awards at the Sundance Film Festival. Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies (Lost Ladies) spent at least two months on Netflix’s top 10 list in India and was nominated as the country’s official Oscar entry (the argument decision). Laapataa Ladies did not make the shortlist for the Academy. What made it was the British-Indian director Sandhya Suri’s Hindi film, Santosh, which was considered the UK’s submission to the Oscars.

Is this sudden wave of success for Indian films a fluke or a long overdue shift in global consciousness?

“It’s a culmination of both,” says film critic Shubhra Gupta, pointing out that these films “were not made overnight”.

For example, Shuchi Talati, the director of Girls Will Be Girls, and its producer Richa Chadha were in college together when they first came up with the idea for the film. “They’ve been working on it for years,” Gupta said.

“It’s sad that 2024 was the year that these movies were released, and they started conversations together.”

This lucky alignment has been a cinematic dream. The global impact of these films is based on their quality and exploration of universal themes such as loneliness, relationships, identity, gender and resilience. With strong female voices and unconventional narratives for women, these stories venture into areas unexplored by mainstream Indian cinema.

In All We Imagine As Light, a film made in Hindi, Marathi and Malayalam, three migrant women in Mumbai navigate empathy, resilience and social connection. The narrative delves into themes of loneliness and the socio-political climate, particularly the scrutiny of Hindu-Muslim religious relations as seen with the character Anu (Divya Prabha) and her bond with Shiaz (Hridhu Haroon).

Kapadia told the BBC that although the women in his films are financially independent, they still face limitations in their lives, especially when it comes to romance.

“For me, love in India is very political … women seem to carry a lot of so-called family honor and caste protection. So if she marries someone from a different religion or a different caste. , that becomes a problem for me, it’s a way of controlling women and raising children,” he says like this.

Talati’s Girls Will Be Girls explores youth, rebellion and female conflict through the story of a 16-year-old girl who attends a strict boarding school in the Himalayas and her fractured relationship with her mother, Anila, who suffers from vulnerability and unresolved emotions.

“It’s the kind of latest film that we don’t do at all in India,” said Gupta. “It looks at women from a very sensitive, very warm perspective.”

“The era where people are experiencing emotions through their bodies, their minds, that exploration but without raising awareness – has not been a part of mainstream Indian cinema,” he adds.

Kiran Rao’s Laapataa Ladies did not perform well at the box-office but received warm reviews from the audience and critics. At the BAFTA screening in London this month, Ms Rao described the moment as “really special for Indian women”, expressing hope for such stories to continue.

His film is a comedy about two newlyweds who accidentally exchange their veils on a train. It offers sharp commentary on patriarchy, identity and gender roles, a shift from decades of mainstream male-centric films.

“Most of us who are very pro-child in our thinking tend to be so because we were brought up that way,” said Bollywood star Aamir Khan, who is the producer of the film, after the screening. “But we must understand, at least try to help each other to get out of this type 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 a majority of women. Starring Indian actors Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajbhar, Santosh has been produced by individuals and companies across the UK, India, Germany and France.

The film is actually an Indian story about violence against women, set as a thriller.

Goswami says the success of Santosh and All We Imagine as Light points to the cross-border integration and expansion of the film industry, which creates space for cross-pollination and exchange.

“We tend to think that these Indian films need [specific] cultural context, but they don’t. “Any film that’s driven by emotion will resonate around the world, regardless of where it’s from,” he told the BBC.

The three films – All We Imagine as Light, Girls Will Be Girls and Santosh’s – share one very common feature: they are transnational co-productions.

Goswami agrees that this could be the formula for the future.

“With a French producer, for example, the film gets a chance to be seen by a French audience that may follow that producer or the wider film industry. This is how it is globally accessible and relevant,” he said.

Even in Bollywood, some female-led films have been very successful this year. Stree 2, a horror comedy about a mysterious woman fighting a monster that kidnaps free-thinking women, was the second biggest hit of the year, playing in theaters for months.

On streaming platforms, Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Netflix series Heeramandi: Diamond Bazaar, an exploration of hatred and exploitation in the lives of pre-independence India’s elite, was among Google’s most sought-after TV shows of the year.

Their success seems to reflect the growing popularity of such stories, their broad appeal showing that mainstream cinema can tackle important themes without sacrificing entertainment value.

Despite systemic challenges, 2024 highlighted the global power of women’s voices from India and the need for diverse issues. The momentum could be significant for the Indian film industry in getting wider distribution for its independent films and paving the way for a more diverse and balanced film industry.