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project brief -
This project aims to provide insights into the representation of queer characters in Indian cinema over time by compiling a dataset of Indian films with queer characters and analyze it to understand how such representation has evolved over time, to identify patterns and trends in queer representation from 2008-2020
2022
guided by
Amit Kapoor
+ representation as data
In a land which was defined by the multiplicity of human experience across cultures and thus defining varied gender and sexual spectrums we as a society act upon. The colonial intervention reshaped and uprooted a lot of our moral and civil consciusness, with the post independence period being the age of re-definition, the habituation of a ‘constitutional morality’ which tops them all.
The study takes a data set of all blockbuster hits from 2008-2020 and tries to see if there is representations of LGBTQIA+ people and stories and how the quality of representation has been?
queerness in indian cinema - snippets of movies with queer presence in the last two decades,
from left to right - Kapoor and Sons, Ek haseena ne dekha toh.. , Loev, Evening shadows, Badhai do, Fire (1996), Memories in March (2010), Geeli puchki (2021), Sheer Qorma (2021), Cobalt blue (2022), Just another love story (2010), Margerita with a straw, Aligarh
from left to right - Kapoor and Sons, Ek haseena ne dekha toh.. , Loev, Evening shadows, Badhai do, Fire (1996), Memories in March (2010), Geeli puchki (2021), Sheer Qorma (2021), Cobalt blue (2022), Just another love story (2010), Margerita with a straw, Aligarh
cinema in last two
decades.
2008-2021
source -
wikipedia, rotten tomatoes
decades.
2008-2021
source -
wikipedia, rotten tomatoes
Out of the 1590 movies which hit the box office
since 2008, only 34 have visibile queer characters.
There has been a rise of queer portrayals in movies since 2018, with the supreme court judgement of scrappin 377, although there has been movies specifically centering around queer storylines earlier in the decade.
visualisation tool - data illustrator
the data is also trying to understand the diversity of queer storylines and characters
out of the 34 movies which have some amount of queer presence, an average of 2 characters exists in movies, which centres around queer storylines
The average screentime per queer characters, also vary
most prominent queer character is a gay person
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the most represented gender identity is a cis man
Looking forward to a more detailed datasets, let’s collaborate!
the most represented gender identity is a cis man
Looking forward to a more detailed datasets, let’s collaborate!