Minorities underrepresented in films: Director Sudhir Mishra

Indian cinema has represented a "majoritarian" point of view, with dalits being under represented and minorities being portrayed in a limited manner, even though the trend is slowly changing now, director Sudhir Mishra said today.
He was speaking at a session on Indian films and its relation with the national narrative along with filmmaker Imtiaz Ali and author Rachel Dwyer.
"It does represent a majoritarian point of view, possibly because there is this idea of not upsetting people. At one point in time why were the muslims depicted a certain way? He would either be a qawwal or the hero's best friend and he would die with the Azaan in the background.

Mishra said it was "sad" that Bollywood films have rarely featured a "dalit actor" or told stories of marginalised communities.
"Has there been a dalit actor of any note? Has there been dalit stories told? When you take only Bollywood cinema, you know you have a pretty sad record in these matters and we have to admit it," he said.
The "Hazaaron Khwaishein Aisi" director also talked about the tokenism in inclusion of characters from other ethnicities in movies.

"There are movies like 'XXX: Return of Xander Cage' where there is one Indian character, and three chinese actors. So it is constructed to appeal to a lot of people and it is a condescending view towards an audience," he said.

Mishra, who turned to films after failing at writing novels, said that that the advent of 'parallel cinema', that according to him, has influenced a number of contemporary filmmakers, is a result of a lack of more than one narrative.
"Why did parallel cinema come in because there was otherwise only one narrative. India deserves multiple narratives. I see the influence of parallel cinema in Imtiaz, Anurag Kashyap and Vishal Bharadwaj's work. So, they are all carrying on the idea of challenging narratives," he said.
During the session Ali recalled how movies, rather than moral science textbooks, shaped his morality and his outlook on what moral standards to have.

"For me, Indian cinema always told me how to behave with my mother and my sister. What moral standards to have. Cinema taught me how to behave rather than religion or moral science books in schools. There are of course social issues and national issues that, I feel, get moulded by Indian cinema," he said.