Bollywood plays a major role in how society looks at women. Its portrayal of women has Bollywood plays a major role in how society looks at women. Its portrayal of women has led to a lot of patriarchy in India. Back in the 20th-century women were portrayed as obedient and submissive. Women acted as damsels in distress or homemakers. Women in Indian cinema are complementary and supplementary characters to men who are in the lead. In the 70s and 80s, a good woman as portrayed on-screen was shy, decent and always the sufferer. Women who wore “revealing” clothes drink alcohol mainly acted as vamps. Indian cinema also promotes item songs that objectify women. “Item songs” are dance numbers where scantily clad women perform provocative dances to titillate the audience. Bollywood plays a huge role in shaping the mindsets of people. In a huge number of films, it’s shown that women are attacked by goons and the hero comes to rescue. This demonstrates that women are incapable of protecting themselves. In many movies, it is shown that the hero stalks the girl till she falls in love with him. Bollywood also has an age-old sexism problem where the female leads keep on changing but the male leads remain the same. Madhuri Dixit, Juhi Chawla, Karishma Kapoor are seen as actors of an era and they are still struggling to make a comeback. They are mainly doing women-centric films as prod On the other hand, actors like Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan are seen romancing with women half their age. This is because producers don’t think that old women are bankable. Many women actors are seen to play mothers of much older male actors. Well, what is done is done. As we have realised the problems I hope there will be a better portrayal of women in Indian cinema.