Examining the Race Stereotype of Heroines in Tamil Cinema - Content Analysis

Home , Aadukalam, Aishwarya Rajesh, Amala Paul, Hansika Motwani, Kanchana 2, Kaththi

International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology Vol. 29, No. 12s, (2020), pp. 2876-2882

Examining The Race Stereotype Of Heroines In Tamil Cinema - Content Analysis

Ansu Elsa Joy Assistant Professor, Department of Visual Communication, SRM Institute of science and technology, Kattankulathur, Chennai

ABSTRACT:

Cinema acts as a significant communication and entertainment tool for all age groups. In general, the cinema has got a lot of culture and tradition involved in it. These educated the people around them. A message isconstructed and conveyed to the audience. Tamil cinema industry, well known as Kollywood has many sectors, and their slots are being rooted in the Tamil culture. Earlier, most of the films have got male dominance, recently the trend has changed, and female lead roles are given importance to their characters, and many are justifying the character too. However, the media has constructed a stereotype in the minds of people, that females should be fair and beautiful. White colour race acts as beauty in the media industry. May it be a film, series, advertisements, etc. The female lead has to be fair and brown colour denotes ugly. From the beginning of the media era, there is a wrong social construction stating female roles are pleasure objects in the eyes of people. People look for colour, instead of the quality of acting. Because of the media constructions insociety, audiences are being forced to view women from a heterosexual male view. Examples of the male gaze include medium close-up shots of women and scenes that frequently occur, which show a man actively observing a passive woman and so on. The ideology of both male and female audiences has changed because of this mass media, and people only like fair-skinned women, their skills in the current field might be less, but they win the market only with their colour.

Keywords:Cinema, Tamil cinema, Female leads, Stereotypes, Race, and gaze.

INTRODUCTION:

Indian cinema created a new way as a global enterprise in the 20th century. Through dynamic and fast modern new media,Indian films exhibited in more than 90 countries.[1] The starting of the Indian film industry can be dated back to 1896 when the legendary Lumiere Brothers of France exhibited six silent short films at the Watson Hotel in Bombay, namely Entry of Cinematography.[2] The decade of the 2000s witnessed the persistent rise of Indian cinema in the world. New Media (technology) took Bollywood to novel peaks about cinematography and storylines alongside mechanical advancements in terms of special effects and animation.[3]Indian cinema is now competing globally with advanced digital projectors, converting digital format and new types of production techniques.

Kollywood, became a center in Chennai, is considered a regional cinema and often under-represented and overlooked.[4] Bollywood is usually considered the Indian Hollywood and the capital of the film industry, it is the Chennaibased Kollywood film industry that has animportant impact on the masses.[5] “It has become increasingly pervasive in almost all aspects of the Kollywood field and perhaps the most prominently in political life.”

Cinema has become part and parcel of the life of Tamils. It has taken a central place in the life and culture of the Tamil society.[6] It did not vanish with the arrival of the TV; other than the small screen lives at the mercy of cinema, and it remains a poor substitute for the cinema. The number of filmgoers in India is highest in Tamil Nadu.[7]

In the State of Tamil Nadu in India, cinema is everywhere, and it is everything. Going through the main streets of the bigger cities one cannot but see the gigantic glittering billboards that advertise the latest films as well as the small posters that are being posted on the walls, with the fan club’s name.[8]

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The digital banner culture of today has made it very easy to print the photos of the youth leaders who sponsor the clubs to identify themselves with their film stars.

Gender roles are being socially constructed, and they are learned from the behaviour pattern of the elders, mostly as mediated by the popular media. Tamil cinema still perpetuates traditional gender stereotypes because it reflects dominant social values.[9] The cinema narration also reinforces them, presenting them as natural and this is being consumed by the audience. For example, the stereotypes of masculine domination and feminine submission are being portrayed, often justified, and occasionally challenged in cinema, but the predominant images of male domination and female submission are being generally reinforced by cinema.[10]

Audiences, particularly the men, learn and identify with male characters and treat females as objects of pleasure.[13]Good women are presented as submissive, sensitive, and domesticated; whereas bad women are being projected as being rebellious, independent, and selfish.[11]Girls learn from the cinema that they are supposed to be pure, obedient, soft-spoken, confined to the household and agriculture. They are supposed to be affectionate, gentle, sympathetic, dependent, emotional, nurturing, and supportive of men.

In popular culture, particularly in movies, black is an excuse to ridicule (and self-ridicule) one's skin colour and to worship fairness.[12]Rajinikanth, the biggest movie star of the south, is also the worst offender in this.[14]In many of his movies, he is apologetic about his skin-color, particularly when expressing his love to a woman, who is always fair-skinned.

OBJECTIVE OF THE RESEARCH:

 To analyze the race stereotypes practised in Tamil cinema for the past decade.  To examine the quality of the female lead characters in Tamil cinema in the last decade.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE:

During (1989), Laura Mulvey has penned a book called “Visual and Other Pleasures” in which he talks about Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. He states that demanded by the ideology of the patriarchal order as it is been worked out in its cinematic form, i.e. illusionistic narrative film in which a further layer is added. An argument is taken a step further into the structure of representation for the active gaze of a man for whom the image of a woman is as passive raw material.The argument is again turned into the psychoanalytic background, in which woman is signified as castration, inducing voyeuristic or fetishistic mechanisms to circumvent her threat. So, on the whole, a woman is shown as a pleasure object to the man who sees them in a gaze.And according to Ahmed.S(2007), his research article about the phenomenology of whitenessin Feminist Theory states thatwith a cultural pervasiveness unparalleled in Western films, the inter or extra-textual references to contemporary pop culture and society enrich Tamil cinema by presenting it in films.With few characteristics functioning more than the filmy text, the inclusion of those references and semi-diegetic sequences gives a sense of the film. It overflows beyond the traditional confines of diegesis.Thus whiteness involves more by adding western tradition to enrich Tamil cinema scenes as well.Chinniah&Sathiavathi (2008)in his book, has quoted a chapter “The Tamil film heroine” in which he talks about heroines who have become pleasure objects nowadays. He also says that several popular soap operas and commercials have adopted film industry stereotypes and insensitive representations of sexual violence are also taken place in mass media. According to them, heroines are becoming pleasure objects to the viewers. Though strong roles are given to the female lead roles in some movies, their reach is less, compared to item songs in certain movies.Nakassis.C. V, during(2015) worked on a research article which was about Tamil-speaking Heroine in the Tamil film industry. In a survey done, actresses who are showcased as fluent Tamil speakers are not competent Tamil speakers. Many of the top lead heroines in the Tamil industry are neither from Tamil Nadu nor know proper Tamil

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language.Audiences or industry insiders don’t consider many of the actresses to be ethnolinguistically Tamil or to speak Tamil.According to Meenaatchi(2017), a stigma around acting is being fortified and the contemporary female actors are impacted by the strict understandings of Tamil womanhood. She majorly talks about nativity and whiteness which is been constructed in media. In her thesis, she has focused on Amy Jackson who is from a western country and western culture, but the roles given to her in Tamil cinema were mostly Tamil girl and girl next door character. Since certain stigmas are already set in the film industry, performing intimate scenes on-screen have hesitated by the Tamil heroines but heroines like Jackson is ready to act in such scenes, due to the freedom afforded by her western upbringing.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

Data for this study was been done using content analysis of 10 top Tamil heroines who were beenintroduced between 2010 and 2020.A sampling frame with more than 30 heroines was created, based on searches using five different Internet search engines. The research is influenced by social construction theory and visual deconstruction to examine the female lead roles in the Tamil cinema for the pastdecade. The shortlist was created based on the activeness and popularityof Tamil heroines in Tamil cinema and has acted more than five films in their period in Tamil alone. Top 10 heroines who werebeen shortlisted for the analysis have been given below:

1) Amalapaul 2) Aishwarya Rajesh 3) Samantha 4) Amy Jackson 5) TaapseePannu 6) Hansika Motwani 7) Rakul Preet Singh 8) Lakshmi Menon 9) Nikki Galrani 10) Keerthy Suresh

DATA ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION:

1. Name of the Heroine:Amala Paul Origin:Kerala. Year introduced in Tamil Cinema:2010 Notable movies in Tamil cinema and their characters: Mynaa(2010), KadhalilSodhappuvadhuYeppadi(2012), VelaiyillaPattathari(2014), Amma Kanakku(2015), Aadai(2019). Interpretation: Though she is typically Malayali, she has justified many of her roles in her notable movies as a Tamil girl, that too kind of village girl roles and illiterate roles. Since she is also from a southern state, she was able to cope up with the roles given to her. May it be modern, may it be traditional, she makes it suit her. According to the researcher, she has never hesitated to act in any form of roles given, from the beginning of her career itself. She has done a bold role in Aadai, which was very sensational news,which was trending in Kollywood during its teaser released.

2. Name of the Heroine:Aishwarya Rajesh Origin:Tamil Nadu. Year introduced in Tamil Cinema:2010

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Notable movies in Tamil cinema and their characters:KaakaMuttai(2015), Vada Chennai(2018), Kanaa(2018), Mei(2019), VaanamKottatum(2020). Interpretation: Her parents and relatives are part of the Telegu industry, and she has chosen the Tamil industry. All the roles she has acted so far have created impact and are strong roles, no much glamour or masala contents are been produced from her side. However, one cannot survive a long time in the industry without entering the glamour part, excess glamour is also harmful. More than the modern girl role, she has acted more like village girl roles, and she has made a true justification to it too.

3. Name of the Heroine:SamanthaOrigin:Tamil Nadu Year introduced in Tamil Cinema: 2010 Notable movies in Tamil cinema and their characters: NeethanaeEnPonvasantham(2013), Kaththi(2014), Their(2016), U Turn(2018),Super Deluxe(2019). Interpretation: Maybe, a modern girl, a housewife, she bangs the audience in her hand with content and glamour aswell. She is known for her expressions and acting skills. Whatever role, the director gives, she takes it to the people’s heart.However, according to the researcher, the Telegu industry is using her well by giving her predominant and different roles.

4. Name of the Heroine:Amy Jackson Origin:United Kingdom Year introduced in Tamil Cinema: 2010 Notable movies in Tamil cinema and their characters: Madrasapattinam(2010),I(2015), Thangamagan(2015), Gethu(2016), 2.0 (2018). Interpretation: Different cultures, a different country and has no idea about Tamil cinema and culture. In many types of research done, she has fitted well and justified her role in Madrasapattinam movie. However, all other movies which showcase her as a typical Tamil girl are not suiting her at all. But in a hype, producers are choosing her for precise roles in which it is not even necessary to do her act in that role.

5. Name of the Heroine:TaapseePannu Origin:Punjab/ New Delhi. Year introduced in Tamil Cinema:2010 Notable movies in Tamil cinema and their characters: Aadukalam(2010), VandhaanVendraan(2011), Arrambam(2013), Kanchana 2(2015), Game Over(2019). Interpretation: She has done justice to her first movie as the role given to her and has created an impact in Tamil cinema. However, all other movies donot create much impact among the audience, so she selected the glamour part in a movie and it was trending more in that period, and later people forgot her. She then started focusing on other languages as well.

6. Name of the Heroine:Hansika Motwani Origin:Maharashtra Year introduced in Tamil Cinema:2011 Notable movies in Tamil cinema and their characters: Mappillai(2011), EngeyumKadhal(2011), OruKalOruKannadi(2012), Biriyani(2013), Romeo Juliet(2015). Interpretation:

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So far, in her Tamil cinema career, no strong roles are created from her side. All her roles are simple, fun loved characters, and people also stated that she lookslike “Kushboo”. She has got a powerful fan following, who has built a temple for her also.

7. Name of the Heroine: Rakul Preet SinghOrigin:Punjab/ New Delhi. Year introduced in Tamil Cinema: 2011 Notable movies in Tamil cinema and their characters: Puthagam(2013),YennamoYedho(2014), TheeranAdhigaaramOndru(2017), Dev(2019), NGK(2019). Interpretation: At first, she was not noticed by the Tamil audience much, her innocence was liked by many among Tamil audiences, and she has started selecting strong roles in Tamil cinema.However,she has no idea about the language;the young audience started adding her to their crush list. We have seen her in multiple avatars like a girl next door, trendsetter, style Diva. She is known as the millennial fashionista, who sets new trends.

8. Name of the Heroine:Lakshmi Menon Origin:Kerala Year introduced in Tamil Cinema:2012 Notable movies in Tamil cinema and their characters: Sundarapandian(2012), Kumki(2012), Kutti Puli(2013), Kombab(2015), Rekka(2016). Interpretation: Many of her roles in Tamil cinema portrays a village girl and only a few roles gave her a modern look. According to the researcher, the actress herself is bored with such roles and wanted to make changes and select challenging roles. She was ata peak in her period. Though she is Malayali, she has acted more in Tamil cinemas and does only supporting roles in Malayalam cinema.

9. Name of the Heroine:Nikki Galrani Origin:Karnataka. Year introduced in Tamil Cinema:2015 Notable movies in Tamil cinema and their characters: Darling(2015),YagavarayinumNaaKaakka(2015), VelainuVandhuttaVellaikaaran (2016), MaragadhaNaanayam(2017), Charlie Chaplin 2 (2019). Interpretation: Though she has acted in modern roles in many of her movies; expressions are not been expected to the level. She has done more comedy roles; which doesnot suit her much. She can do both homely, and extreme roles.Audiences expect more from her and her roles are also not strong enough. People noticed her role as a ghost.However, many producers wanted her to join their crew.She has also acted in other languages.

10. Name of the Heroine:Keerthy Suresh Origin:Kerala/ Tamil Nadu. Year introduced in Tamil Cinema:2015 Notable movies in Tamil cinema and their characters: Idhu Enna Maayam(2015), Rajini Murugan(2016), Thodari(2016), Bairavaa(2017), NadigaiyarThilagam(2018). Interpretation: She has done multi avatars like a girl next door, modern, village. People love her fun-filled character in movies. At first, people did not accept her acting. That one film which even banged her national award got her name and fame all over. Whoever first told, she doesnot know acting; later appreciated her, for her marvelous performance in her movie. It has

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become the talk of the town too, and almost all her roles are not glamorous like other heroines of her period, it is used wherever needed, in a lesser manner.

SUMMARY:

Out of the ten shortlisted heroines, half the ratio heroines are not even from the south side and are totally from a different culture. One among them is actually from outside the country, i.e. United Kingdom; where she is in no way related to the Tamil or Indian culture. The aesthetic of acting lies in the expressions and body language, an actor gives. A role in a movie is been given life, only when the actor, understand and intake the role as the director or writer wants it and enact it in the same way with some add-ons from their side. One, without knowing the language or meaning; is difficult to involve in it full-fledged. Many of the actors start learning the language to improvise themselves. As we all know, only in a few movies, voices are recorded during the filming process. Since the heroines chosen are not from Tamil Nadu more, dubbing artists are giving voices to the artists. Many even sound similar, but with little modulations. Because of low knowledge or even no knowledge about the language, the impacts created are less by the heroines when compared to the hero. It is not that; there are no heroines in Tamil cinema knows Tamil; only a few know the language, that is the problem. Movies have become commercial, and producers wanted masala films more than strong plotssince they see profit in it and so they are making female characters as desirable characters more. Media has constructed a wrong strategy that beauty lies in one’s colour more than talent. Many of the shortlisted heroines here are favoured and active enough during their period. It is not about the talent, it is about the colour which speaks more in Tamil industry. Because of choosing actresses based on the colour, strong plots are less in Tamil cinema, according to the researcher. When we compare Tamil cinema, with Malayalam cinema itself,the researcher feels Tamil films have low-quality content produced, instead of many films are produced only for commercial and profit purposes. So, when we compare Tamil cinema with world cinema, plots which donot demand colour of a heroine have got stronger story plots. In recent times, female-centric movies are also evoking; only one out of 5 movies are creating impact. Even our shortlisted heroines for the last decade have done female-centric movies. When the shortlisted heroines are been taken into detailed research for their peak in Tamil cinema, for many actresses, their reason to stay back was their race and their pleasure appeal. Many heroines, at first, does homely roles, at one point in time, they are being pushed to act in glamorous roles and item songs. Moreover, audiences also see them aspleasure objects. The issue is not in their eyes, it is only because of the media construction, which has to misled both male and female audience.

LIMITATION:

 The study focused only on the female lead roles; supporting actresses were not been taken into consideration.  The female lead roles were shortlisted only from the past decade.  Heroines who have not acted more than five films were not been used.

CONCLUSION:

As we know, plenty of Tamil cinemas are released every Friday, some are hitting screens successfully, and some are failing. An average number of two to three heroines are being introduced every year and when we take account of a decade, it is more than 30 to 40 heroines, not all of them are surviving in the industry, some are quitting, and some are shifting to other language films as well. When detailed research was been done to know the activeness of heroines, the reason for them to stay back was only because of their colour and glamour. Those who are dusky are given strong roles, but they are being pushed to act supporting roles. In one eye, it might be aesthetic, but in the other eye, it is totally for profit. All the shortlisted heroines used for the research are not in the field; only a few exist, the rest of them have even quit or paused acting for a while. Tamil speaking heroines are less in Tamil cinema. When a list was been taken, anactress who speaksTamil well and dub themselves have done comparatively fewer movies than the actress who doesn’t even know Tamil. So, in the Tamil

International Journal of Advanced Science and Technology Vol. 29, No. 12s, (2020), pp. 2876-2882 industry, voices are not louder instead, one’s race is louder. That too, when it comes to heroine, she has to be fairer, atleast to the hero. Tamil audience has a general strategy that, heroes can be dusky or dark, that is the manly colour, but when it comes to heroine, they should look fairer than the heroes, atleast through their make-ups. Some heroines were not fair; in early times, people accepted them. But, it slowly reduced, and people wanted a golden girl to act in female leads. It is the mindset of the current generation aswell. Not only in cinemas, may it be, in any kind of media, people who produce it, want the girl lead to looking fair and beautiful. So, this is how the stereotypes are being set to find a female lead role.

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