ABSTRACT

Representation is what cinema is all about, denoting symbols, signs, images, portrayals, depictions, likenesses and substitutions. ‘Gender’ in this context is defined as the cultural meanings of representations assigned to biologically sexed bodies, with the terms ‘masculine’ and ‘feminine’ usually referring to culturally produced gender, and ‘male’ and ‘female’ to biologically produced sex. The representations of gender produced and circulated by Indian cinema are constitutive of gender as a cultural identity.