Yukta Chopra
Abstract:
This study attempts to examine the role that Mainstream Bollywood cinema plays in an adolescents’ sexual life in India. The images that are played out repetitively in movies chaperone the viewers to take an ideal reader’s seat. With images that are so strong, we must question its potential of interfering with the adolescents’ sexual identity, here, sexual orientation. The data collected comes from quantitative, as well as, qualitative content analysis of a questionnaire, that was circulated on Instagram. An analysis of these 90 forms along with in- depth interviews with 10 participants builds the argument for the research conducted. The participants have retrospectively answered the questions and allowed for their personal stories to reflect their viewing experiences of cinema as adolescents. Mainstream Bollywood movies may have a small impact on helping these adolescents navigate their sexual identity but movies, in general, have a larger role to play in the way that these images are registered and applied to their the adolescents’ real sexual lives.