From one box to another: Are women in the OTT room at risk of becoming stereotypical?

There’s no denying that OTT platforms have played a huge role in freeing women from mason jars and poor prisons. In a country where mainstream TV shows are still protagonists who are either victims or vixens, digital content allowed women to do regular things like dating, drinking, smoking, messing, getting married, divorce, sex (kya! Kya! Kya!) And actually to do consider life options, besides gaining the sanskaari of all.

It also opened the doors to issues such as child sexual abuse, domestic violence, and sexual assault against women, which GEC broadcasters find it difficult to work with as television programs are usually intended for families.

This year there have been some really wonderful stories and female characters on streaming platforms that have given some incredibly talented actors the chance to shine. And yet, when you think of shows and films like Bulbbul, Guilty, She, Mirzapur 2, Masaba Masaba, Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives, Aarya and Bhaag Beanie Bhaag, one can only wonder why OTT platforms have ended women and theirs Stories too?

Why did the most popular or famous shows and films with female protagonists have leading actresses who were either victims of vengeance, victims’ positions, or obviously privileged women having fun with a dose of ambition?

Consider it. Kiara’s character Nanki in Guilty was abused as a child and she struggles to cope with it even as an adult. She played Aaditi Pohankar Bhumika Pardeshi, a woman who went cold after being abused as a child and is controlled by society’s expectations of morally appropriate behavior. On the non-fiction show What the Love, one participant shared that she was molested as a child. This was only for the first three months of 2020. Guilty and She were actually released on Netflix that same month.

In Bulbbul, a kind of chudail story, Tripti Dimri played a bride-to-be who was viciously attacked by her husband and raped by her brother-in-law before turning into a vigilante who kills abusive men. Beena in Mirzapur 1 is manipulative, but it’s only after or because her father-in-law raped her at the end of season one that she really comes into prominence in season two. Even the undeniably brilliant crime in Delhi could sadly be committed because it tells the story of what is perhaps the most brutal attack on a woman in recent times.

The physical, sexual and emotional abuse of women and children is painful worldwide and must be addressed. But abuse is not a rite of passage a character must go through to serve its purpose or make their story worth telling. Rape, murder, or child sexual abuse cannot become a suitable background tool to explain a woman’s mental or physical health issues or to make her interesting / nervous enough to get involved.

At the other end of the spectrum are the funny women. Women who are ditsy / cool, good looking, educated, working people. These women are residents or newcomers to the big city. They dress well, go to bars, get drunk, have casual sex, are confused about their careers and personal lives, and have the privilege of growing up in their thirties, forties, or even fifties.

Whether Masaba in her eponymous show, the ladies from Four More Shots Please, the fabulous Bollywood women, or Swara Bhasker in Bhaag Beanie Bhaag, these are all different versions of the confused / emerging modern urban Indian.

Neither of these traits is a problem or a judgment. But the fact remains, it all becomes pretty familiar. It is a struggle to find stories in which the character does not play the desired image of a “liberated” woman who basically does what her male colleagues were allowed to do for decades.

There are no doubt different genres of content, but we need to find a way that women can be something other than being angry or not so angry. If we can enjoy orange, the New is Black, Grace and Frankie, Stranger Things, Krone, House of Cards, Wonderful Ms. Maisel and 13 Reasons Why – all shows that star women but tell completely different stories, why are we fighting? to create differentiated content with women in an Indian context? Is it because we’re still hungover from Hindi GEC or is it because manufacturers are sticking to a formula that works?

Perhaps the answer is not as simple as the question seems, but I really wish that in 2021 we could use the enormous potential of OTT platforms to demonstrate the plurality and diversity of what it means to be a woman in India . Let’s hope content creators go beyond the scope and expand the possibilities of female narrative, rather than succumbing to the temptation to divide women into easy-to-manage boxes.