Twenty years ago, Sanjay Leela Bhansali dazzled the masses, by plunging us into the grim and disparate world of Michelle McNally, a young woman with visual, auditory and speech disabilities. Inspired by the story of Helen Keller and based on her 1903 autobiography, The Story of My Life, Black (February, 2005) was a far cry from the extravagant choreographies and lavish set designs of Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam (1999) and Devdas (2002). The Rani Mukherjee and Amitabh Bachchan starrer was a return to form for Bhansali who made his feature film debut with Khamoshi: The Musical (1996), but on a bigger budget.
Despite Black being critically lauded and becoming the eighth highest-grossing film of 2005 (earning ₹66.6 crore against a budget of ₹21 crore approx.), Bollywood movies have been sparsely populated by authentic representation of physical, mental, and sensory disabilities since.
Out of 1.4 billion people, over 2.2 per cent of Indians live with some form of severe mental or physical disability as per World Health Organization (WHO) estimates in 2023. That means there are roughly 30 million people who have to navigate a world, built largely keeping the concerns of abled people in mind. India ranks poorly when it comes to disability rights, awareness, and benefits. And that reflects in its biggest film industry, as it lags behind when it comes to proper representation in its stories.
Of Binaries and Shortcomings of Disability Representation in Bollywood
Even when there have been disabled characters in Hindi cinema since, their multitudinous, multidimensional lived realities have often been presented in binaries—they are either helpless victims or somehow extraordinary. Navigating an ableist world with their disabilities is often written as the main obstacle for them to overcome.
However, there have been certain noted exceptions in the last two decades with films like Iqbal (2005), Margarita With A Straw (2014), Black, and Guzaarish (2010) where the filmmakers attempted to rise above the binary tropes of disability representation in Hindi cinema. In Khamoshi: The Musical, Annie라이브 바카라 (Manisha Koirala) parents’ disability is shown as an obstacle to her dreams, reinforcing the idea that disabled individuals inherently depend on their able-bodied relatives. However, unlike films where disabled characters exist purely for the development of the protagonist, Joseph (Nana Patekar) and Flavy (Seema Biswas) have their own agency. They are not passive figures waiting for pity or salvation. The film also does not portray disability as a punishment or something that needs to be overcome. Instead, it shows how a family navigates love and communication despite challenges.
In Hindi cinema, disabilities are often used for comic relief (Golmaal: Fun Unlimited, 2006) or seen as a form of karmic punishment—be it in Jeevan Naiya (1936) or Koshish (1972), which had characters become blind or paralysed for past misbehaviours. In Koi... Mil Gaya (2003), the intellectual disability of Rohit (Hrithik Roshan) is treated as a character trait that is pitiable, often mocked by society, and needs to be “fixed”.
There was an effort to tell more diverse stories in the immediate decade following Black. The narrative shift happened with films like My Name is Khan (2010), Taare Zameen Par (2007), and Hichki (2018), which dealt with autism, dyslexia, and Tourette라이브 바카라. However, in these films, the protagonist라이브 바카라 disability remained the crux of their stories, putting them either under the lens of extreme pity or awe-inspiring heroism. In Taare Zameen Par, it isn’t the protagonist who is extraordinary, but is “saved” by a teacher who is. Furthermore, most of these characters belonged to middle or upper-class society, with capital, privilege, and some semblance of a support system in place.
Desire and Disability in Bollywood
Black was criticised for certain exaggerations and melodrama, but it was able to get certain nuances right—a pertinent one being the discussion of desire. When Michelle beseeches her elderly teacher Debraj to kiss her, and he plants one hesitant touch upon her lips, the music soars and you feel the pent-up catharsis, followed immediately by frustration.
In 2014, Shonali Bose라이브 바카라 Margarita with a Straw took things a few notches higher as it depicted desire in disabled people by focusing on Laila (played by Kalki Koechlin), a young woman with cerebral palsy coming to terms with her bisexuality. The film did not frame her disability as something that defined or limited her sexuality. Margarita with a Straw also forayed outside the confines of heteronormativity. The film normalised her romantic and sexual feelings and pursuits, allowing Laila라이브 바카라 desires to be explored with the same depth and complexity as any able-bodied person라이브 바카라. Margarita with a Straw avoided the common pitfall of “othering” the desires of the disabled.
Aesthetics and Authenticity
However, the winds of change weren’t yet ready to sweep through mainstream Hindi cinema. In 2010, Bollywood brought us Guzaarish—the tale of a quadriplegic magician-turned-radio jockey—who appeals to the court for euthanasia. It had all the trappings of a Bhansali spectacle. But the portrayal of pain, performed by two of the most gorgeous actors in Bollywood at that time (Hrithik Roshan and Aishwarya Rai) became operatic. Roshan라이브 바카라 Ethan is portrayed as an extremely wise and philosophical person, making his character almost mythical. While this could have caused a disconnect, there could have been another reason behind Guzaarish라이브 바카라 box office failure.
In a country obsessed with punya and moksha (righteousness and liberation), the public's rejection of a story exploring the fundamental ethics of autonomy, suffering, and dignity of human life could also be counted as a reflection of our collective moral hypocrisy and inability to engage with the uncomfortable. Having and living with a disability is a debilitating experience. There is much more to it than the visible ticks and impediments. Disabled individuals are also fully realised individuals with their own dreams, desires, heartbreaks and shortcomings. A disabled individual simply existing as a human is a representation still missing from our Bollywood films.
Rahi Anil Barve라이브 바카라 Tumbbad (2018) does something very interesting. While it is not the focus of the story, one of the pivotal characters has a physical disability due to a curse. The film touches on the theme of how disabilities are perceived in society and uses it to tell a riveting story within a darker, fantastical context.
Mainstream Hindi cinema has largely shied away from championing stories that centre those with physical or sensory disabilities since Anurag Basu라이브 바카라 Barfi! (2012). Ranbir Kapoor라이브 바카라 non-verbal, hearing-impaired Barfi highlighted that the problem was never with those with disabilities, but the world at large that is unwilling to accommodate them.
However, romantically pairing someone who has physical/sensory disabilities with someone who has an intellectual disability raises its own set of concerns. Priyanka Chopra라이브 바카라 Jhilmil is mostly non-verbal, developmentally delayed and on the autism spectrum. It is a tricky territory when it comes to the conversation of informed consent in adults with intellectual disability. Of course, this discussion is never raised in Barfi! and neither are the many ethical dilemmas associated with intellectual disability and autonomy.
There are other issues at play too. There is often a conflation of all kinds of disabilities in the mainstream. Nuances are sacrificed in favour of homogenised, candyfloss tales. Bollywood is also far behind in embracing diverse casting—something that streaming platforms like Netflix have been practising more rigorously, especially in their international shows, in the past few years. One recent example is the series Sex Education (2019-2023)—which casts a diverse set of actors to portray characters who are disabled. These characters aren't afraid to use their voices and hold their allies accountable, and have more to their stories than their disabilities.
The OTT boom opened up avenues for diverse storytelling. But an intellectual rot seems to have set in where original stories aren’t championed, writers aren’t paid their due, and casting is increasingly being gatekept. So, all we can do now is wonder when Bollywood will be ready for truly diverse casting and storytelling.
Bollywood has long been a powerful medium for storytelling, shaping perceptions and influencing society. Yet, when it comes to disability representation, the industry has time and again leaned into stereotypes, oversimplifications, or complete erasure. The rich, diverse experiences of people with disabilities spanning different backgrounds, struggles, and triumphs deserve to be told with authenticity, depth, and dignity. In order to move beyond tokenism, there needs to be a concerted effort to actively include disabled actors, writers, and consultants in the creative process to tell stories that portray disability as more than a plot device.
Debiparna Chakraborty is an independent film, TV and pop culture journalist who has been feeding into the great sucking maw of the internet since 2010.
