How did feminism, not Bollywood, attract global audiences to Indian cinema in 2024?

In 2024, as Bollywood struggles to find its footing, small films by Indian women that tell nuanced stories are making headlines in the country and around the world.

In May, Indian director Payal Kapadia Everything we imagine is like light He made history by winning the Grand Prix at the Cannes Film Festival.

In the months that followed, All We Imagine As Light became a juggernaut in independent cinema, sweeping film festivals and awards circuits. It has been adjudged the best international film by prestigious associations including the New York Film Critics Circle and the Toronto Film Critics Society. The film also received two Golden Globe Award nominations, including Best Director for Ms. Kapadia.

It's also on several best movies of the year lists, including BBC and New York Times.

And she has a company.

Director Shoshi Talati's upcoming drama Girls Will Be Girls won two awards at the Sundance Film Festival. Kiran Rao's Laapataa Ladies spent at least two months in Netflix's top 10 films in India, and was selected as the country's official Oscar entry (Controversial resolution). Laapataa Ladies did not make it to the Academy's shortlist. What worked was British-Indian director Sandhya Suri's Hindi film Santosh, which was chosen as the UK's submission to the Oscars.

Is this sudden wave of success for Indian films an aberration or a long-awaited shift in global consciousness?

“It's a culmination of both,” says film critic Shubhra Gupta, noting that these films “were not made overnight.”

For example, Shochi Talati, director of Girls Will Be Girls, and co-producer Richa Chadha were in college together when they first came up with the idea for the film. “They've been working on this for years,” Gupta says.

“It is pure coincidence that 2024 became the year these films were released, sparking conversations together.”

This lucky alignment was a cinematic dream. The global impact of these films is rooted in their quality and exploration of universal themes such as loneliness, relationships, identity, gender and resilience. With strong female voices and unconventional feminist narratives, these stories venture into territories unexplored by mainstream Indian cinema.

In All That We Imagine Light, a film made in Hindi, Marathi, and Malayalam, three migrant women in Mumbai navigate empathy, resilience, and human connection. The narrative delves into themes of loneliness and the socio-political landscape, particularly scrutinizing Hindu and Muslim interfaith relations as seen with the character of Anu (Divya Prabha) and her connection with Shiaz (Hridhu Harun).

Kapadia told the BBC that although the women in her films are financially independent, they still face restrictions in their personal lives, especially when it comes to matters of love.

“For me, love in India is very political… Women seem to hold a lot of what is called family honor and protecting caste lineage. So, if you marry someone of a different religion or a different caste and say, ‘This becomes a problem for me,’ it really is a way To control women and make them children.”

Talati's film Girls Will Be Girls explores adolescence, rebellion and intergenerational conflict through the story of a 16-year-old girl studying at a strict boarding school in the Himalayas and her fractured relationship with her mother Anila, who struggles with her own weaknesses and problems. Unresolved emotions.

“It's the kind of coming-of-age film that we don't make in India at all,” says Gupta. “She looks at women with a very sympathetic and warm eye.”

“The era in which people experience emotions with and without their bodies and minds, and this exploration but without trivialization of the experience – has never been part of mainstream Indian cinema,” she adds.

Kiran Rao's Laapataa Ladies did not perform well at the box office, but received good reviews from viewers and critics. At a Bafta award show in London this month, Ms Rao described the current moment as “really special for women from India”, expressing hope that the wave of such stories would continue.

Her film is a satirical comedy about two newlyweds who are accidentally swapped on a train because of their hijab. It offers a sharp commentary on patriarchy, identity and gender roles, a shift from decades of male-centric mainstream Hindi films.

“A lot of us who are patriarchal in our thinking are often that way because we were brought up that way,” Bollywood star Aamir Khan, a co-producer of the film, said after the screening. “But we need to be understanding, at least try to help each other out of that kind of thinking.”

The biggest surprise this year came from the United Kingdom, which chose the Indian film “Santosh,” directed by British-Indian director Sandhya Suri, as its Oscar nominee. It was filmed entirely in India over 44 days, and featured a largely female crew. Starring Indian actors Shahana Goswami and Sunita Rajbhar, Santosh is co-produced by people and companies across the UK, India, Germany and France.

The film is a quintessentially Indian tale of violence against women, a taut thriller.

Goswami says the success of 'Santosh' and 'All We Imagine As Light' points to the merging of boundaries and the expansion of film industries, creating a space for cross-pollination and exchange.

She told the BBC: “We often think that these Indian films require a (specific) cultural context, but they do not. Any film driven by emotion will have a global resonance, regardless of its origins.”

Three of the films — “All We Imagine As Light,” “Girls Will Be Girls,” and “Santosh” — share another common trait: they are cross-country co-productions.

Goswami agrees that this could be a formula for the future.

“With a French producer, for example, the film has the opportunity to be seen by a French audience who might follow that producer or the film industry more broadly. That's how the film becomes more accessible and relevant internationally,” she says.

Even in Bollywood, some female-led films have been huge hits this year. “Stree 2,” a horror-comedy about a mysterious woman who fights a monster that kidnaps free-thinking women, was the second biggest hit of the year, running in theaters for several months.

On streaming platforms, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's lavish Netflix series “Heeramandi: The Diamond Bazaar”, which explores misogyny and exploitation in the lives of courtesans in pre-independence India, was among the most Googled TV shows of the year.

Its success seems to indicate a growing appetite for such stories, and its broad appeal proves that mainstream cinema can tackle important topics without sacrificing entertainment value.

Despite systemic challenges, 2024 has highlighted the global power of female voices from India and the demand for diverse stories. This momentum could be crucial for the Indian film industry in gaining wider distribution for its independent films and paving the way for a more diverse and equitable film landscape.