Sushree Routray

Queering the rom-com: the rise of same-sex love in Bollywood

This paper examines how same-sex love reconfigures the narrative and ideological structures of Bollywood romantic comedies, foregrounding the strategic function of humour as both a protective mechanism and a mediating device between cultural conservatism and anxieties around West...

Between Lipstick and Widow’s White: Female desire and gendered ageism in contemporary Bollywood

Aging women in Bollywood have long been confined within a narrow repertoire of archetypes, among them the suffering widow, the stern matriarch, and the self-effacing grandmother, figures defined not by individuality or desire but by moral authority, self-sacrifice, and patriarcha...