How Caste Shapes Indian Storytelling

Caste is one of India's most deeply entrenched realities — and yet, when it comes to the silver screen, it often hovers just out of frame. Whether it's Bollywood, Kollywood, or regional cinema, the influence of caste is everywhere: in who gets centered, whose pain is shown, and whose histories are erased.

Sometimes, filmmakers bring it to the forefront, like in Article 15 or Sairat. Other times, caste dynamics are coded into who plays the hero, who plays the villain, and who gets to dream big onscreen without ever naming the structure behind it.

When Cinema Confronts Caste

Certain films dare to stare caste head-on. In Sarpatta Parambarai, the pride and resistance of a Dalit community isn't just acknowledged — it's celebrated through the lens of boxing, community, and identity. In Marathi cinema, movies like Sairat deliver a gut-punch reminder of how caste violence destroys young love.

Other examples include Karnan and Pariyerum Perumal from Tamil cinema, both unapologetically centering Dalit characters and their struggles without sugarcoating the brutality.

When Cinema Hides It

More often, caste is hidden — not absent. Characters are portrayed as "poor" or "oppressed," but without naming the systemic roots of their oppression. Bollywood has a long history of this: working-class heroes who struggle against "the system" without ever confronting caste as the system.

Even casting choices can reinforce caste invisibility, with dominant-caste actors portraying lower-caste characters without reckoning with the lived realities they represent. The result? A sanitized version of hardship that doesn't threaten mainstream comfort.

Why It Matters

Ignoring caste doesn't make it disappear. When cinema hides caste, it upholds the very hierarchies it claims to transcend. When it acknowledges caste, it opens space for new narratives — ones where Dalit joy, anger, and ambition take center stage without apology.

As more filmmakers from marginalized communities step behind the camera, the landscape is changing. But the tension remains: Which stories are allowed to be "universal"? And whose struggles get footnoted?

Decode Sarpatta Parambarai to see what real assertion looks like — and what it means when the fight is about more than just a title belt.