Bollywood embraces disability in quest for realism

From ‘One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest’ to ‘Children Of A Lesser God’, ‘My Left Foot’ and ‘Rain Man’, Hollywood has a long history of portraying people with disabilities or illnesses on screen.

In contrast, India’s popular Hindi-language film industry has traditionally shied away from real-life subjects, preferring flights of fancy on romantic love. But now three major upcoming films are portraying a central character with a disability or illness, marking a shift away from fantasy to treating more contemporary themes.

Amitabh Bachchan, 66, stars alongside his son Abhishek, 33, in Paa (Father), out later this year. Their real-life relationship is reversed on screen, with Amitabh playing Abhishek’s son. Bachchan senior’s character has the rare genetic condition progeria, which leads to premature ageing and affects about one in six million children worldwide.

Shahrukh Khan, known for his romantic hits, plays a man with Asperger’s Syndrome in his latest offering, ‘My Name Is Khan’, which also deals with the treatment of Muslims in the United States after the September 11, 2001 attacks.

Hrithik Roshan, meanwhile, portrays a wheelchair user in Guzaarish (Wishes) alongside Abhishek Bachchan’s wife, Aishwarya Rai, in a film due out next year.

The films follow the recent release of ‘Shadow’, an action thriller starring Nasser Khan, who is blind.

AFP