Recently, The Hindu newspaper, after analysing the lead characters of more than 250 films released in Bollywood during the period between 2013 and 2014, released a report that revealed that only six of the lead characters belonged to backward castes. In 2014, three films – Manjunath and Highway and Mary Kom – had lead characters from backward caste and poor economical background.
Manjunath is a real-life account of an Indian Oil employee who was murdered for speaking out against a corrupt oil dealer. Imitiaz Ali’s Highway was a road movie and one of its lead characters is Mahavir (Randeep Hooda), a criminal from the Gujjar community in rural Haryana. Mary Kom was a biopic of India’s boxing star Mary Kom, a member of Kom tribal community in Manipur.
