The changing narrative of disability in Indian cinema

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 03.07.2026: “Bada kamzor leg piece hai. Is murghi ko polio ho gaya tha kya?” (This leg piece is very weak. Did this chicken have polio?), one of the characters in the 2004 film Run asks a hawker after seeing a thin leg piece in his chicken biryani. The dialogue struck a chord with me. The most visible disability in polio is thinning and shortening of the limb, and at that time thousands of children in India were still being infected with this debilitating disease every year.

What was intended as humour reflected a broader societal attitude towards disability, in which physical impairments were often reduced to jokes or punchlines, or symbols of helplessness. Over the years, the portrayal of disability in Indian cinema has evolved significantly.

Disability is no longer used merely to evoke sympathy or pity or humour, but to foster greater awareness, understanding and inclusion. We have gradually moved away from the “bechara” (poor thing) mindset towards narratives that recognise people with disabilities as individuals with aspirations, talents, relationships and agency.

Today, people with disabilities are participating across various facets of the film industry, both on and off screen. Recent films and industry efforts are increasingly focusing on nuanced storytelling and more authentic representation. Characters with disabilities are taking centre stage and driving the narrative, demonstrating strengths that go far beyond their impairments.

Films such as Barfi, My Name is Khan, Taare Zameen Par, Black, Margarita with a Straw have explored the experiences and challenges people with disabilities face in inter-personal relationships, society, and the wider world. These stories have encouraged audiences to look beyond disability and engage with the person.

One film that deeply moved me during my teenage years was Sparsh (1980) directed by Sai Paranjpye. It explored the emotional complexities of a visually impaired man and the importance of touch (sparsh). The story follows a blind school principal, played by Naseeruddin Shah, who marries a social worker (Shabana Azmi), and how the former deals with his inner struggle with the question: “Am I being pitied or genuinely loved?”

What made Sparsh remarkable was that it did not treat blindness as an impairment. Instead, it explored dignity, self-worth and the complexities of human relationships.

Similarly, the 1986 film Naache Mayuri, a biopic based on the life of Sudha Chandran, chronicled how she overcame the amputation of her leg to become an accomplished Bharatanatyam dancer. This was made possible by the Jaipur Foot, an affordable and durable prosthetic or artificial limb developed by Dr P K Sethi and master artisan Ram Chander Sharma. The film highlighted not only personal resilience, but also the transformative power of assistive technology.

Cinema has also played an important role in raising awareness about ailments, such as cancer. Dard ka Rishta (1982), in which a young girl diagnosed with leukaemia is taken to New York for a bone morrow transplant, helped draw public attention to cancer treatment.

More recently, disability narratives have expanded beyond medicine and rehabilitation to encompass broader social and environmental issues. A short documentary, When the body can’t cool: How heat magnifies disability, a joint initiative of Mongabay-India and All Living Things Environmental Film Festival, highlighted how rising temperatures driven by climate change are affecting people with spinal cord injuries in the eastern Indian state of Odisha.

Exposing audiences to stories about people with disabilities, regardless of who plays those roles, has helped raise awareness about these conditions. Whether or not the role is played by a person with a disability, these portrayals can contribute meaningfully to changing public perceptions.

The understanding and evaluation of disability, in recent years, has moved away from a physical or medical perspective. Disability is not a person’s identity. It is having an impairment, such as difficulty in seeing, hearing, walking, or problem solving, which restricts participation in normal daily activities, such as working, engaging in social and recreational activities.

Increasingly, disability is recognised as the interaction between an individual’s impairment and the barriers created by society. A person may have difficulty seeing, hearing, walking or problem-solving, but it is often inaccessible environments and exclusionary attitudes that turn an impairment into a disability.

The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) recognises that it is a person’s environment that plays a critical role in shaping the experience and extent of disability.

Inaccessible transportation, public infrastructure and limited social support, for example, create barriers that often hinder people with disabilities from participating fully and equally in society. Addressing these environmental and attitudinal barriers can go a long way in enabling persons with disabilities to have full and effective participation in society on an equal basis with others.

People with disabilities are today participating in various aspects of filmmaking—from research and scriptwriting to costume design, casting, financing and location scouting. This has partly been made possible through advancements in assistive technology and aids; and reasonable adjustments at workplaces.

There are affordable and accessible aids available, which can be customised to meet individual needs. For persons with restricted mobility, for example, there are lighter and more effective braces (callipers), provision of self-propelled collapsible manual wheelchairs and power-operated wheelchairs, electric scooters, walkers, ergonomical crutches, orthopaedic footwear and portable ramps.

Further, AI-powered apps have transformed accessibility, offering increased independence to people with visual and hearing impairments.

These aids are giving people with a disability the freedom to live life to its fullest. The internet, and advent and affordability of smart phones has been a game changer. It has made it possible for anyone anywhere to tell their story and share it via digital and social media platforms.

More work needs to be done in incorporating accommodation of disabilities in workplaces. Most countries have incorporated international initiatives, frameworks, policies and guidelines that promote health equity, and disability rights and inclusion. However, the challenge remains to bridge the gap between policy and its implementation.

Laws exist too, but their interpretation falls short. Even if the accessibility box is ticked, it may not actually be accessible for the user. For example, a ramp may technically exist, but if the incline is too steep to navigate safely in a wheelchair or with braces and crutches, it fails to serve its purpose. The difference between compliance and accessibility can be substantial.

According to the World Health Organisation, about 16 per cent of the global population currently experiences significant disability. This number is increasing due to population ageing and the rise in prevalence of noncommunicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, diabetes and hypertension.

As the number of people living with disabilities grows, I am remined of a phrase coined by Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan: “The medium is the message.” It is the form of a message, whether it is visual, audio or print, that determines the way in which that message is perceived and understood. This is why the role of creative professionals in the portrayal of disability is vital.

In the years ahead, we will see disability being increasingly woven into all spheres of creative arts, including filmmaking, not as a special category, but as an integral part of the human experience. After all, art mirrors society.