Four More Shots Please!: Postfeminism, SVOD Platforms, and “Empowered” Indian Women

Abstract

This chapter examines representations of women in the films and web series that stream on SVOD (subscription-video-on-demand) platforms in India. It specifically interrogates the image of Indian woman as independent, empowered subject—a portrayal that not only belies the reality of Indian women but also forecloses the future of feminist activism. While cinematic representations of gender in India have largely followed a traditional Brahmanical patriarchal trajectory, a phenomenal transformation occurred in the 1990s when India transitioned from a closed economy to an open-market economy. This chapter explains how the impact of economic liberalization, globalization, and technological revolution led to the mediated reconfiguration of the image of traditional Indian woman who has since then been posed as a free modern empowered individual—global/Western in style, but desi (Indian) in samskar (values). With the entry of digital technologies in postmillennial India’s media ecosystem, this image of post-liberalization New Woman has become more ubiquitous. However, what problematizes such a portrayal is its close alliance with a neoliberal economy and postfeminist ideals. Using critique of postfeminism as a theoretical framework, this chapter appraises such concepts as liberation, choice, and empowerment and argues that diverse media forms, especially the SVOD platforms, in contemporary India celebrate what is termed as “empowerment lite” (Cornwall, CadernosPagu, 52, 2018). It validates this argument by analyzing a specific web series, Four More Shots Please!, which after two successful seasons (2019–2020) on Amazon Prime Video launched its third season in October 2022. Finally, the chapter evaluates the significance of mediated portrayal of “empowered” Indian women in the context of escalating sexual violence and the rise of toxic masculinity in contemporary India.