The Indian Woman's Body: A Tool of Nationalistic Discourse The genre of Bollywood films has recently become a popular medium of entertainment for non-resident Indians as as well as Western audiences. Vibrant color, spontaneous dance numbers and other seductive factors may have contributed to the popularity of Bollywood films. However, for the NRI, Bollywood films represent a connection to the motherland; brings a sense of nostalgia through cultural and traditional practices. In Chutney Popcorn and Bride and Prejudice we see how these cultural practices and traditions are preserved using the woman's body. A woman's body is a tool for producing the norms of Indian national discourses; however, the woman's body can be used to resist such norms. Norms relating to rituals, engagement, marriage, procreation and family creation are tools used by Indian society to maintain the heteronormative discourses of the nation. To understand how these films produce and contest such norms, we must look critically at how the Indian woman's body is used to achieve these goals. Scholars such as Anupama Arora and Christine Geraghty have analyzed Chutney Popcorn and Bride and Prejudice, respectively, seeing the Indian woman's body as a tool for reproducing and contesting heteronormative discourses of the Indian nation. Following the technique used by Arora and Geraghty, we look at these films with a critical eye. First we must recognize that Chutney Popcorn and Bride and Prejudice are different films that address similar issues. Chutney Popcorn is an independently made film about a lesbian NRI living in New York. While Bride and Prejudice is a multi-million dollar film, created by the famous director Gurinder Ch...... middle of paper ...... agent of his own will; meaning they made decisions on their own without “falling under pressure”. Reena is the lesbian woman who is an agent of her own will unconstrained by expectations and culture; however, in the process we see her yearning for acceptance from her mother. Her pregnancy symbolizes both resistance and conformity as pregnancy is a gendered expectation for women; but the fact that she is a lesbian complicates things. His sexual orientation provides a means of resistance to the idea of ​​a heterosexual family. Lalita on the other hand, follows the norms of Indian culture but becomes the agent of her own will by choosing to love Darcy, a white man rather than Mr. Kholi, an American NRI. Both characters' ability to be their own protagonists provides a tool to stop the use of a woman's body as a tool to promote oppressive norms..