Research Symposium

BIO

Benny Vargas is a second-year student at Florida State University pursuing a Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Engineering, specialized in Cell & Bioprocesses on the pre-medical track. His academic interests lie at the intersection of biomedical innovation, digital health technologies, and patient-centered design.

Benny is actively engaged in undergraduate research through Florida State University’s Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program (UROP). His current project examines gender representation in Hindi-language commercial cinema, specifically investigating whether director gender influences the number of named female characters and the depth of their characterization.

Beyond research, Benny is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Try B4 U Buy, a startup developing an augmented reality–powered virtual fitting ecosystem designed to reduce return rates in fashion e-commerce by allowing consumers to visualize garment fit and drape in real time. Through this work, he has gained experience in product design, market research, and technology-driven entrepreneurship.

Following graduation, Benny plans to attend medical school and pursue a career in cardiothoracic surgery, with the long-term goal of contributing to advancements at the intersection of surgical innovation, biomedical engineering, and emerging medical technologies.

Representation of Women in Bollywood

Abstract

In the Indian commercial film industry, the representation of women is a subject of growing controversy as modern cinematic portrayals increasingly clash with long-standing misogynist norms. Famously known as Bollywood, the role these media productions take in the construction of a society that promotes inequality among genders can be attributed to the ability of these productions to fairly and accurately represent a specific gender and to promote the possibility of upward social mobility. Among the plethora of factors that contribute to a lack of fair representation, the most undiscovered field is rooted in the role the gender of the film director plays in the representation of women. Therefore, this study explores how female-directed films impact the representation of women in society through (a) the number of speaking female characters and (b) the depth of their characterization. Depth is operationalized as a composite index capturing independent goals, occupational specificity, arc completion, decision-initiating actions, and passing the Bechdel test. To effectively acquire data for this project, research assistants are trained to accurately code the data from each female speaking-character in each film into a Qualtrics survey that notes crucial factors such as clothing, religion, relationships, education, and behavior. Each character was completed by at least two research assistants and was then peer-reviewed by each other with guidance from the mentor. While the project remains in early stages of completion, the data extracted from the films to date yield highly thought-provoking results regarding the depiction of women presented through the director’s characterization.

Keywords: Bollywood, Representation, Hindi, Cinema