Bollywood is one of the most influential agents of socialization for the Indian population. Although the films are available to the entire population, they do not necessarily cater to the entire population. Bollywood films, despite their wide variety of topics, serve the majority of India – those who identify as Hindu and speak Hindi. Minority actors and/or characters are very rarely the focal point of Bollywood films and usually act as comic relief or as the antagonists for the story. In Bollywood films, many Sikhs are portrayed as party animals, who lose control when there is alcohol involved and become sloppy and silly (Roy 206). Sikhs are often seen as child-like, with little self-control. An example of this is the film “Dil Bole Hadippa” in which non-Sikh actress Rani Mukherjee plays a girl who pretends to be a young Sikh boy to play on a cricket team. This character damages the image of the Sikh community because she wears a ‘patka’ which is an important symbol of faith for young Sikh boys as it is used to cover their hair (Sikhs are not supposed to cut their hair). By wearing a patka, she takes away from the importance it holds and makes it seem as if it is just something all Sikhs do. This visual stereotype is used as the premise of an entire movie and it limits Sikhs to looking one way when there are actually a number of ways they cover their hair and this is just one of many. Sikhs are also portrayed as hyper-masculine, sexy and cool, often wearing a turban and showing no other sign of being Sikh (Roy 210). The stereotypes presented harm any chance the Sikh community has of being taken seriously. They are not viewed as a group that has endured decades of suffering, but instead as a group that has no care in the world. Bollywood films push that Sikhs are nothing more than their stereotypes, that they are dimwitted with little to offer besides comic relief. These stereotypes lead to a negative image of Sikhs among the viewers, the majority Hindu population of India. 

Although Bollywood films tend to only portray the negative stereotypes surrounding Sikhs, there are some films that present Sikhs in a more positive light. These films tend to participate in something called unintentional stereotyping, where they try to make the characters look good but write them based on stereotypes that do not accurately represent the community (Vetticad, firstpost.com). These attempts at positively representing Sikhs in Bollywood which are intended to be harmless, turn out to be harmful. What happens is “Bollywood slots almost every Sikh character in almost every script as either funny or gutsy or both, it fails to do what it does for the majority community – it fails to normalise Indian Sikhs” (Vetticad, firstpost.com). Positive stereotypes of Sikhs limit the community to what is on the surface. These positive Sikh characters may not be disrespectful, but they are often created by non-Sikh people who do not have a true understanding of the community and what it stands for. They are also played by non-Sikh actors who are not aware of the realities of being part of the Sikh minority in India. Bollywood films make the Sikh community look like outsiders, who are completely different from ‘regular’ Indians, which makes them come across as more interesting to viewers. They are othered so they can be more interesting characters. This is unfair and unkind to the community as the Sikh community is fairly large and cannot be limited to any stereotypes, positive or negative.