Indian Hindi Web Series (2017–2022): Female Cops Questioning the Gender Binaries

The representation of women on screen has taken a dramatic turn with the emergence of Over the Top (OTT) platforms. On the one hand, the web series is creating a new space for female actors to portray challenging professions. But, on the other hand, the directors have leapt when it comes to storytelling that goes far beyond the socially accepted homogeneous classification of femininity. Drawing upon the insight of ‘Butler’ concept of ‘Gender Performativity’ (‘Gender reality is performative which means, quite simply, that it is real only to the extent that it is performed‘), this article examines the deconstruction of gender binaries and how the non-homogeneous space created in a male-dominated territory. For the present study, female cop Hindi web series released during 2017–2022 have been selected: The Test Case, Code M Season 1, Delhi Crime, Aranyak and Code M Season 2. The significant findings reveal that the content of the web series has the potential to break the stereotype of hegemonic masculinity and question the existing gender binaries.