Fashioning Criminality: Style, Masculinity and the Anti-Hero Vogue in Contemporary Indian Cinema

Abstract

The emergence of anti-heroic protagonists has significantly transformed contemporary Indian cinema, creating characters who command audience admiration despite their involvement in violence and crime. Films such as KGF: Chapter 1 (2018), Pushpa: The Rise (2021), and Animal (2023) exemplify this trend by presenting criminal protagonists through distinctive costumes, grooming practices, accessories, and bodily performances that elevate them from narrative outlaws to cultural style icons. This article examines how fashion functions as a crucial mechanism in the aestheticisation of criminality and the construction of aspirational masculine identities. The article analyses the visual representation of the anti-hero in contemporary Indian cinema and argues that costume and performative style function as forms of symbolic capital, transforming criminality into a desirable, consumable aesthetic. Through these visual strategies, anti-heroes are presented as embodiments of confidence, power, rebellion, and masculine success. It also explores how these cinematic styles circulate beyond the screen through fan cultures, social media, and everyday fashion practices. The study concludes that contemporary Indian cinema contributes to the normalisation of criminal aesthetics and reshapes popular understandings of masculinity, identity, and cultural aspiration in contemporary India.