This paper explores the intersections of religion and film and discusses issues of religion and inequality, as revealed in selected Hindi films in the period 1994-2010 from the perspectives of mythological and ideological criticism. It is characteristic of those films that no matter how modern the subject matter may be, for example arranged marriage versus love marriage, the ideal of woman living according to strīdharma ("traditional norms, duties, rules, roles of womanhood") versus the ideal of woman aspiring for human happiness, the notion of the feminine is mostly conservative and traditional. Firstly, I deal with Hindu images of the feminine and myth-models for women and explore the ways, in which Bollywood films have represented gender and translated Hindu myth-models into social role-models for women. The question arises about the links that exist between myth-models and social role models for women and the importance of commercial mainstream Bollywood film in this process. In what ways have Bollywood films represent inequality between men and women, and in what ways they have reworked the myth-models and projected them as desirable or undesirable social models for women to emulate or reject? Secondly, I examine the ideological implications of representations of gender, religion and inequality, and the ensuing conservative re-mythologizing of contemporary Indian culture by the media. Throughout the paper, I raise questions about the power of films to change reality and to shape our hopes, fears and desires. Should we accept the visions of the beautifully mythologized Hindu world, which those films present, at face value, or should we imagine visions of a world, which entails gender equality and social justice, not presented in those films?