The Bollywood film industry often objectifies women actresses more than men. Objectification is those illustrations of women in kinds and contexts which imply that women are objects to being stared at, ogled, even touched, or utilized without any concern for their identity or dignity.
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The Objectification Of Women In Bollywood
The Bollywood film industry is well known for its glitz and glamour. The ‘item songs’, such as ‘Sheila ki jawani’, ‘Munni banaam hui‘, ‘chikni chameli’ and ‘Choli ke peeche kya hai’ became instant hits. Clearly, the more obscene and vulgar the song is, the more it will stand out and give much additional fame and popularity to the actress than her acting or movies.
Katrina Kaif was the new ‘chameli’ in town when the ‘Chikni Chameli’ song was released while Kareena is more often than not cited as the ‘Chammak Challo’ of the tinsel villa.
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A familiar scene in all grades of the movie is of a woman being bullied and a superhuman hero coming to her release. If the lady was the heroine, she would be rescued. Otherwise, she would be assassinated brutally. Most villains were illustrated as sexual perverts. Strangely, the viewers liked them in those roles.
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Impact On Society
Bollywood films still use item songs and sex scenes to objectify women without evaluating the negative impact on society.
The brutal assault of a medical student in Delhi has intensified strong criticisms from all over India.
Filmmakers like Anurag Kashyap said “We need to stop objectifying our women in what we call our second religion… Our films.” Actor Aditi Rao Hydari said in an interview: “I wish our movies wouldn’t objectify women. There’s so much more to being a woman.”
This is really true that there is a huge need for women-centric films in Indian cinema with influential characters. While there have been films like ‘Hunterwaali’ and ‘Mother India’ where the woman triumphs, films like ‘Kahani’, ‘Fashion’ and ‘No one killed Jessica’ also illustrated the woman’s power.
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The Failure Of Bollywood
Actresses are rarely given strong female characters. They are subjected to roles for the male gaze and replaced and blamed if they tempt to rebel. Bollywood impacts 1.2 billion women, on how they should act and on how they should be behaved towards. Thus, the basic consensus wants to change.
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Final Thoughts!
Prohibiting the item songs or the bad description of women in the industry is the only treatment to improve the critical status of women in our society? If we needed to ban everything abusive or that might lead to an illegal act, we would have to ban killing scenes and plots that involve homicide.
The undertakings have to be from all corners to halt the commodification of women in our society. No one is entirely to blame and no one can entirely bring about a transition. While there is precisely a desire for powerful women characters and women-centric films where a woman is the ‘hero’, what we also require is compulsory education and a shift of mindset of everyone who thinks of them as objects to watch whether in film society or out.
Image courtesy: DNA India
Udisha Srivastav is a Freelance Content Writer with Femsay.com