Growing up while watching movies like Kuch Kuch Hota hai, Dil wale Dulhaniya le Jayenge, Tere Naam, Kal ho na ho with all the actors we still usually see on our screens till date, we never realised how problematic they were being and in fact very openly. Racism, Colorism, Homophobia,Sexism, Romanticising harassment and romance between actors with a big age gap is all welcome in the Bollywood industry. With times Bollywood might have been trying to be careful with releasing their content but in earlier movies the filmmakers were obsessed with the idea of romanticising and glorifying problematic stuff. From the era of the Big B dancing on the song “Mere Angne Mein” and saying every unnecessary statement they could put in one song to Kabir Singh being the symbol of a true lover boy, bollywood has always showcased their troublesome ideas.
One of the things Bollywood does, even after being fully aware of it, is romance between actors with a big age gap. Maybe the educated, highly opinionated,rich people in the industry don't realise how uncomfortably wrong it is to make young actresses, specifically in their late 20’s and 30’s to have a romantic relationship with actors around their 50’s. The most uncomfortable fact about this is knowing that the directors, actors, producers are very much aware of this age gap and still continue to promote this with no valid explanation.
On one hand where actors like Shahid Kapoor with Kiara Advani, Akshya Kumar with several actresses including international actress Amy Jackson who was just 23 during Singh is Bling, Ajay Devgan, Sharaukh Khan and of course Salman Khan with several actresses which were way younger to be playing their love interests were romanticised, the actresses, on the other hand, who were as famous as the male actors in the 90s are struggling to have a comeback or doing women-centric films so basically producers are putting money on the rich actors making them the “the stars of all season”.
Not to mention the most disgusting age gap of all time was between Rajnikant being 63 with his co-star Amy Jackson in Robot 2.0. The reason might be how this industry as well, is dominated by men enjoying their male privilege where the directors and producers are mostly men.
Furthermore let's talk about the long history of bollywood passing off, violence, assault and rape as “romantic entertainment”. Sex has always been a taboo in the country, nobody would ever talk about it but might unknowingly watch the subtle or not very subtle parts of it in the movies. Even though how big of a taboo it is, the filmmakers know that sex sells and got creative with it. They began to show sexual scenes without actually putting explicit content by using visual metaphors, dialogues and even song lyrics. Filmmakers before the 90s were obsessed with the idea of putting a rape scene which was always followed by the protagonist who was obviously the hero rescuing the woman before her dignity and honor get snatched by some villain and let me mention how this entire rape scene was just to flex the heroic act of the actor.
Keeping the fight scene so intense just after the woman is “rescued” that mentioning of the trauma and pain she went through is not the most righteous scene but the appreciation of the fearless strong hero who rescued her definitely is. Actors like Shakti Kapoor, Prem Chopra, Ranjit got famous for playing the roles of rapists in almost all their movies. Additionally, it was portrayed that the dignity and honor of the woman as well as her whole family depends only on her “virginity” so when there is forced sex or rape which unfortunately is not rescused by any hero on time, the abused woman has no way out but to
marry her abuser or probably just end her life. Yes, Bollywood constantly depicted scenes like these, listing movies like “Himmat aur Mehnat”, “Benaam Badshah'' and the worst of it all “Raja ki Ayegi Baraat'' which had their whole movie plot like these. Tell me how did the filmmakers and even nobody in the industry opposed this unethical and disgusting idea of romantising rape which is the worst thing possible for a woman.
After the 1995 movies expressed that stalking, harassment and teasing is acceptable. Women were constantly objectified. Numerous songs were made where women were resisting and were fake annoyed with being abused but lowkey liking it. The number is uncountable. Movies of this era too, like Raanjana and Kabir Singh expressed stalking and abuse as romantic. “Kisne touch kiya usko?” yes sir, go ahead objectify your girlfriend and tell her that her father might be crazy to reject you. Everything is wrong with Kabir Singh. Lastly, all I could process after all of this is Bollywood with its homophobia that was depicted with every scene of Kanta ben in Kal ho na ho and was all over the movie Dostana and some parts of Bol Bachan or maybe Abhishek Bachan is trying to lowkey tell us something. Along with that transphobic slurs in dialogues are spoken without any hesitation.
With so many movies having toxic and problematic content it is difficult to notice the ones with genuine good qualities, which the least to say is decent. Thanks to the filmmakers of movies like Dangal, Chichhore, My Name is Khan, Pink, Queen, Thappad and maybe a few more movies like these to make their movies decent and empowering.
Author - Bhavya Bhambhani
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