Do Indian Films Promote Sexual Violence and Harassment?

By ⋅ January 4, 2013 ⋅ Post a comment
Dr. Uma Vangal is a professor at L. V. Prasad Film Academy in Chennai, India. (Photo: Sonia Narang)

Dr. Uma Vangal is a professor at L. V. Prasad Film Academy in Chennai, India. (Photo: Sonia Narang)

Sexual violence and aggression have been part and parcel of Indian cinema for decades. Some critics are wondering about the role of such films in condoning or even fomenting such violence.

Anchor Marco Werman talks to Dr. Uma Vangal, a professor at L. V. Prasad Film Academy in Chennai.

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Marco Werman: Violence and sexual aggression have been part in and parcel in Indian cinema for decades. Here’s a tame example, a musical number from the 1991 Bollywood hit, called Hum.

[Speaking Hindi]

Werman: Here the hero teases the heroine, pressing her for a kiss. She coyly says no at first, but she eventually gives in to his advances.

Dr. Uma Vangal: You would find the heroine accepting the teasing and actually enjoying it.

Werman: That’s Uma Vangal. She’s a professor at L. V. Prasad Film Academy and she’s on the line from Chennai, India. Now, Dr. Vangal, one male critic I read recently wrote in an editorial, that “What’s truly terrible is the manner in which film heroes have pestered, stalked and forced their unwanted attentions on heroines in 1,000 films, yet ended up getting the girl. In other words, no ultimately means yes if you just keep the pressure on.” Is that something that you would agree with?

Vangal: I would completely agree. As a teacher of cinema and popular culture in India, very often I conduct many sessions on this kind of portrayal of the man-woman’s relationship where aggression in the male is seen as an attractive quality by the woman. They have this very ridiculous term in India called e-teasing, especially in northern India where men think it’s fun to tease girls in the path, on the road and wherever they can get away with it. This is portrayed very, very often by the heroes of any cinema any film, any film, any language basically, in the [inaudible 01:31]. You will the heroes which start out teasing the woman in public, sometimes even get a little, like, upset with her, you know, commenting on her clothing, on the way she walks, and how she’s, you know, encouraging male attention, and quite often in the end, ending up with that same woman who can’t help falling in love with this man.

Werman: If it weren’t for this part of the narrative of pushiness, getting the girl in film, would things be different in India?

Vangal: You know, I don’t think one can solely lay the blame at the door of Indian cinema, in the sense that we all know that cinema is only a reflection and a slight exaggeration of what’s happening out there in reality. It’s more of a social mind set and a certain set of values and beliefs, and, you know, the kind of condoning of sexual acts of aggression.

Werman: It sounds very chicken and egg, very cyclical, like you don’t know really what comes first, the social kind of context or the film that then feeds the social context further.

Vangal: That’s something we’ve always been dealing with, but I think one, one thing I could say for sure would be that the past 10 years, let’s say a decade of Indian cinema, is reflecting largely this change in relationships in the sense that with the coming in of the IT boom and more and more women getting into the workforce, there’s a lot of men out there, you know, feeling very, very threatened by this new Indian woman who’s very liberated, very aggressive, goes out to get what she wants and actually manages to overtake them in social spheres.
So I think that is being manifested by films and by the behavior of men off screen.

Werman: What about just the pure objectification of women in a lot of these films? I mean, do, do you see a lot of that coming out of Bollywood or any other parts of the country?

Vangal: We see women, first of all, in writing, the male gaze, by titillating them with their healing bosoms and you know, simulating the sexual act as closely as possible in their song and dance routines.

Werman: Many Bollywood stars interestingly have, have come out to show their solidarity for what happened three weeks ago in Delhi, this terrible incident and now the girl is dead. From your vantage point in India have you seen some self-reflection among Bollywood stars and do you think this is sincere?

Vangal: I really am very, very skeptical about these Bollywood stars or any other film industry person coming out. I, I live in the city where the film industry has films that actually justify rape. There’s an, an entire scene in a film that a hero rapes the heroine and justifies it saying “She questioned my masculinity and how else do I prove it, except to rape her?” And you know the audience is listening and saying “Wow, great. What a man?” So, you know, I personally don’t believe anyone from the film industry will really do something about the state of affairs.

Werman: Dr. Uma Vangal, a professor of film at L. V. Prasad Film Academy in Chennai. Thank you very much for your thoughts on this.

Vangal: Thank you so much Marco.

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This song from the movie “Hum” was played at the beginning of this story.

We’ve also got a page devoted to the global discussion on gender and violence that the events in India have started. Stop by and join in.

Discussion

One comment for “Do Indian Films Promote Sexual Violence and Harassment?”

  • Peter Vas

    Good question.  Yes, the story lines are evolving. 

    India being the land of Kama sutra, is yet to come to terms in bringing the bedroom to the living room of an eager audience. The depiction of sexual intimacy on the silver screen has remained a clandestine activity shrouded in the cover of a private darkness for the movie going audience.  

    The Indian censor board does not allow for movie scenes depicting frontal nudity or lip locks. Such intimate scenes get the censor board’s axe. Suppression of such public display of intimacy in the past, has given rise to an unusual exposition of bestiality – rape. 

    The movies of old, titillated the audience with rape scenes. In other words, the only way a director could slip in intimacy was through violation of human dignity. 

    Over time, the censor boards became liberal and have allowed for a little more public display of intimacy. I believe the number of silver screen rapes have seen a steady decline. rape being the worst form of intimacy depiction, there are a few other minor forms

    What should be seen in a negative light are the following. 

    1,  the hero harasses his love interest till she succumbs to his romantic songs and charms. She is more often than not, depicted as a push-over

    2.  Strong scripts for women are rarely written. But this is a universal problem. Hollywood suffers as much as Bollywood. Not many women in the entertainment industry.  Not many women scriptwriters. 

    3.  There is a common belief that non-conformist and liberal girls may not be received well in B-category towns. This is slowly changing as there is a huge migrant population from the villages, aspiring to a big city life.

    4.  Raunchy dance numbers called “item numbers” are the rage of Bollywood movies.  Heroines achieve ethereal status, by gyrating to the heavy beats of dance numbers that are themselves loaded with suggestive sexual innuendos.  Thrusting the pelvis in an artful or aesthetic dance form is the basic structure of an “item number”.  While the heroine is as scantily clad as possible, the hero himself is depicted as a well groomed gentleman. Thus the women are objectified as mere vamps.  The incessant chatter about the “Top 10″, list the best of such item numbers in the public media. The constant playing of these catchy dance numbers have made such “item numbers” acceptable as the new normal in Indian cinema.

    5.  As the censor board limits depiction of intimacy beyond a point, the song lyrics have advanced to the other extreme of sexual expression.  Many lyrics are penned with double entendre in mind.  Of late, the songs have become even more direct and troublesome in their depiction of women.  A recent flare-up occurred when the lyrics of a Punjabi rapper, Yo! Yo! Honey Singh’s lyrics, crossed over into a non-vanilla treatment of women.  References here:  http://tinyurl.com/axlfg7e and http://tinyurl.com/aak5fov

    6.  In an Indian society where the choice of movie to be watched is usually determined by the male, does one depicting a liberated woman stand to succeed at the box-office?  The answer is an expected and emphatic “No!”.  Such films if any, are received well by an accepting audience in the big cities and metropolis theaters, but fail to woo the audiences of the B-Category towns or the C-Category villages of India.

    7.  In a recent Aamir Khan production called “Talaash”, the scriptwriter was a woman – Reem Kagti.  She scripted a wonderful role for the protagonist’s wife.  Though not truly liberated, she goes through a character change, much before the protagonist goes through a self-revelation.  Such films with strong female characters are few and far in between.  Read more here:  http://tinyurl.com/bh4wfc2

    8.  Aamir Khan is an actor with an activist’s agenda and succeeds in his comercial ventures.  His activist on the small-screen was well received.  He had a very popular theme once regarding the girl child and the problem of female infanticide in India:  http://tinyurl.com/cwcf5wq  With the recent national debate over misogyny and patriarchy, there are bound to be new Bollywood films that will tacke the problem on mainstream comercial movies.

    But hope comes in strange packages!  When the Bollywood stars came out to protest the unsafe environment for women during the recent Delhi gang-rape outcry, many criticized their vile objectification of women on-screen.  There is hope that moving forward, such a public debate makes it’s mark on-screen.