Does Bollywood incite sexual violence in India? Amir Khan says: "film industry really needs to look inwards"

Post update:  April 13,2014

• A Damaging Truth The Indian Entertainment Industry Doesn’t Want You To Know

Most people are happily ignorant of the fact that they’re being force fed daily with high doses of “Sexual Objectification of Women”. Sexual objectification is the concept of treating a person merely as an object or instrument of sexual pleasure, tagging them as ‘sex objects’.

While men’s sexuality is always showcased as ‘subjective’ (or as a whole package viz. intelligence, smartness, attitude and maybe looks), women’s sexuality is portrayed objectively. And nothing defines this better than the video above rightly titled “No Country For Women”.

When Amitabh Bacchan asks us to get polio drops, we listen and we act & imitate.

When Salman Khan pinches the bottom of a stranger (girl) walking down the streets in a movie scene, the crowd smiles, whistles and learns. Then they imitate.

When Aamir Khan raises his voice against female foeticide, we become enraged, officials raid illegal sex determination centers, we spread the good message. We imitate.

Note: A headline news story of 2012 (23-year Delhi rape victim dies in Singapore) continues to haunt and raises questions about the direct &/or indirect impact of the Bollywood...

THE REEL WORLD| BBC:
Does Bollywood incite sexual violence in India? Tom Brook: 

"(Statistical) Figures suggest a woman is raped in India every 22 minutes. Does the way female characters are depicted on screen play a role? Tom Brook asks some of the industry's major players...

"In the soul searching that has accompanied these shocking stories, the question has been asked: is Bollywood partly to blame for fomenting sexual violence against Indian women because of its imagery and narratives?
"The portrayal of women in Indian cinema is showing some encouraging signs of improvement but top Indian director Mira Nair isn’t happy with mainstream Bollywood depictions which she sees as often demeaning.  “A lot of our films go down the same old stereotype,” she says. “When there’s a sexy babe she has to gyrate and gyrate and she has to be an object of great allure and sex appeal and almost I would say vulgarity.”
Stars concede Bollywood may be partly to blame but argue that the entertainment industry shouldn’t really be the main focus of concern. “We don’t have proper law and order,” says Aamir Khan. “If you’d look at rape as a crime in India, most of the rape cases don’t get reported. So, I think that while the film industry really needs to look inwards, towards ourselves to see how we portray women in our films – and certainly a lot needs to be done there – I think the larger problem, and the larger issue, is that our law and order machinery has just completely failed us.” ... "Feminist critics have argued that the continual sexual objectification of women on screen can have a harmful impact on women in the real world and can lead to acts of violence." [source: [BBC]   / Bollywood culture promoting rape culture « Area 14/8 

"The situation has a comic dimension too because the contradictions in this traditional society’s approach to money and sex are also being highlighted. The new heroes are those who make a fast buck and display an entrepreneurial animal spirit. The films that once used two swaying flowers to represent a kissing couple now come suffused with semi-nudity and vulgar lyrics. The sexualisation of culture by Bollywood, the media and the fashion industry has followed economic liberalisation. An occasional conservative backlash cannot curtail the insatiable demand for soft-porn and beer bars." [source: Moral Panic in India by L.K. SHARMA]

"Lately, there has been a paradigm shift in the depiction of female actresses who easily drop clothes stating the demand of the story. Hot, steamy scenes and clothe-shy damsels are at their best. Registering a significant change, Canadian porn actress has featured in a Bollywood movie and sensuousness seems to be most profiting element in the film industry. It triggers debate that obscenity affects mindsets and Bollywood has also been instrumental." [source: Is vulgarity in Bollywood impacting crime?]

"The overt hypersexualization of the song-dance sequence is a kind of“MTVization” of Hindi film music; the song is packaged as a 5-minutevideo which can advertise the film and be sold as an independent commodity. Observing the changes in the dancing and musical style Lal (1998) writes, “Whereas in older song-and-dance sequence the erotic had an element of coy and the tentative, today the erotic has in it elements of rank sexuality, brutish pride, and vulgarity. Naked feet adorned by anklets have been replaced with high leather boots and the pelvic thrusts display the hunger of a newly-unleashed sexuality. As in other spheres, in the theatre of sexuality, the Indian adventure with globalization is on display”(p. 231). Websites such as Indiaplaza.com, nehaflix.com, and hindimovies.com, catering to diasporic Indians, sell DVDs containing item num-bers from films."  [source: GLOBALIZATION OF BOLLYWOOD: ANETHNOGRAPHY OF NON-ELITE AUDIENCES IN INDIA by Shakuntala Rao]

Jasbir Jassi, who shot to fame during the pop revolution of the 90's, is in a different space these days. He feels enough is enough and something needs to be done about "vulgar lyrics" in Bollywood songs that stand to spoil the youth. And coming Women's Day, August 8, the' Dil Le Gayi Kudi Gujarat Ki' and 'Kudi Kudi 'hit maker is set to address the media along side Ritu Beri in Delhi to talk about issues concerning women's safety in India.  [source: Jassi to address the issue of women's safety on Women's Day by Abhimanyu Mishra, TNN ]  

Sex in Bollywood movies - World Review - IndiaDivine.org -- Bollywood Is Demonic:
If you want to keep your righteousness values, avoid Bollywood movies. Until around the late 70’s, Bollywood movies were ok, but now they have simply become stupid, silly, and demonic...
1. Excessive immoral values are portrayed in most bollywood movies.
2. Sexy dance and music scenes.
3. Portraying Materialism and Modern (western) culture as the goal.
4. Getting away from Indian/Hindu culture and tradition.
5. Depicting sexual lust.
For your information:
1. Bollywood movies show nothing but violence, sex and immoral values. Lust, Greed and Anger are the three gates to hell. Materialism turns an intelligent person into one of total ignorance.
2. Sexy dance and music scenes turn one into a materialist person with total ignorance to the truth. continue reading : IndiaDivine.org

Bollywood in frame over women as sex objects  "Sexual violence in India has made headlines across the world over the recent months. Activists have pinned the blame on Bollywood's culture of objectifying women, but how much truth is there to the accusation?" [image courtesy: dw.de]

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