Do Bollywood Songs Promote Stalking?

Analysing the songs on our playlists

Image Credits: Youtube

Noida, January 7 2019

“I m a barbeque chicken, swallow me with alcohol, oh my beloved.”
“We will meet our eyes with the baby- doll; we will persuade the girl by a
missed call.”
These lyrics are of the song in which Kareena Kapoor dances calling herself a
piece of chicken meant to be swallowed with alcohol. The aforementioned are
lyrics of a popular Hindi song “Fevicol” from the movie Dabangg 2. A boy
develops a crush on a girl who does not seem to show much interest, the guy
takes this as a sign to stalk her even harder, singing to her on the streets,
following her. The boy finally gets the girl. This is the repetitive plot of every
bollywood song these days, often on our current playlists. In the real world, this
is serious stalking and not romantic in any way. These lyrics have been
promoting (indirectly or directly) sexism and misogyny to a great extent.

How often do we pay attention to the songs which we proudly add to our
playlist and listen to them on repeat, dance to them in birthday parties and even
weddings? Being part of a nation which talks about the need to get women
empowered, people have forgotten that it is not just sufficient to be vocal or
mere mouth pieces. The media, particularly the entertainment industry is a
major source of setting trends and voicing out messages. We have a wide
audience which heavily depends on movies and songs as a source of
entertainment. These songs majorly speak out a culture to the audience in a way
which may or may not be always appropriate. Hindi film music has become an
inseparable part of our everyday lives.

We have grown listening to such songs also hoping that life would be as fancy
and as magical as portrayed in them. But as we grow up to be mature
individuals and develop a maturistic instinct, we start seeing the world with
different eyes and also doubting the comfort these songs have created in our
lives. We have always been fans of Bollywood songs which have amazing
music but it’s high time we realize it is also the lyrics which need attention. The
entertainment industry needs a reality check. These lyrics to a great extent
normalize stalking of women and people seem to actually like such songs. Also,
the difficulty in raising such issues these days is people who bring such issues to
light are either termed feminists or people in general do not find such issues
important enough. In a sensational case from Australia in 2015, an Indian
man, Sandesh Baliga, accused of stalking two women in Tasmania,
successfully argued that he believed the patient pursuit of a woman would
make her fall in love with him since that’s what he’d seen in Bollywood
films. The defence argued that the unwanted texts, messages and personal
advances were a by-product of his film fanaticism. What we should generally
consider stalking, bollywood songs instead encourage the idea that a woman
will eventually fall in love with a man if he pursues her hard enough.

Leading Bollywood actress Aishwarya Rai singing and dancing to the lyrics ‘Ye
uska style hoinga, hoton pe na aur dil pe haan hoinga’, spreads the message
that a girl’s consent doesn’t matter since deep down she actually desires the
sexual attention. Few people believe that these songs exist for entertainment
however it is also important to realise that these songs influence us to a great
extent even when we are not realizing it. These songs have been romanticizing
the idea of eve teasing sending the message that such behaviour is too ‘cool.’
It’s time song lyrics aren’t about the curves of a woman’s body or how “hot”
she looks in the rain or how she is only an object of desire and control. The
villain becomes a hero in these songs. Such a portrayal highly affects an
audience’s assumptions of how to conduct themselves in similar situations.
Such lyrics can be dangerous messages as they seem to suggest that when girls
say no, they mean yes.

Nearly four out of five women in India have faced public harassment ranging
from staring, insults, whistling to being followed, groped or raped, according to
a recent survey by charity ActionAid UK. Akshara Centre launched a
movement #GaanaRewrite to rewrite the blasphemous words of the songs
which portray unhealthy opinions about women and how they should be treated.
Bollywood must be accountable for the enormous influence it has on its
audience and help ensure a more responsible portrayal of women and the
attitude towards them. "We want to send a message to the industry that we can
have popular music without it being sexist or humiliating to women," Snehal
Velkar- coordinator at Akshara Centre in Mumbai, the Bollywood hub told the
Thomson Reuters Foundation in an interview.

Another song which says “tune English mein jab humko daanta, toh aashiq
surrender hua; pyar se maara galon pe chanta toh aashiq surrender
hua”, from Badrinath ki Dulhaniya, with Varun Dhawan chasing an
uninterested Alia Bhatt. For too long, Bollywood songs and movies have
shown wooing by the stalker as romantic and mostly successful in melting
the heart of the woman. Mansi Rao, a professor of Sociology in Delhi
University said, “It is indeed time we draw our attention to the lyrics too, they
are building a disturbing culture.”

The popular number ‘o laal dupatta walli, tera naam to bata‘

from Aankhen was the stalking song of the 1990s. It is unfortunate that movie
makers are still ignorant to the culture that they are indirectly promoting.
Projection of stalkers should be critical on the screen. Gaining somebody’s
attention by engaging in criminality is not how love should be attained.
Bollywood songs cannot be considered the only cause of the increasing
stalking cases however the songs make it look cool which then becomes
socially acceptable.

It would be highly encouraging if people start thinking of women as human

beings rather than sex objects. The media industry being a great platform for
voicing out such positive opinions, actors should start refusing roles which
demand such characters and actions. Rather, they should take up roles which
portray love in a healthier manner and establish consent as a very important
factor. The famous celebrities who are followed by their ideal fans can make
a change by tailoring and accepting only particular content which is healthy
to be sent to the audience.
Our films and songs do not play a responsible role and instead show male
characters actively pursuing their love interest by following her around,
annoying her, troubling her, and refusing to take no for an answer. The male
character sits outside her house, follows her around, climbs trees to secretly
photograph her, attacks other men who so much as look at her, and more. This
kind of behaviour is not new to Bollywood; this has been going around for so
long that it has now been ingrained in our society and we don’t even find it odd
anymore.

And as a result of such portrayal, young men come to the conclusion that
stalking a woman is perfectly normal and acceptable. The “good” women in
these films are tragically ignorant and reluctant. Bollywood continues to be
crucial in affecting our lives, and actors continue to be revered like gods. One
cannot deny the influence that Bollywood has on us. These songs normalise
harassment, they make women look like puppets who have little autonomy and
control over their lives. It is high time that they are called out for the same.

The next time someone releases a song called “Tu cheez badi hai mast mast”,
which clearly objectifies a woman, let’s hope their song does not become a
chartbuster. It’s time we recognise this kind of behaviour as awful and actively
seek better forms of entertainment.

Alankrita Tiwari
[email protected]