Movie-mad Indians Challenged To Rewrite Sexist Bollywood Songs

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A women’s rights organization is asking movie-mad Indians to rewrite sexist Bollywood songs, the latest attempt in drawing attention to gender stereotyping and misogyny portrayed by the country’s influential film industry.

Akshara Centre’s ‘Gaana (Song) Rewrite’ competition, launched earlier this month, invites people to change the lyrics to any Bollywood film song they find sexist. The group said it may then engage with the film industry to push for change.

“In our gender awareness work, one of the issues that’s been raised repeatedly by young women is being harassed by men singing inappropriate Bollywood songs,” said Snehal Velkar, a coordinator at Akshara Centre in Mumbai, the Bollywood hub.

“Bollywood songs are great to sing and dance to, but when you pay attention, you realize that many of them objectify and demean women. This leads to normalizing sexual harassment and violence against women,” she told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

The Hindi film industry, also called Bollywood, is one of the world’s most prolific, churning out hundreds of movies every year. They are generally syrupy romances, family dramas or action movies peppered with elaborate song and dance routines.

Many movies also have so-called item numbers or songs, which often have little to do with the subject of the film, and typically feature skimpily clad women.

In recent years, as violent crimes against women have made the headlines, women activists and some movie stars have taken Bollywood to task for its sexist themes and for glorifying violence against women.

Nearly four out of five women in India have faced public harassment ranging from staring, insults and wolf-whistling to being followed, groped or raped, according to a recent survey by charity ActionAid UK.

Well-known Hindi film songwriters including Javed Akhtar and Prasoon Joshi have criticized their peers for writing vulgar and irresponsible lyrics, while also blaming moviegoers who encourage such music.

Earlier this year, activists urged the Tamil film industry to stop portraying stalking as cool, and instead see it as a crime that has resulted in violent deaths in southern Tamil Nadu state.

The Indian government has brought in tougher penalties for gender crimes, including criminalizing stalking and voyeurism.

Yet popular culture, including Bollywood, must be accountable for the enormous influence it wields and help ensure a more responsible portrayal of women, said Velkar, who is spreading word of the competition using hashtag #BollywoodCanChange.

“We want to send a message to the industry that we can have popular music without it being sexist or humiliating to women,” Velkar said.

– REUTERS