It’s a running joke how, as we grow older, we start to realise how some of our favourite Bollywood songs and films are not that innocent or child-friendly. However, we seldom talk about how toxic and harmful the message of some of the industry’s iconic hits used to be at that time. There is also rarely a discussion about how the same songs promote a culture of eve-teasing, disguised as a romantic gesture in real life. In a recent conversation with The Male Feminist, hosted by Siddharth Aalambayan, actress Swara Bhasker discussed the adverse effects that such Bollywood tropes and songs have on promoting a toxic culture in our society. Read on to know more.
Swara Bhasker On Bollywood And Harassment
On the topic of her filmography, Swara Bhasker admitted that her film Raanjhanaa also romanticised problematic behaviour like stalking. “I must admit, at that time I did not see it as [toxic],” the actress revealed. She further explained the reason, saying, “It’s about awareness. There was no awareness in the discourse at that time.”
Swara also pointed out several old films like Dil, whose soundtrack included misogynistic songs such as ‘Khambe Jaisi Khadi Hai’. She mentioned how many evergreen songs that we still love contain toxic themes about eve-teasing. “The fact is we live in a society that normalises eve-teasing as love and romance,” Swara Bhasker said, adding that many gestures of “romance” in our culture are actually plain harassment. “Any attention means love,” she elaborated.
The actress stressed that this is not one person’s fault, but rather a reflection of society as a whole. Recalling the filming of Raanjhanaa, she said no one on set realised there was a problem with the plot — not the actors, not the team. She shared that the first time she recognised the issue was during the film’s trailer launch, when a journalist asked her about it.
Swara Bhasker also reflected on how the Nirbhaya case, which occurred during the shooting of the film, changed the national discourse in India. “It changed how the media reported on gender violence, how we thought about gender, and how we spoke about it,” she said. According to her, this was the reason Raanjhanaa received more backlash. “Which is not a wrong thing at all, we all learnt from it,” the actress added.
Swara Bhasker is an award-winning actress known for starring in hit films like Veere Di Wedding, Tanu Weds Manu, and Raanjhanaa. Her most recent project was starring in a reality show called Pati, Patni aur Panga with her husband Fahad Ahmed. She is also starring in an upcoming film titled Mrs Falani.