Elli AvrRam Tells The Male Feminist About Being Typecast In Bollywood
This is really unfair!
Item numbers are still a thing in Indian movies. The purpose of these songs usually is to appeal to the male gaze and objectify women. Once in a while, you get something like ‘Oo Antava’ from Pushpa: The Rise that claims to be different. From ‘Munni Badnam Hui’ featuring Malaika Arora to ‘Chamma Chamma’ featuring Elli AvrRam, people have spent an insane amount of time rewatching all of these songs and their performances. Unfortunately, sometimes the actresses who perform these songs end up being typecast in the entertainment industry. Elli AvrRam talked about facing this situation herself and how hard she had to struggle to work against it, on the latest episode of The Male Feminist.
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This recent episode features Elli AvrRam, in conversation with host Siddharth Aalambayan. Elli AvrRam being the first non-Indian celeb guest on the show, shared an outsider’s perspective on how the industry functions. She made us aware of her journey coming from a foreign land and making her name in the Indian entertainment industry. She is a Swedish-Greek actress who has been working in the Indian industry for over a decade now. In her career of 10 years, she has done a lot of work from being the lead in movies to dancing in some very famous special numbers. We love that she doesn’t call them ‘item’ numbers because that’s a truly degrading word!
Elli AvrRam talked about a time when people used to think “Vo bas special numbers ke liye aayi hai”. She talked about how this also led to her being automatically over-sexualised as well.
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Also Read: TMF Ep10: Elli AvrRam Was Shocked To Hear About Indian Period Rules
Elli AvrRam believes that people in the industry didn’t consider her a serious actress and had made a perception about her. She says, “Special songs se aage vo soch hi nhi sakte the ”. This is a problem in our entertainment industry, that the audience and the people in the industry very quickly typecast an actor or actress. This restricts the kind of work and kind of roles the actor or actress can do, hence limiting their growth as a performer and an entertainer.
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Elli says that she had to work very hard after which she was finally able to get out of this situation. She finally got to work in movies like Goodbye and Naane Varuvean. This is the only way a performer can break the perception which has been created, by struggling and doing other kinds of roles.
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The entertainment industry needs to understand that limiting a performer by putting them in a box and designating them to be capable of doing only a particular set of roles, is a pure waste of talent. Every actor or actress should be given this opportunity to perform completely different roles and hone their skills. After all, they have all struggled to reach where they are, haven’t they?
Also Read: TMF: Elli AvrRam On Being Called ‘Firangi’ And ‘Gori’ In India
During the interview, she also spoke about growing up, her experience with the casting couch, her family, Indian culture and culture shock, and more. You should really take a look at the full interview here:
Elli Avrram Talks About Diversity And Inclusivity In Bollywood, Says “It’s Becoming Like Hollywood”
