Katrina Kaif Says Item Numbers Are An Art Form And We Don’t Entirely Agree

Katrina Kaif Says Item Numbers Are An Art Form And We Don’t Entirely Agree

So, I have been a dancer almost all my life. Soon after I started walking, my parents believed in kicking it up a notch and put me into dance schools. Safe to say, I can’t walk without it being a jazz walk, and honestly it feels good. Bollywood, however, is of a slightly different viewpoint when it comes to dance or dance numbers.

Almost every other movie has what they call is an ‘item number’ where someone is rocking some solid moves on the dance floor in a glam, sexed up way, with absolutely no relevance to the story of the movie. Bollywood’s affinity to serving up women as objects is quite known.

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Katrina Kaif, who has given Bollywood some iconic moves in said item songs like – Chikni Chameli and Sheila ki Jawani in a recent appearance at Arbaaz Khan’s chat show addressed one such absurd assumption that said, “every time a Bollywood actress does an item number, we set women back a decade”.

She went on to express her view on it, which ,” Actually, I’m really glad that you asked that. I have a slightly different viewpoint on this, being someone for whom dance is a big part of life. I don’t view my songs as item numbers. They are not. Because dance is an art form, it’s an expression.”

And we do agree with what she says, to a certain extent. Often these songs that are meant to grab eyeballs, do have the leads pulling off some pretty kickass moves. And they require the actor and actress to actually learn a new dance form.  But maybe, just MAYBE, the item numbers have more to do with the lyrics than they have the moves. Be it Katrina in a Sheila ki jawani or Tiger Shroff in his recent Jatt Ludhiyaane da, the lyrics of such songs are like a massacre of brain cells and more than the moves.

But the thing that Katrina probably doesn’t realise is that by its very nature, item songs have been included in movies only for the ‘sexiness’ factor. And while there may be plenty of effort behind it, in learning the moves and getting them right, it doesn’t take away from the fact that they’ve been included for just that reason.

She further went on to say, “In this world of social commentary that now everyone has a platform to say anything, sometimes we don’t stop and question what is being said. We don’t stop and analyse whether there is any truth to it. In some of these waves that became popular in the media, we see women dancing in films as them being objectified. If you, as a woman, or the actress feels for one second that you are being objectified in the song, you should not be doing it.”

Malaika Arora too, not too long ago, addressed the notion of being called an ‘item’ and had a similar standing where she talked about how this had become the culture and mindset of people and sadly cannot be turned over night.

Sadhika Sehgal

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