How have you been spending your time in quarantine? I’ve been idly re-watching some old Bollywood films.
Bollywood was never a big part of my childhood. My dad used to rent a couple of films a week and we would sometimes watch them together. My brother and I were mainly interested in the films with the most outrageous fighting scenes, Sunil Shetty was our favourite actor cum fighter.
I remember visiting the Indian rental film shop on Westbury Avenue with my dad in the late 90s. It was a tiny shop crammed with VHS tape cassettes and permeated by the aroma of sweet paan and incense.
The two films I recently re-watched were Dil Se and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge.
Dil Se and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge
Dil Se involves Shah Rukh Khan’s relentless pursuit of a mysterious woman who – it later transpires – ends up being part of a separatist movement classified as terrorists by the Indian government. It’s a pretty good film with one of the catchiest Bollywood tunes of all time.
Dilwale is shot across Europe and India and is packed with spectacular scenery, more catchy tunes and colourful costumes. The story follows yet another tireless pursuit of a beautiful woman but in more typical Bollywood fashion.
Two things struck me whilst watching Dil Se and Dilwale.
Firstly, that Indian films were lewder than I remembered. This is surprising considering how socially conservative Indian society was known to be. Could Bollywood be responsible for the rapid rise in India’s rape culture?
Secondly, that Shah Rukh Khan is a terrible actor. How had he become the “King of Bollywood” and what does his success mean for the Muslim population living in Modi’s India?
Let’s take each of these issues in turn.
Rape Culture in India
The creepy pursuit of beautiful women seems to be a consistent theme in Bollywood films. Critics have argued that the continual sexual objectification of women on screen can have a harmful impact on women in the real world and can lead to acts of violence.
I counted at least 5 criminal offences Shah Rukh Khan committed over the course of Dil Se and Dilwale: stalking, harassment, sexual harassment, assault and sexual assault.
Add to this: crimes against fashion!
Many Bollywood films follow a familiar pattern: boy likes girl > girl says no > boy dances through Swiss Alps with scantily dressed girl > boy finally wins girl.
India’s male population has thus been raised on a diet of grotty films portraying unrealistic expectations of romance and strict societal norms that act as barriers to marriage. This results in a frustrated and ultimately dangerous demographic.
Indeed India’s New Delhi has become one of the worst places in the world for sexual violence against women. The 2012 Nirbhaya gang rape and murder case in Delhi is a case in point. It involved the horrific gang rape of a 23-year-old medical student on a bus in Delhi which resulted in her death and made headlines worldwide.
The incident led Shah Rukh Khan to tweet: “I am so sorry that I am a part of this society and culture. I am so sorry that I am a man.”
Male stars in Bollywood films are often characterised by a flawed masculinity and their female counterparts as tools for subjugation. This portrayal of the genders condones a culture of misogyny and sexual harassment that contextualises India’s rape culture.
Muslims in Modi’s India
India is home to the second biggest Muslim population in the world, with over 200 million Muslims living in India. But Muslims remain a small minority in a county of nearly 1.5 billion, accounting for less than 15% of the population.
The recent rise in Hindutva ideology in Indian politics thus poses a dilemma for an influential film industry that is dominated by Muslim actors, directors and crew but caters for India’s broader, predominantly Hindu population.
Recently, outrage over a Muslim congregation which sparked a new wave of Covid-19 cases in India has taken an Islamophobic turn. #CoronaJihad, #NizamuddinIdiots, #Covid-786 (a number that carries religious meaning for Muslims) began trending online as details about the congregation emerged on national news. Islamophobic memes have also been circulating – one meme, for instance, shows China as the “producer” of the virus, and Muslims as its “distributors”.
With all their fame and influence, surely Shah Rukh Khan and his namesakes in Bollywood lie in the perfect position to speak out against Islamophobia and rising Hindu nationalism?
One of Bollywood’s leading directors has called on Bollywood’s Khans to break their silence about the new citizenship law that had triggered riots in India, rightly claiming that they could influence millions of fans. “I am really angry at anyone who has not spoken out,” director Anubhav Sinha, a critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, told Reuters news agency. “These three actors and their fan following is something else. One word from them can influence millions,” added Sinha, referring to Aamir Khan, Salman Khan and Shah Rukh Khan.
So, what did I learn watching old Bollywood films during quarantine?
Well firstly, in Dil Se and Dilwale, Shah Rukh Khan gets away with manhandling strange women and then climbing into their bedrooms. Exchange his dimples for a Freddy Krueger mask, and these could be horror films not light-hearted rom-coms. Secondly, it is clear that the famous Khans of Bollywood stand at the apex of an extremely influential and multi-billion-dollar industry. Their silence in the face of rising Islamophobia is deafening.
Syed Aun Mohammed 