Bollywood’s Right-wing Realities
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Bollywood actress Kangana Ranaut recently came under fire for her tweets about the Farmers Bill protects in India. After singer Rihanna tweeted an article about the protests asking, “Why aren’t we talking about this?!” Kangana labelled her a ‘porn star’ and used derogatory language to attack her for speaking up. Even more worryingly, Kangana compared the protestors to ‘terrorists’ and proudly admitted to being a ‘right-wing role model’. Right-wing media in India is under scrutiny as Prime Minister Modi controls what is advertised to the public. Farmers are currently protesting for government laws to be repealed. Still, Modi has placed internet bans in parts of India and is, therefore, to blame for the falsified, carefully constructed narrative. If you were still in doubt about how much Modi and the government control the public, journalists who covered the farmer protests are currently facing charges. Indian police have arrested at least 122 people, and their attempts to silence Indian citizens relays how dangerously draconian the government is. Using cultivated advertising and media, Modi has portrayed himself as a redeemer.
This isn’t the first time Bollywood has promoted Modi and dangerous right-wing ideology. Bollywood film Uri: The Surgical Strike was released in 2019 and relaid the events of 2016 when India launched a surgical strike on Pakistan in retaliation to Pakistan attacking India’s army base. The film ultimately served as propaganda for the BJP (Bharitiya Janata Party) and painted Modi as a patriotic hero. This isn’t the only film to create a political bias, though, as both The Tashkent Files and The Accidental Prime Minister represented Modi’s opposition as damaging and negative. Critic Shubhra Gupta explains that the film is “created for the specific purpose of making the former prime minister look like a weak, spineless man”. The film is a poorly constructed condemnation of former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh masquerading as a simple film narrative.
Bollywood and politics have always been entwined in some way. Although Bollywood has overcome barriers by a fairly recent representation of LGBT relationships, there is still deep-rooted misogyny in films.
Item numbers usually featured women using their sexuality to entice their audience. These songs objectified women and reiterated that their only role was a justification for the male gaze. But there is an element of duality here because women’s sexuality is also seen as a negative characterization, also from the viewpoint of the male gaze. The sanskari woman who wears saris is obedient, puts her family’s well-being above her own and responds to society’s need for a female heroine who doesn’t overstep her boundaries is the respected protagonist. But a sultry, sexual woman who smokes, drinks, wears revealing clothing and is assertive is the woman that men want to sleep with but won’t marry. See the hypocrisy?
The relationship between art and ideology also reflects changes in Indian cinema laws. Sex has always been a hot topic in Bollywood. Pre-2000s, physical scenes between actors weren’t something that was endorsed. But in fact, kissing scenes were featured until after 1952, which was after India gained independence and censorship kicked in and puckering up was banned. This reflected India’s efforts to focus on chastity and uphold conservative attitudes to sex, especially sex before marriage which was considered taboo. Bollywood got creative to encapsulate passion imagery, such as heroines clad in wet saris draped all over the hero. This was a world away from their Hollywood counterparts, who saw nothing wrong with using snapshots of sexual relations.
This is also reflected through Kangana’s tweets as she slut-shames Rihanna and paints herself, and proclaims her obvious support for Modi. Yet Kangana has taken raunchy film roles, such as her portrayal of drug addict Shonali in Fashion. Hypocrisy is prevalent in Bollywood, and this pinpoints sanctimony on a much wider scale with Modi and the harmful narrative he assembles with the media's help.
