NORTH SOUTH

UNIVERSITY

COURSE: ENG105

TOPIC: PORTRAYAL OF WOMEN IN BOLLYWOOD MOVIES AND ITS EFFECTS

IN BANGLADESHI SOCIETY

SUBMITTED BY: MURSALIN HASAN CHOWDHURY ALFI

ID: 1812196630

SECTION: 15

COURSE INSTRUCTOR: M. SHAKHAOWAT HOSSAIN

 SECTION:15

SPRING 2019

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to thank almighty Allah for enabling me to finish this report

successfully. I would like to thank my parents and our family members for their constant

support. I would also like to thank Tanjila Talukder, who shared her experience and allowed me

to quote her in my research paper. My utmost gratitude to Dr. Golam Khandaker (Clinical

lecturer in Psychiatry, University of Cambridge) and Md. Shaphawat Hossain (Assistant Student

Counselor, North South University) for taking some time out of their busy schedule to give their

valuable opinion on my research topic. Lastly, I appreciate all the people who took some time

out of their daily lives and participated in my survey, as my research would have been baseless

without their help.

 ABSTRACT

The main objective of my research paper “Portrayal of Women in Bollywood Movies and its

Effects in Bangladeshi Society” is to discuss certain portrayals of women in Bollywood movies

and their effects on our society. Bollywood movies are very popular in our country. In many

Bollywood movies, offensive behaviors towards women (e.g. objectification, stalking, sexual

harassment, misogynistic behavior etc.) are normalized and presented in a palatable manner. This

study examined the popularity of Bollywood movies in Bangladesh and the effects it might have

on Bangladeshi society. It also examines what people actually think about such portrayals of

women and their effects in our society. The study revealed that, most Bangladeshi people watch

Bollywood movies to some extent. Most people think that Bollywood movies may have some

influence over the lifestyle and/or mentality of the audiences. Everybody has heard ‘item songs’

being played loudly in their locality or anywhere in the city. Most people feel bothered by the

lyrics and/or the scenes of the songs to some degree and most people agree to some degree that

such portrayals of women are disrespectful towards them. Most people believe that, such

contents are not harmless for the impressionable young minds, the society and might potentially

encourage offensive behaviors (e.g. stalking, sexual harassment, misogynistic behavior etc.)

towards women. It was also found that, some mental health professionals also agree that such

portrayals may affect the audiences of our country. It’s recommended that, people should be
made aware of these problems. People need to be careful about the contents which are being

watched by their children and also teach them proper manners.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1) INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND................................05

2) RESEARCH QUESTIONS.........................................................11

3) HYPOTHESIS.............................................................................12

4) METHODOLOGY......................................................................13

5) DATA REPRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS........................14

6) SUMMARY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS.................................22

7) RECOMMENDATIONS.............................................................23

8) CONCLUSION............................................................................23

9) REFERENCES.............................................................................24
 INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND

Bollywood refers to the Indian Hindi-language film industry which is based on Mumbai,

Maharashtra located in India. It was formerly known as Bombay cinema. Bollywood is a

powerful mass media and also a giant industry which has a huge fan base not only in India, but

also in many other countries, such as Sri-Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh etc. The contents of the

Bollywood movies deeply influence the culture of its audiences both in India and outside of

India, which is quite evident from how mainstream Bollywood contents are in those countries.

Bollywood movies have an enormous number of audiences in Bangladesh. It is very difficult to

find a single person who has never watched any Bollywood movies or at least listened to any

Bollywood movie songs. Walking through the streets of the cities of Bangladesh and overhearing

the noises of Bollywood movies/songs being played on TV, mobile phone or through any other

medium isn’t anything unusual at all. Bollywood songs (especially ‘item songs’) are played on

loudspeaker on different occasions and sometimes without any occasions in Bangladesh.

Everything sported in Bollywood movies spreads like an epidemic in our Bangladeshi society

and becomes the trend. In fact, the influence of Bollywood in our society is so much that people

are using Hindi words in spite of there being a Bengali word expressing the same meaning, such

as “Gaye holud”, a part of Bengali marriage celebrations is now called as “Haldi (Hindi word
referring to ‘Holud’ in Bengali) night” by many people. People even dance on Indian songs on

parties, marriage ceremonies and other functions.

While it is true that Bollywood has brought some remarkable and strong female characters and

female-oriented movies addressing different social issues (e.g. Pink, Chak de! India, Queen,

English Vinglish etc.), it is also true that such movies are very less in number and the portrayal of

women in some Bollywood movies and some scenes depicting certain behaviors towards them

might potentially encourage the ingrained misogyny, objectification of women, sexual

harassment, rape culture and other crimes against women in our society.

Bollywood movie celebrities are role models for a large number of Bangladeshi youth and also

for some people from other age ranges, who enjoy Bollywood films and idolize the characters of

those movies. Bollywood movies often portray lead male characters which are characterized by

machismo and violence. The male characters are portrayed as all rough and tough, whereas the

female characters are portrayed vulnerable mothers, wives, girlfriends or just sex objects whose

stints in the movies are mainly driven by their male counterparts and they are constantly in the

need to be rescued by the male lead (Jha & Nashrullah, 2014).

‘Item songs’ are very common in Bollywood movies. These songs usually portray women

wearing revealing clothes dancing sleazily to songs with sexually suggestive and objectifying

lyrics, around a bunch of men who are ogling at them and making inappropriate gestures. The

term ‘item song’ itself is objectifying as it is called so because of the women featured in those

songs are referred as ‘item girls’. These songs mostly serve no purpose to the entire plot of the

movie and are usually put to attract male audiences. Clips from these songs are added to the

trailer to gain more views and the songs always make it to the radio top choices, but when it
comes to the plot of the movie or the story development, these songs have absolutely no

contribution in most movies (Jha & Nashrullah, 2014). Even though these songs are extremely

popular in Bollywood movies, some producers still beg to differ. Prominent Bollywood director,

producer, and writer Kohli (2008) said, “I don`t believe in item numbers. Neither do I believe in

item girls. How can you call a girl ‘item’? It sounds so cheap. It is humiliating” (Jha &

Nashrullah, 2014). The objectification in the lyrics of these songs is very direct and unabashed.

A particular line from the song “Fevicol Se” of the movie Dabangg 2 goes like, “Main to

tandoori murgi hoon yaar, gatka le saiyaan alcohol se” which means “I’m tandoori chicken,

swallow me with alcohol, oh my beloved!” (Sajid-Wajid & Ali, 2012). Another example is a line

from the song “Aa re Pritam pyaare” from the movie Rowdy Rathore, which goes like, “Pallu ke

neeche chhupa ke rakkha hain, utha doon toh hungama ho” which means “I’ve hid it under my

stole, the real fun will begin once I remove it” (Anjaan, 2012). Apart from the objectification in

‘item songs’, even some of the other songs of Bollywood films normalize sexual harassment. For

instance, the lyrics of a few lines of the song “Tu mere agal bagal” from the movie Phata Poster

Nikla Hero imply "Don’t stop me without any reason, If I follow you then don’t scold me. I have

a right over you! You are my delight. Don't be shocked when I stop you in your way!" (Kamil &

Bhattacharya, 2013). These lines clearly imply that the girl is being stalked by the boy and she

clearly does not like it but the boy is still insisting on stalking and teasing her and still

shockingly, the boy manages to make the girl fall in love with him at the end of the movie.

There are scenes in some movies where behaviors like stalking, sexual harassment are

normalized and condoned. For example, in the movie Toilet: Ek Prem Katha, prominent

Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar is seen stalking the female lead and taking her photographs

without her consent. Also, in the film Ranjhana, the male lead is seen stalking the female lead
trying to woo her. Unfortunately, these acts are completely condoned by the script of the movie

and are presented in such a way, as if there is not anything wrong with such behavior. Such

behaviors are normalized in these movies in the name of love. According to psychologist Parikh

(2019), “When you see something being presented in a palatable manner to you, you feel it is

okay to do it, so you get desensitised to it. You get disinhibited and it changes your perception of

reality. People, especially youngsters and vulnerable ones, end up doing what they see their role

models doing. It is important to educate and upgrade people and give them the right support and

guidance” (“How Bollywood,” 2019). On being asked about the same thing, Golam Khandaker,

clinical lecturer in Psychiatry at the University of Cambridge, opined that “I think portrayal of

women in films certainly affect the way young people view and interact with them” (G.

Khandaker, personal communication, March 31, 2019). Md. Shaphawat Hossain, who is a

Counseling Psychologist and also one of the Assistant Student Counselors of North South

University, also agreed to give his opinion on the same issue. “Whatever is depicted on the

movies does affect the audience to some degree. Smoking/Alcohol consumption scenes in

movies come with a statutory warning stating about the possible health hazards of such habits

and that’s because it was found that movies may affect people’s mentality or lifestyle to some

degree and some of the audiences might engage in such behaviors as their role models

(Bollywood actors) are doing so. There are scenes in Bollywood movies where the male lead

does things to woo the female lead, which may be considered as sexual harassment and might

lead to serious consequences in real life. There also are scenes/dialogues objectifying women,

depicting verbal or sometimes even physical abuse and so many other behavior which may have

serious consequences in real life and has an effect completely opposite to what is being shown in

these movies. These movies should come with a warning stating the possible consequences of
such acts, just like the warning about smoking. Otherwise, they should also show the

consequences of such behaviors. Many people might think if these kind of behaviors helped the

boy woo the girl in the movie then it will work in real life as well. They fail to understand the

gravity of the issue and think such behaviors are harmless as they are depicted in the movies,”

Hossain said (M. S. Hossain, personal communication, April 13, 2019).

Because of the normalization and condoning of such scenes, the audience of Bangladesh,

especially the young generation might think such practices are okay. They won’t even fully

understand concepts like consent and how what might seem harmless might make someone

uncomfortable and be counted as sexual harassment instead of looking ‘romantic’. The

objectification of women might feed to the rape culture in Bangladesh. According to the Website

of Marshall University, “Rape culture is an environment in which rape is prevalent and in which

sexual violence against women is normalized and excused in the media and popular culture.” It

also says that, “Rape culture is perpetuated through the use of misogynistic language, the

objectification of women’s bodies, and the glamorization of sexual violence, thereby creating a

society that disregards women’s rights and safety.” (“Rape Culture,” n.d.). The absence of strong

female characters and portraying women as submissive and dependant on their male counterparts

might feed the exisiting ingrained misogyny of our society. Incidences of women being teased by

men singing Bollywood songs isn’t something unusual. After filling up the research

questionnaire, Tanjila Talukder, an HSC candidate, shared her experience. “There's this one

song, recent, I don't even remember the lyrics, it goes something like, "I am some sweet treat, if

you want it come get it". I was completely shocked. During Pohela Falgun girls were constantly

being harassed by people loudly singing such horrendous songs. Not only me or my friends, I

saw a lot of women being harassed like this. This especially happens during festivals like Eid,
Pohela Boisakh, Puja etc.,” Talukder said (T. Talukder, personal communication, March 24,

2019). There are countless such examples where women have fallen victim to acts of sexual

harassments encouraged by Bollywood movies or songs.

Some might argue that, Bollywood has produced a lot of women-oriented movies lately. While it

is true that some great women-centered movies are being made in Bollywood, those movies are

very few in number and not enough to combat the male-dominated industry with commercial hits

filled with machismo, violence and objectification of women, where women are portrayed as sex

objects and/or people with a weak personality who cannot stand up for themselves and constantly

need to be dominated and rescued by their male counterparts. Some may say that, Bollywood

doesn’t glorify or condone rape at all. In fact, the lead characters oppose such crimes. Even

though the claim is true; objectifying women, normalizing stalking behavior and different forms

of sexual harassments by the male leads, absence of strong female leads etc. make those good

attempts counterproductive. Some people also might say that, people really enjoy such songs and

they should not be deprived of what’s entertaining to them. It is true that, it’s only fair for the

people to want to be entertained after a long hectic day at their respective field of work. But

entertainment should not come at the cost of objectification and other wrong portrayals of

women. There are other movies like Pink, PK, Queen etc. which depicted some strong social

issues and spread positive messages to the society. Those movies were entertaining and major

hits as they were loved by the people. This proves that, audiences can be attracted and pleased

without creating such contents which may potentially harm the society. People may also argue

that, our audiences are mature enough to filter out and not be affected by such contents. It is true

that a lot of people have the ability to judge with a clear conscience and thus make a distinction,

but it is also true that, a large number of minors consume such contents and they often cannot
filter as they are malleable in nature and susceptible to what they are watching and what’s

happening around them. It can be really harmful for them if they are not guided properly by their

guardians. Also, the way mass media affects our mentality is very subtle and a lot of people do

get affected by such contents, which is bolstered by the aforementioned instances and quotes by

the qualified professional psychologists and psychiatrist.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS

The effect of Bollywood in our society has to be analyzed properly. As mentioned earlier,

Bollywood movies affect the people of our country to a great extent. Hence, I conducted a survey

online among the residents of Bangladesh and my survey includes the following questions:

 How often do they watch Bollywood movies?

 Do they think that Bollywood movies may have some influences over the lifestyle and/or the

mentality of the people of Bangladesh?

 How often have they heard of ‘item songs’ being played over the loudspeaker or through any

other medium (TV, mobile phone etc.) in your locality or anywhere in your city?

 Do the lyrics and/or of these songs bother them?

 Do they agree that certain types of portrayals of women (e.g. in ‘item songs’) are

disrespectful towards them?

 Do they think such contents are harmless for the impressionable young minds and the

society?
 Do they agree that some scenes (e.g. the hero chasing/stalking the heroine, commenting on

her clothes, blowing whistles etc.) in a few Bollywood movies may potentially encourage

sexual harassment, stalking and other offensive behaviors towards women?

HYPOTHESIS

Since Bollywood movies and Indian channels are very popular in Bangladesh, I believe that most

people have watched Bollywood movies at some point of their life and they still do, maybe not

that much but they still do watch them to some degree. I expect them to agree that Bollywood

movies may have some influences over the lifestyle and/or the mentality of the people of

Bangladesh as these movies are very popular among the people and a lot of people idolize

Bollywood celebrities. I believe that most of them have heard ‘item songs’ being played over

loudspeakers, TV or other mediums as such songs are very popular among the people and they

tend to loudly play such songs almost everywhere around the cities, especially during different

occasions.

As a lot of people do not pay attention to the lyrics of these songs, I believe that most people will

feel bothered by the scenes of these songs at least to some extent, if not that much. I believe that

most people will agree that portrayals of women in contents like ‘item songs’ are disrespectful

towards them. I believe that most people will agree that such contents are not totally harmless for

the society, if not totally harmful as it’s clearly visible how people get affected by mass media. I
also believe that, most people will agree that some Bollywood contents with scenes like the hero

chasing/stalking the heroine, commenting on her clothes, blowing whistles at her etc. might

potentially encourage sexual harassment, stalking and other offensive behaviors towards women

as a lot of people idolize Bollywood celebrities. Besides, such casual depictions of these kind of

behaviors might make them feel that such behaviors are harmless and will make them look like a

hero.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The primary research was carried out on a survey creating website called SurveyMonkey. The

survey questionnaire consists of a variety of questions related to the theme of my research. The

questionnaire consists of two parts; demographic information and questions related to portrayal

of women in Bollywood and its effects in Bangladeshi society. The first two questions are of the

first part which requires the respondents to select their age group and sex. The second part

consists of the subsequent questions which concentrates on the topic of the research. All of them

are multiple choice questions. 60 people participated in the survey created on March 3, 2019. I

also contacted some mental health professionals to find out their opinion on the topic of my

research. Besides, one of the respondents shared her experience after taking my survey.

For my secondary research, I collected information from various web articles. For collecting

information from the internet, I used the search engine Google and read different web articles on

the topic of my research. I also watched a few online videos and clips on my research topic from
different TV programs. I also looked up the lyrics of a few Hindi songs in different websites to

understand the meaning of those songs.

DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS

In order to collect sufficient data about the effects of portrayal of women in Bollywood movies

in the Bangladeshi society, I hosted a survey questioning different aspects of my topic. The data

collected from the survey helped me draw conclusions regarding my research topic. The survey

was taken by 60 people consisting of 31 females and 29 males. . 85% respondents were from the

age group of 18-24, 11.67% were from the age group of 25-35, only 1.67% was the percentage

of respondents of each of the both groups consisting of respondents below the age of 18 and

above the age of 35. The data collected is presented and analyzed as follows.

How often do you watch Bollywood movies?

Very often Not that often
I don't watch Bollywood movies at all

12%
18%

70%
 Figure 1: How often do you watch Bollywood movies?

In my first question, I asked students about how often they watch Bollywood movies. This was a

general question to determine how many of them watch Bollywood movies to what extent. The

responses were as I had expected. 18.33% respondents said that they watch Bollywood movies

very often. 70% respondents don’t watch them that often, which means they do watch them to

some extent. The reason behind most of the people watching Bollywood contents to a lesser

degree might be that, most of my respondents were urban audiences of the age group 18-24, who

mostly prefer Hollywood movies and American TV shows over Bollywood movies. Around

11.67% responded said that they don’t watch Bollywood movies at all. This data collected shows

that most of the respondents do watch Bollywood movies to some extent and it proves that

Bollywood movies are very popular among the people of Bangladesh.

My second question was, do they think Bollywood movies may have some influences over the

lifestyle and/or the mentality of the people of Bangladesh?

Do you think Bollywood movies may have

some influences over the lifestyle and/or the
mentality of the people of Bangladesh?
Yes, I do I don't think so Maybe Not at all

18%
2%

80%
Figure 2: Do they think Bollywood movies may have some influences over the lifestyle

and/or the mentality of the people of Bangladesh?

80% of the respondents said that they do think that Bollywood movies may have some influences

over the lifestyle and/or the mentality of the people of Bangladesh. 1.67% doesn’t think so, and

18.33% think that maybe Bollywood movies may have some influences over the lifestyle and/or

the mentality of the people of Bangladesh. It clearly shows that, most of the respondents do think

or at least feel that maybe Bollywood movies may have some influences over the lifestyle and/or

the mentality of the people of Bangladesh. The reason behind that might be the fact that, these

movies are very popular in our country and a lot of people idolize Bollywood celebrities.

My third question was, how often they have heard ‘item songs’ being played over the

loudspeaker or through any other medium (TV, mobile phone etc.) in their locality or at

anywhere in their city?

How often have you heard 'item songs' being played over the
loudspeaker or through any other medium (TV, mobile phone
etc.) in your locality or anywhere in your city?
Very frequently A few times Not at all

27%

73%
Figure 3: How often they have heard ‘item songs’ being played over the loudspeaker or

through any other medium (TV, mobile phone etc.) in their locality or at anywhere in their

city?

73.33% responded that they have heard ‘item songs’ being played through various mediums in

their locality or anywhere around the city, 26.67% responded that they have heard a few times

those songs loudly being played through various mediums in their locality or anywhere around

the city. This indicates that, all of the respondents have heard ‘item songs’ loudly being played in

their locality or around the city and most respondents heard them being played very frequently.

This proves that, these songs are very popular among the people of Bangladesh.

My fourth question was, do the lyrics and/or scenes of such songs bother them? 46.55%

respondents feel bothered by the lyrics and/or the scenes of those songs.

Do the lyrics and/or scenes of such songs

bother you?
Yes, they do Not that much Not at all
2%

47%
52%

\
 Figure 4: Do the lyrics and/or scenes of such songs bother you?

51.72% don’t feel that much bothered by those contents, which also means that they still feel

somewhat bothered by the lyrics and/or the scenes of the songs. The reason behind the somewhat

indifference towards those contents might be the thing that, many people don’t understand the

lyrics that well. Besides, some people just listen to/watch the songs without thinking much about

what impact it could have on some people and the society in the long run.

My fifth question was, do they agree that certain types of portrayals of women (e.g. in ‘item

songs’) are disrespectful towards them? 51.67% strongly and 41.67% somewhat agree to this

statement.

Do you agree that certain types of portrayals

of women (e.g. in ‘item songs’) are disre-
spectful towards them?
Strongly agree Somewhat agree Somewhat disagree Strongly disagree

7%

52%
42%

Figure 5: Do they agree that certain types of portrayals of women (e.g. in ‘item songs’) are

disrespectful towards them?

 Only 6.67% somewhat disagreed to the statement and nobody strongly disagreed to the

statement. This implies that, most of the people do think that portrayals of women in certain

Bollywood contents (e.g. in ‘item songs’) are disrespectful towards them. The reason behind this

might be that, women are highly objectified in ‘item songs’ and people think that such portrayals

of women are disrespectful to them.

My sixth question was, do they think such contents are harmless for the impressionable young

minds and the society? 38.33% respondents think that such contents are not harmless at all,

which also means that they think that such contents are very harmful. 43.33% respondents think

that they are not completely harmless, which also means that they think that such contents are

somewhat harmful. 18.33% respondents feel that such contents are harmless. This proves that,

majority of the respondents feel that such contents are more or less harmful for the

impressionable young minds and the society. The reason behind it might be the fact that, mass

media is an important part of people’s daily lives and also may have a great influence in their

daily lives to some degree and such contents may corrupt the minds of the impressionable young

children as they are very much susceptible to what they are watching. Besides, the palatable

portrayal of such contents may encourage some people to engage in such behaviors which also

may prove to be harmful for the society in the long run.

 Do you think such contents are harmless
for the impressionable young minds and
the society?
Not at all Yes, they are harmless
They are not completely harmless

38%
43%

18%

Figure 6: Do you think such contents are harmless for the impressionable young minds and

the society?

My last question was, do they agree that some scenes (e.g. hero chasing/stalking the heroine,

commenting on her clothes, blowing whistles etc.) in a few Bollywood movies may potentially

encourage sexual harassment, stalking and other offensive behaviors towards women? 61.67% of

the respondents strongly agree with the statement. 33.33% respondents somewhat agree with the

statement. 3.33% respondents somewhat disagree with the statement and only 1.67% respondents

strongly disagree with the statement. It is clear that most people agree with this statement as a

mass media as popular as Bollywood is very much likely to affect the way its audiences think

and behave, which is also quite evident from the rapid spread of the Bollywood songs or the

trends created by the Bollywood movies. The palatable portrayal of the aforementioned

behaviors may make people desentisized to the gravity of such actions. It may make them think

such behaviors are harmless as the lead character in the movies are doing it and getting away
with it without having to face any consequences. They might think that, it might work for them

in real life just the way the male lead in the movies eventually manages to woo the female lead

by such behaviors.

Do you agree that some scenes (e.g. the hero

chasing/stalking the heroine, commenting on
her clothes, blowing whistles etc.) in a few
Bollywood movies may potentially encourage
sexual harassment, stalking and other offen-
sive behaviors towards women?
Strongly agree Somewhat agree Strongly disagree Somewha disagree
2% 3%

33%
62%

Figure 7: Do you agree that some scenes (e.g. hero chasing/stalking the heroine,

commenting on her clothes, blowing whistles etc.) in a few Bollywood movies may

potentially encourage sexual harassment, stalking and other offensive behaviors towards

women?
 SUMMARY OF RESEARCH FINDINGS

The data I collected matched my hypothesis. When it comes to how often people watch

Bollywood movies, we can see that most people watch Bollywood movies to some extent. It can

be concluded that, Bollywood movies are very popular in Bangladesh. Majority of the

respondents think that Bollywood movies may have some influences over the lifestyle and the

mentality of the Bangladeshi people. All respondents have heard ‘item songs’ loudly being

played in their locality or other places in the city, which implies that these songs are very popular

among Bangladeshi people. Most people feel bothered by the lyrics and/or the scenes of such

songs. It can be concluded that, most people find such contents to be inappropriate.

Most people agree to some extent that, certain portrayals of women (e.g. women being

objectified in ‘item songs’) in Bollywood movies are disrespectful towards them. Majority of the

respondents feel that, such contents are not harmless for the impressionable young minds and the

society. Most people strongly or at least somewhat agree that some scenes where the male lead is

stalking the female lead, teasing her or other offensive behaviors towards women are portrayed

might potentially encourage sexual harassment, misogyny, stalking or other offensive behaviors

towards women. It can be concluded that from the collected data that, Bollywood movies are a

part of the mainstream Bangladeshi culture and also may have the ability to influence the

behavior of its audiences and eventually of the society in the long run.
 RECOMMENDATION

From all my findings from the research, the best solution to this problem would be for the CBFC

(Central Board of Film Certification) to prevent contents where objectification, sexual

harassment, misogynistic behaviors have been glorified/normalized/condoned, from getting

released and to be omitted before the release of the movie. Since that matter is not in our hands,

the least we can do is to educate people about the bad effects of such contents and raise

awareness about different offences against women. We should also try to pay attention to what

contents are being watched by our children and also educate them about proper manners and

teach them to respect women, how to behave with them, what types of behaviors are improper

etc. These things will teach them to be respectful towards others and shape them into responsible

citizens of the future.

CONCLUSION

From the findings of the research, it can be concluded that Bollywood movies are very popular in

our society and they have a huge influence on the people of our society. The portrayals of

women in Bollywood where offensive behaviors like objectification, stalking, sexual harassment,

misogyny etc. are condoned and normalized are problematic for our society to say the least.

Consuming these contents may potentially encourage these offensive behaviors in our society as

Bollywood celebrities are idolized by millions of people. Therefore, we need to educate people,

be cautious about the contents we watch and raise awareness against offensive behaviors/crimes

towards women and not normalize them in any manner.

 REFERENCES

1) Anjaan, S. (2012). Aa Re Pritam Pyaare. On Rowdy Rathore [CD]. Mumbai, India: UTV.

2) Jha, R., & Nashrulla, T. (April 30, 2014). 7 ways Bollywood is contributing to the rape culture

in India [Supplemental material]. Retrieved from

https://www.buzzfeed.com/regajha/ways-bollywood-is-contributing-to-rape-culture-in-

india

3) Kamil, I., & Bhattacharya, A. (2013). Tu Mere Agal Bagal Hai. On Phata Poster Nikla Hero

[CD]. Mumbai, Maharashtra, India: Tips Music.

4) Rape Culture. (n.d.). Retrieved April, 10 from https://www.marshall.edu/wcenter/sexual-

assault/rape-culture/

5) Sajid-Wajid., & Ali, A. (2012). Fevicol Se. On Dabangg 2 [CD]. Noida, India: T-Series.

6) Valentine’s Day special: How Bollywood normalises stalking and gives us creepiness in the

name of love. (2009). Hindustan Times. Retrieved April 10, 2019 from

https://www.hindustantimes.com/bollywood/valentine-s-day-special-how-bollywood-

normalises-stalking-and-gives-us-creepiness-in-the-name-of-love/story-

eUohH8XIQjDWo9RHA1Y5iJ.html