One of the greatest unintentional jokes of all time in Bollywood is for me the music video to “Desi Girl.” Behind Priyanka Chopra, who more than amply fits the bill, the video features some fifty blond, caucasian backup dancers. They stay in the background some of the time, but by their sheer numbers they suggest that the object choice celebrated in the song — the eponymous “desi girl” — might actually be an endangered commodity onscreen.
Now Marathi nationalist Raj Thackeray, nephew of the infamous Bal, has started a campaign to try and kick the foreign “junior artists,” as backup dancers are called, out of Bollywood. Normally, one feels a kneejerk hostility to opportunistic populists named after famous Victorian novelists, but in this case I can’t help but hope that the results of this campaign might actually be some constructive reevaluation of the Bollywood obsession with gori backup dancers.
Most of the politicians and Bollywood types named in the Telegraph article say pretty predictable things. Rakhi Sawant is in classic classless form (“These white girls are like lollipops that only last for two days.”) The one foray into partial intelligibility might be Jag “Night Eyes” Mundhra, who for some reason is identified as a “leading Indian film director.”
Leading Indian film director Jag Mundra last night criticised the campaign and said it could push up costs and force film-makers to shoot more scenes overseas. To save money, directors usually hire attractive backpackers passing through Mumbai and shoot dance scenes in local clubs or film sets.
“The reason producers pick white girls is because a lot of them have better figures and are willing to expose them,” he said.
“If you need a bikini shot, not many Indian girls are willing to turn up in a string bikini. But most white girls will not have an issue with that. Titillation has been an important part of Bollywood.” (link)
On bikini shots and the demand of the mass audiences for titillation, yes, maybe (the man knows his titillation). But on “better figures,” is he really saying that with a straight face in this day and age?
To be clear, I’m not agreeing with Raj Thackeray; hell, I’m one of those old school Pinkos who continues to insist that the name of the city, when we’re speaking English, should be “Bombay.” I’m not offended by non-desi backup dancers, just embarrassed for the filmmakers who feel they need to go this route when there’s no narrative justification within the films they’re making. I’m also surprised we haven’t seen much controversy on this issue before — it’s so obvious.
Jag mundhra. Isnt he the guy who used to make all those soft core Skinemax type movies?
Shiv Sena types only get tough with civilians. But when the terrorists attacked Mumbai , where wer all these Shiv Sena types? Why werent they mobilizing to attack these terrorists? Cowards.
Shiv sena needs to know that it is “outsiders” like the Hindi movie industry , Tamilians and others that have been a big part of making Bombay what it is, not just the locals. AS much as they want to convince themselves, Bombay would be nothing if it was limited to just being a Marathi city.
Jag mundhra. Isnt he the guy who used to make all those soft core Skinemax type movies?
Yup, that’s him. No idea why they’re quoting him instead of a major director or producer in the Hindi film industry… It’s possible that more regular industry figures decided not to make any comments so as not to further provoke Raj Thackeray.
But isn’t this the inevitable logical end to Bollywood’s ridiculous obsession with fair skin? How can desi girls compete with goris?
‘Marathi nationalist’? Marathi parochialist is more like it.
Finally!!!! I hope this movement gains momentum. I’ve always hated seeing those awful pasty girls with no rhythm dancing in the backgrounds. I understand why they’re there – the titillation and the escapism. As a desi abroad, I have no desire to see white folks in my indian movies – I watch Bollywood films to escape Hollywood. I also understand that Bollywood movies cater to the native audience who might actually want to see the White girls. I figured my annoyance was futile so I just stopped watching Bollywood movies.
By the way, Indians are a lot less conservatives these days, I’m sure they can find locals who would gladly titillate audiences.
I will now find a way to work titillate into every sentence I speak.
This is sad! Bollywood now produces a lot of “crap.”
In an attempt to emulate Western tastes and preferences, the women are not merely fair skinned Desis anymore, they aren’t even South Asian at all.
BETTER FIGURES? screw the rest of the article, all my rage and hatred is fixated on that. I have a freaking slamming body, thank you very much, and desi figures time and time again are among some of the most beautiful I see. Just sayin’.
Is it only female back up dancers or is this also for male back up dancers? Wasn’t there a documentary somewhere in the ’90s about dancers on the darker shade being replaced by lighter shade dancers as India opened up its markets? Does anyone remember the name of that documentary? So now brown dancers of any shade are not in the Bollywood picture? Does it really matter? If it is consumer driven. If the Indian consumer wants the titillation that white women and men have no problem with unlike their Desi male and female counterparts then it should be fine. Maybe global competition not only among back up dancers but also Bollywood actors for leading roles and directors and producers could be a good thing. May improve the acting skills and movies. That Bollywood industry is too closed.
The same thing is going on in the IPL cricket tournament going on now in India. The cheerleaders are white western girls. I think like Bollywood the cricket league has also figured out that indian males much prefer to watch white females over the merely “fair”/”wheaten skinned” desi womenfolk (fuggedabout the dark majority of desi gals). The more white flesh to look at the more indian men show up at the movie theaters/cricket stadiums the more money in their pocket. Even after paying the premium price for western women. Easy money.
Are you people f*cking serious?? So the ends do justify the means, I take it. ‘Our’ thugs are not so bad, eh?
I find the lowered expectations that brown people have of themselves appalling. If a group of white thugs were involved in something of this sort, we’d be all losing our shit on here. Why do we insist on holding white people to a higher standard? If this use of white Bollywood dancers is a problem why not make yourself heard with the way you spend your money? I’d imagine a large portion of Bollywood film revenue is made in the expatriate Indian market anyway. So why not try a more civilized approach to dealing with this ‘problem’ and not expect some assbackward local thugs to take care of it?
Maybe we could get some local thugs to sort that out too?
I think the issue surrounding white backup dancers in bolly movies is a little more complex than the colonial white-is-best mentality cares to explain. Hindi movies will oftentimes depict white people and European/North American culture in a negative, corruptive light. Ever notice how redundant the “Indian boy/girl raised in white culture has no values” theme has become over the years? This of course is juxtaposed with the industry’s desire to excessively westernize their films. Also, I’ve observed a lot of films that include not only white, but black and asian chicks as well in music videos and increasingly, in films with actual roles. Sure enough though, they’re almost always exoticized and stereotyped.
And by the way, I gag whenever I hear that song.
Raj wants the white women out because it is much easier to generate outrage against desi women doing the same job that white women do in Bollywood.
@bipasha – Dude I love that song! Mostly because I don’t understand Hindi (fluent in Tamil, thankyouverymuch) and it has a lot of English lyrics. So I can sing along.
I thought the white ppl in the video was because it was supposed to be in a Miami club (granted there would be more Latinas) but I hadn’t noticed the trend in other Bollywood movies, actually.
Let free markets decide these things. The sale of Fair and Lovely products is sickening but it is also an expression of democracy (albeit in a warped way). Let the lollipops trollop around if it sells tickets in Chattisgar.
I think the Bollywood filmmakers were inspired by my classic music video
you are rahul gandhi’s speechwriter, i presume 😉
Praveen wrote:
Really? Would you have felt better if they had gone after the machine-gun-wielding terrorists with their lathis?
Hmm…
Amardeep, I probably would have picked a different song and video as an example using the blond egregiously.
The song is celebrating the desi girl, and all eyes are on Priyanka Chopra and the lead men, are seen ignoring the other women, at one point in the song they push the blonds away as they eye Priyanka. The whole song is about how they prefer their desi girl, to the foreigners in the background.
Can’t stand the song.
I’ve seen quite a few dance numbers that uses black women; I don’t know about recently but in the 90s.
i already find the writing, acting, directing and cinematogrphy in bollywood films to be really really bad. the only reason i would watch one of them every couple of years was the pretty indian grls, but now….
I’ll have mine brown and sweet thank you.
how do the whyte grls end up in videos? are there that many whyte grls in mumbai?
puli, there are a lot of amazing movies coming out of hindi cinema these days. some are more independent (what they call multi-plex films), but even amongst commercial films, there are a few that are great. but it def. is a matter of sifting through to find them.
Actually, yes. At least, their rage would be consistent. I have utter contempt for a class of humans that find it easy to gang up and intimidate smaller groups of unarmed civilians that did them no personal harm compared to a real threat where they can actually use their rage and sense of “justice” to do harm to bad people.
I didn’t get the Rahul Gandhi comparison for my comment.
Anyway, as far as backup white dancers, I just find it odd. They look out of place. I do not why viewers would even find them appealing as I have see indian female actresses in skimpier outfits than those backup dancers in a few indian clips i have seen.
BTW, count me in as someone who has no problem hating Bollywood movies. Anyone notice that the younger generation of Indian Americans seem more into Bollywood. I have met kids who actually prompt their parents to go to some new Bollywood movie instead of the opposite.
Jet Airways announced that many of its employees would be let go. Raj Thackeray said that no Jet Airways airplane could take off from Bombay. Within a short time, Jet Airways took back those employees. To the employees, Raj must have come across as a savior.
Oh, please. If you’ve ever been to the UAE you will see desi men panting after Russian women (of questionable morals) in every bar and nightclub.
the only ones i really have acess to are teh comercial ones with stupid song and dance numbers. mr and mrs iyer was a pretty good movie though.
C’mon! “Desi Girl” is supposed to in Miami, where…guess what? There are a LOT of bleach blonde beckies! And the lyrics more or less indicate that the nearly-faceless blondes are but a nice frame for the REAL masterpiece, Priyanka Chopra (Dekhi lakh-lakh pardesi girls/ain’t nobody like a desi girl). Basically what PS said, except that I love that song.
Anyway… Rakhi chiming in on anything besides makeup, plastic surgery, or MTF is pretty much raw comedy. She’s an ongoing joke, sorta like Thackery, except she’s actually funny.
raj is actually a very nice guy. see in india, in the political space, bhav dena padta hai, otherwise junta thinks you are down and out. tante nahin karenge to tv pe kaise aayenge ? when i worked in an ib on the street, my boss used to jump up and down on the trading floor in front of some 100 colleagues, promising to rape greenspan’s wife in the ass. he said he would make her gag after shoving his man meat deep down her throat and tune her nipples like the knob of a shortwave radio until her mouth spewed news broadcast from pravda. this from a harvard mba who took home 10 mil in a bad year when the commodities desk almost blew up. sab chalta hai bhaiyya. he knew that if he didn’t behave like an ape, his bosses on 85 broad wouldn’t make him a partner. so all this natak. same shit happens back home also. raj does nautanki so chavan can then appear to look good doing crisis management, while uddhav makes simian noises and keeps up the virility so their genepool can survive. beating up on bollywood ain’t going to cut dice. your cameron takes 15 years from idea to product – 1995 to 2010 for avatar, which could have in all likelihood flopped with 50% probability, like all else in filmdom, taking down 250 mil and counting. yahaan pe dibakar has an idea day before yesterday and gives an unemployed greek nikos on a visitor visa a nikon photo camera for christ’s sake and end up shooting a 1.5 crore LSD which even in worst case will make a 100 crore by the year end, given five star reviews across the board from raja sen to kazmi. and after the elesh fiasco, rakhi has to up the ante else she too will be written off as a has-been. better to be a motormouth and choose raj while writing off london dames as two day lollipops, is what she figures. the irony of choose-ing ofcourse escapes her retard brain 🙂 welcome to the new world.
Hmmm….I think there’s still a certain degree of circumspection when shooting Indian actresses versus foreign girls. I just saw the trailer for Kites last night, and the camera lingered over Barbara Mori’s bikini-clad body for quite a while and quite close up. I don’t think I’ve seen any Hindi or Tamil movies yet where Indian actresses get quite that much – ahem – attention. In fact, in Vinnaithaandi Varuvaayaa, Trisha is shown swimming (in the Mediterranean?) wearing capri-length pants and a top.
I remember there was a bit of a frisson in the media when Bebo wore a bikini for Tashan, but I think those shots were a little more reserved than the Kites‘ ones.
And Priyanka Chopra made it a point to say that she was not wearing a bikini in Dostana, and affirming that it was a swimsuit. In reality, I’d consider this to be basically a bikini held together by an isthmus of fabric connecting the top and bottom pieces….but the point is, you still got the feeling when the movie was released, what, 2 years ago, that there was a stigma in her wearing a two-piece.
Anybody know how to speak French?
I found this video from France really interesting b/c I know how conservative India can be. I’m not from a city and even today when I walk down the street in Kerala, I know I shouldn’t wear shorts or even sleeveless shirts.
Anyways in this video, you see Indian models, and I’m assuming the beach is in Goa, right next to some gals with a very traditional outlook, from their saris. I think one of the traditional gals is saying their husband would beat them if them dressed like that 🙁 http://www.wat.tv/video/beautes-indiennes-2bz9z_1f8e2_.html
Things are changing in India…I can’t wait till I’m able to freely walk down a Kerala beach with a bathing suit.
I wonder whose pin-ups grace the walls, desktops, and bed frames of Maharashtra Navnirman Sena activists.
There are a LOT of bleach blonde beckies! And the lyrics more or less indicate that the nearly-faceless blondes are but a nice frame for the REAL masterpiece, Priyanka Chopra (Dekhi lakh-lakh pardesi girls/ain’t nobody like a desi girl)
Seriously, this is just the wrong song to show the potential penchant for blonds…This whole song is talking about how the blonds are nothing compared to desi girl…Surely Amardeep could have come up with a better example.
PS:. My knowledge of French used to be much, much better.
The first part of the video is mostly about Lakshmi Menon’s career. There’s Jean-Paul Gaultier saying that Indian women are great natural beauties, look how many Miss Universe contests they have won. Then they move on to Bangalore, where there is a model scouting event. The narrator says that one would never find a women wearing a mini-skirt on the street, as the society is conservative. A model scout, who discovered Lakshmi Menon, is look at girls, saying one of them has an exotic look. They move on to the office of the model scout, with her latest protégé, Vaishali. The scout says that Vaishali’s parents are liberal, so they allow her to be a model. She has already been shot for Vogue India. In Goa the narrator says the Vaishali must ‘forget tradition’. Vaishali says she is not that comfortable wearing the mini-dress. She is shooting for the cover of Vogue. The traditional women remark that the models look pretty, but that their husbands would hit them if they dressed that way. In Vaishali’s home, her mother and grandmother want her to get married, saying that she can always continue modeling after she is married.
Metal Mickey – thank you!
So basically, lad mag photographers are complaining that Indian models are inadequately hoochied out?
Dear Gods man! They might actually have to write decent articles to sell their magazines instead of relying on gratuitous T&A!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=za1FtdLYz08&feature=related @ 2:49
If its just a matter of “titillation” desi girls can be just as titillating as any pardesi stripper. See Priyanka in above link.
Sick and tired of seeing white back up dancers too. Maybe if they were “real” dancers it would be different.
I feel embarassed for those silly, objectified IPL cheerleaders – they are completely clueless.
@Amardeep:
BRAH WHAT’S THE DEAL I HEARD YOU’RE WRITING CHECKS YOU CAN’T CASH THAT’S NOT A GOOD QUALITY FOR AN ALPHA MALE TO HAVE
@Amardeep:
BRO I DONT KNOW WHAT IT IS, IS IT MY LOOKS? MY ABILITY TO TYPE? MOST LIKELY IT’S MY YOUTHFUL ENERGY AND SMOOTH SKIN THAT IS MAKING SM Intern FEEL INSECURE. WELL GIRLFRIEND – ALL I NEED IS TIME, A MOMENT THAT IS MINE.
Must we promote living in a bubble on the internet to achieve happiness?
As an Indian movie buff, I’ve found the trend in Bollywood movies to have blond chiquitas as the backup dancers very jarring, especially since they typically have zero rhythm; it just looks wrong and they’re distracting. For real masala pulpy entertainment, I’ve turned to Kollywood; the beach blanket blond bimbos haven’t made too many incursions there. yet.
“One of the greatest unintentional jokes of all time in Bollywood is for me the music video to “Desi Girl.†Behind Priyanka Chopra, who more than amply fits the bill, the video features some fifty blond, caucasian backup dancers.”
The movie and the song take place in Miami where Dostana was filmed. The guys there are in a Miami club where they ignore all the white girls and prefer the single “Desi Girl” present. Totally missed the boat on this one.
Well if it’s Miami, where are all the Latina mamis???
rahul gandhi recently stated that during the 26/11 attacks, north indians (via the national security guards (nsg)) were called in to deal with the terrorists, rather than mumbaikars themselves
the other ones are pretty easily available, too, if you know what you’re looking for
i think it depends on the moves (and, of course, the individual dancers). for instance, farhan akhtar has a tv show where he has dancers as regular performers on the show. they’re all blonde, and seem like OK dancers, except when they’re given desi steps – then, it’s a bit cringe-inducing. not, btw, that this is limited to blonde/white girls – even katrina kaif looks terribly awkward doing any desi dance step. on the other hand, plenty of desis themselves have no rhythm – desi moves or not.
re: the IPL cheerleaders. Whilst the reason they’re all white European/American is probably because of the penchant for fair skin in India (the first edition of the IPL had black dancers, some of whom complained of discrimination, not from the crowd, but from the Punjab Kings XI management/security setup), it also has to do with the fact that dancing directly in front of thousands of young men is probably still not a thing a “decent’ or “good” girl would do, especially in some of the outfits. Just as acting was once seen, especially dancing in movies, as something that “good” girls don’t do. Today, it’s ok to dance for the movies or videos, even suggestively, because you have distance between yourself and the crowd. Not so in a sports stadium where the guys can get very leery and lecherous. I just don’t see too many Indian women being comfortable doing that, with their families/friends watching. I think last year Chennai and Delhi had Indian cheerleaders but they were much more conservatively dressed and did more athletic/child-friendly dancing. And some of the foreign cheerleaders have complained about the behaviour of some in the crowd.
I think this is more of a “Look at us brown guys making these white girls crawl around like animals” thing than a “we like white girls better” thing.
It is all about power. Making white girls the back ups, is a way of saying “look at how far we have come.” This has to be the case because they dont hane ANY white guys in Bollywood movies. I have never seen a Indian video with a white guy all over an Indian woman. Why not? Because then the image says “Indian men cant satisfy an Indian woman like a white guy can” and the feeling of power is gone.
White people do this too. Not too many movies in Hollywood have an interracial theme where the girl is white and the guy is some other race. It is usually the other way around. This is how men operate. Dont start naming movies that do have a white woman in the interracial role because I know what they are, but there are more with white men being with another race.
Here is a list on the Huffington post about top steamy Hollywood interracial couples
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/twanna-a-hines/top-10-movies-with-steamy_b_162432.html
8 out of the 10 named have white guys with black/latino women.
They named “Guess who” as a movie and not the one with Sidney Poitier, but the one with Ashton Kutcher.
Here is a list on wikipedia on interracial romance films and most of them have white guys in the lead. The ones made by black guys have it the other way around.
I agree with shallowthinker.
Who cares if they use white girls? Movies Bollywood and Hollywood exploit of women of different colors than their audiences. I’ve seen alot of Hollywood movies with non white women solely there for the titillation of the male audience. And like Shallowthinker said, the heros of these movies are mainly white guys. I think its ridiculous to start saying Indian movie studios should stop this practice if no one is screaming that white movie studios should stop as well.
I think the market dynamics is better than ideological stance in these issues. I could care less about Thackereys. I was in an Indian store, the other day, with my religious indian buddy shopping for an idol to be put his new car!. During our friendly chat, the shop keeper happen to casually mention that the idols are made in China. My buddy was so furious that he walked out of the store immediately, never again to return to the store that sells Chinese Indian gods. I thought the market was right there as well in every sense.
Guys! Much ados about nothings. It is quite simple. Majority of the menfolk in India are still sexually deprived, repressed, constantly lusting for any source of titlation. Sushma Swaraj & the BJP banned nudity on any TV channel/print magazine in the 90s. Internet brought in porn, but the reach is still limited. Where else would the sexually starved junta turn to?
Indians have always had a fetish for the white skin. The white woman is the average Indian’s white whale – tantalizing, unattainable. It’s a complex – an average Indian male whom no white woman will sleep with, hence the yearning for any white skin, sleeping with one will be life’s achievement. The Bollywood movie is the one outlet for this craving – the white skin is made reachable, dancing mujras in front of the money-paying viewers. Hence movies cater to this. Supply-demand, as some said. What’s the big deal here? It’s a racial, cultural, historical, psychological thing. Go figure.
And lastly, all those hot, slim desis out there – how many of you are willing to wear a two piece and titlate on big screen in front of leching men and then go back home to your conservative parents, grand parents and extended families? Hence the demand for gori mem’s.