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.
thanks for the link to the song deep. first time i heard it and it’s a fun song, then i sawthe related vid. the kids are totally rocking it. yenjioy. haf a good veekend.
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.
Yep, even for sex
I’ve seen alot of Hollywood movies with non white women solely there for the titillation of the male audience. No there are non white people (not just women) in Hollywood movies usually for political correctness, not sexual objectification. In Bollywood movies there are just white women and ocassionaly a white man but he’s usually portrayed negatively. If Indian men wanted to see white flesh so badly as #50 claims, they could just watch a Hollywood movie, do bollywood filmmakers not understand that?
@ Jenna ; Not everyone understands English in India and very few can actually understand English movie in which actors speak with American accent. Also, there are lot of Asian women depicted as sex objects in Hollywood and in music videos.
People..stop over analyzing. It is about money, about increasing market share by targeting non-white population and NRIS around the World by having a few white girls in the background. More and more South Americans will show up in Indian movies, and Indian movie-makers can get financing from Hollywood.
Not everyone understands English in India and very few can actually understand English movie in which actors speak with American accent.
Hmm, true, but subtitles do exist… porn is also a nice alternative.
Also, there are lot of Asian women depicted as sex objects in Hollywood and in music videos No, there aren’t. The only Asian woman I see in Hollywood that would come close to being a sex object is Padma Lakshmi. Unless you’re talking about e. Asian women, they’re only depicted as hypersexual in porn, not mainstream media.
an evolutionary geneticist friend of mine, of white european origin, likes to point out to people that the term “caucasian” is about as anachronistic as “nergoid” or “mongoloid.” why don’t people just say white or european instead?
This is what happens when grown men are scared shitless of the opposite sex and try to use politics to turn their delusions of grandeur into reality. I hate these pussies for making Indian men look like we need to chain up our women and protect them from something. Ironically they are delusional and insular enough to think they represent something Indians should be proud of. In reality they are the quintessential opposite of any such notion.
Goris in skimpy clothes, gyrating and pouting – these go back a long way in Bollywood (remember Helen and Nadira?). It’s a reverse, sexist exotification if you like – just as India appears full of snake charmers and elephants and evil priests in Indiana Jones. They are irrelevant to the story (white people are irrelevant to a story, what?!) and just add to the color. But what is new is that Raj Thackeray is suggesting that Indian junior artistes are quite capable of doing their own vulgar dancing, so they should get the jobs. Actually, this might even help change the stereotyping of western women who, thanks to Bollywood, Hollywood and Baywatch (a deadly visual assault – although I love Bollywood), are seen as little more than crude, vulgar semi-prostitutes who will happily drop their clothes for a dollar. Blonde hair isn’t considered particularly beautiful in India (it’s seen as weird), rather the reason why Indian men throw themselves (embarrassingly) at Russian/Slavic women or European tourists is because the association is that blonde-gori=promiscuous, and you don’t have to marry her.
I have noticed this trend too – it’s weird seeing non-Indians in Indian movies. I think it comes from the inferiority complex Indians have when it comes to white people. When I watch a some hero being ogled my a white chick in some dance scene, it makes me feel like they are saying,”See, we Indians are accepted by white people, even lusted after by white people.” It’s so stupid. The new class of Indian actresses and dancers are way hot and the international audiences love hot Indian chicks, so they should get rid of all the white girls. I am not a huge fan of Indian movies but the only part I really like about them is that I might get a glimpse of some smokin’ desi girl in a dance scene or bit part. You know the kind I am talking about – she shows up in one scene and is generally a lot better looking than the heroine. If she’s lucky she might become a star herself and that’s part of the fun! Ever gone to your Indian movie-obsessed cousin’s house and been forced to watch some movie just to catch Ash Rai’s first bit part? With all these white chicks, where are the next generation of Indian actresses going to come from? On another note, the thing about the backup dancers being backpackers. Hilarious. Imagine going to a foreign country to explore and take in the culture of that country and getting to even be in a film in that country!! Unbelievable! It would be like me coming back from China and saying to my friends,”Yeah, China was great. Saw the Great Wall, ate Chinese food, even acted a bit in a Cantonese flick.” The whole world should know about this! Visit India and get to be in a movie! Tourism would explode in India!
i enjoyed the wet red sari scene
Well, if the white girl’s have lollopops, it wouldn’t surprise me if they’re really from Shanghai.
Not I, Shilpa. As a feminist male, I make sure to depant such women.
56 · razib on March 19, 2010 9:31 PM · Direct link an evolutionary geneticist friend of mine, of white european origin, likes to point out to people that the term “caucasian” is about as anachronistic as “nergoid” or “mongoloid.” why don’t people just say white or european instead?
I agree with a little of what you said, and I disagree as well. I agree that “Caucasian” is anachronistic like “Cro-Magnon”, “Indo-Germanic”, and “Martial Races.” After all, Scandinavians, Middle Easterners, to Bengalis are all Caucasian. Even Bal Thackeray is Caucasian, but not white.
You mention: “why don’t people just say white or european instead?” Because Western Kazakhstan is in Europe. Here’s a pic of Kazakhs, and “NO”, they don’t look like Borat: http://www.le.ac.uk/geology/wdc2/Kazakh%20ladies.jpg
I think that the most precise, least confusing term to use to people who resemble Conan O’Brien is “white”.
they probably don’t even need a pin to stick em
in all seriousness, the existence of cocs (chicks of color) in the background has long been evidence of white privilege. the lead singer is white and the background chicks are black. Madonna, Gwen Stefani, have all been deconstructed along these lines. i recall one feminist poets who broke every stanza of her poem with a “and the colored girls say..”
so now the roles are reversed but somehow this is evidence of white supremacy, not brown. you can’t win.
I have noticed this trend too – it’s weird seeing non-Indians in Indian movies. I think it comes from the inferiority complex Indians have when it comes to white people.
When you see James Bond bedding foreign women do you put it down to the inferiority complex white people have when it comes to black/brown/yellow people ?
The article reveals a paternalistic attitude. Does the Indian public not have the right to decide what they want to watch just as you decide what you read – regardless of race of author ?
Ack, why does it need to be pointed out to you people again and again that ‘European’ is not a substitute for ‘white’? There are scores of brown and black Europeans.
Globalization is so last century. But, I see a great opportunity for a trade off.. Our telemarketers can become our bollywood extras and their bollywood extras can become their telemarketers. Hurray! Everyone wins!
lime paste from the paan dabba would do in a pinch 😉
[[Unless you’re talking about e. Asian women, they’re only depicted as hypersexual in porn, not mainstream media.]]
In Utah the largest spender on porn, porn is mainstream media.
Ill save you some therapy buddy. What if.. just possibly.. if you can try to imagine (and its going to be tough) – you DIDNT have an inferiority complex? Wouldnt that be something? How would feel about it then?
in this case I can’t help but hope that the results of this article might actually be some constructive reevaluation of the Indian diasporic “intelligentsia” obsession on the Bollywood obsession with gori backup dancers.
A lot of you are just clueless about the entertainment business. folks entertainment is a bottom line bloodsport. The tightest ass wins. Syma I guarantee you are not as good looking as you think you are.
What is the PC view for this?
When it was lighter shaded Indian men and women dances edging out the browner shaded Indian men and women, then the PC view was to support the darker shaded Indian men and women and stand against shadism.
Now here what would be the PC view? Is it to be supportive of white backup dancers and be against prejudice against white foreigners in Bollywood, or is the correct PC view to take like the one above and support the brown Indian men and women back up dancers and stand against prejudice against brown and preference for white skin?
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.â€
out of curiosity.
what’s a pinko? is that someone who of light reddish hue that goes to a kinkos?
anyway, this is what I predict happening, westerners called it “bombay” so we started calling it bombay. now westerners are trying to show how good they are and call it ‘mumbai’ specifically, soon indians will think “hmm? they’re doing it, so it must be ok” and start calling it mumbai irrespective of language. cities should just have a name, not an english name or a this name or a that name.
This whole debate about skin color is getting so old. I’m Afghan but we don’t dwell on skin color, we seem obsessed with ethnicity. SepiaMutiny is mostly an Indian publication, failing to capture the full pan-South Asian diasporic experience in my opinion. Indian women are more conservative generally speaking. However, from my subjective experience “classic Indian beauties” tend to be on the slightly plump side. Eating disorders are more prevalent among now and South Asian celebrities are conforming to Western notions of beauty.
Things will never change. Mumbai presents fantasy. Colonialism or not, many Indians prefer white women or those with fair and buttery complexions.
Most Northern Indians are Caucasians and distantly related to modern peoples of European ancestry. South Asians are darker in complexion though. I’m a Muslim and when I’ve participated in a puja, I noticed some of the goddesses are portrayed with fine features and fair skin complexions.
I’m gay and when I’ve dated Indian guys, many are obsessed with whiteness or liked me because culturally I’m “Persian” and therefore deemed desirable. I’ve dated insecure closeted Brahmins to low caste Gujaratis. But the obsession with whiteness and insecurity seems apparent even among queer Desis. Occasionally we see this in the Islamophobia meets Hindutva on this website from the occasional poster.
grow up. Indians are obessed with wanting to be whiter
@58 Sharmistra
Actually, Helen is of Indian origin. Nadira, according to Wikipedia, was “Baghdadi Jews,” which were Indian Jews descended from Middle Eastern immigrants.
Valmiki (#3 and #9) is Prema. Mustafa (#6, #76, and #77) is Gustavo. And is #75 really HMF? Wasn’t he banned?
It does seem old fashioned and a whole lot worse to be thinking that white or black skinned people shouldn’t be appearing in Bollywood movies. Has Raj Thackeray NEVER travelled abroad and encountered the countless Indians living and working in the US and Europe? Maybe he even has a relative or two among them? Perhaps too, he hasn’t seen any Indian faces on film and TV in those countries?
Taken to its logical conclusion, Thackeray’s diktat would have only Indians appearing in Bollywood and Indian cinema, whites only on US and UK screens, and blacks in African cinema. Not many democracies in this day and age would even consider pumping out such racist dogma. It is possible that Thackeray has a vision of the Indian diaspora returning ‘home’ “where they belong” and shutting Bharat into lockdown by repelling all boarders.
” Not many democracies in this day and age would even consider pumping out such racist dogma.”
http://www.rollcall.com/news/44438-1.html?ET=rollcall:e7035:80069656a:&st=email
Haven’t recently heard of any Chief Minister/State Official like Thackeray, or a Governor/Mayor in a western democracy using thugs and henchmen to storm in, halting production, with the demand that only whites must be allowed to work in Hollywood or in Europe’s film industry.
Right-wing, xenophobic rhetoric isn’t something alien to western democracies, though…what about the recent upsurge of right-wing parties in France, UK, and Italy, for example? The tea-partiers are a marginal movement within the US that has whipped people into frenzies that betray the racial undertones of the last presidential election run by the Republicans.
@79 inothernews: True, but if you look at the way in which Helen and Nadirah were presented on screen, it was usually as a vampish foreigner (or foreign wanna-be like a westernized Anglo-Indian, for foreign women are all vamps, right?) doing foreign dances like cabaret, wearing tight skimpy dresses with slits up to the thighs. Indian women in saris or salwar-kameezes, drenched in monsoon rain and revealing every part of their body, were presented as “sensuous” ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6T2mVXFPT8 ) or playful ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88B55qarF28 ), but western-style “cabaret” dancing like Helen and Nadirah’s was meant to be titillating and vulgar ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bua_QY1awj8 ), even though it was all terrific fun for all of us, watching as kids. Not that I think that Bollywood thinks too deeply about the way in which they use white women or men; it’s mainly about filling the scene with as much color and exotica as the producers/directors think will attract the non-travelled-abroad public to the show. In the end, it’s all tamasha, nautanki, and yes, a lot of the tamasha is sexist, racist (especially against blacks), sometimes extremely hilarious ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH6CQzf_bnU )and sometimes just cringe-inducing ( http://tinyurl.com/yzorraw ). Again, I’m intrigued that unlike many of their rightwing counterparts, the Thackeray triumvirate aren’t calling for an end to the vulgar dancing, they just want Indian artistes to be doing the vulgar dances instead of foreign women.
indie princess, that first line you wrote could apply to the Thackerays, Shiv Sena , RSS and the rest of the hard right extremist political parties in India.
Yes, America and Europe have their racists , just like in India. My points correspond to the topic of this blog. It would be interesting to hear your views on Raj Thackeray and his wanting to ban white skins and foreigners from having roles in Indian films?
Bullshit. I’m a gay Indian and I have never experienced this. Just because you dated some queen with inferiority issues doesn’t mean we all have.
delurker,
I stated “some” queer Desis. Sepia Mutiny has more issues about skin color than I could care for. It is like going on online Afghan forums where Pushtuns talk smack about Hazara, Uzbek, and Tajik Afghans.
So you have uneducated mobs in Mumbai threatening the studios there because they have back-up Russian dancers in the scene of Desi Girl. That song was crap like much of contemporary Indian Bollywood cinema. Pakistan’s Lollywood is making more quality films with better song writing that is less cheesy.
“so now the roles are reversed but somehow this is evidence of white supremacy, not brown. you can’t win.”
The roles aren’t reversed. Look under the surface.
The implication is “look this indian guy is so hot, he can even get white girls”
The existence of white privilege isn’t an artifact of who dances with who in movies…. who dances with who in movies is a by-product of which direction the privilege flows.
And even if an indian man with white dancers doesn’t “prove” white priv. exists, it certainly doesn’t mean that it doesn’t exist.
The implication is “look this indian guy is so hot, he can even get white girls”
As opposed to the normal male fantasy of “I can get any woman I want, the more exotic the better…” ?
And you know this… how ?
They bring in foreign dancers because they think whites are better looking. It doesn’t need to be more complicated than that.
Yeah there are some issues around exotification of foreigners, greater willigness to dress revealingly, inferiority complex to the West etc, but……………
1.) You don’t see them bringing in Mexican or black or Asian women, do you? I presume all those women are exotic/foreign looking and willing to dress revealingly, but somehow those girls are bypassed for Russians. Hmmm…………….. 2.) India is in a decades long rivalry with China and, I suppose, are impressed with their economic/military strength. How many of those dancers are Chinese though? Or Japanese? How, exactly, are Russians and British any different?
3.) Most of the dances don’t involve anything too lewd anyway, but they still bring in foreigners for the milder stuff too. 4.) Even the Bollywood Indians are whitened/caucasianed by makeup artists. In real life, a lot of these guys are pretty ethnic looking.
Let’s face it. Indian movie goers don’t like their color and wish they were white or married to white. Everything else is ancillary. Heck, they would even take white over a light skinned Indian. I’m not saying you don’t have other factors here, but the skin color thing is the elephant in the room.
Implicit in all these foreigner-heavy dance scenes is the suggestion that Indians, even fair Indians, just don’t cut it. So let’s bring in pretty foreigner so that we may avert our eyes from the brown reflection we see in the mirror.
Indians aren’t the only ones doing this stuff by the way. In Spanish shows aimed at Latino-Americans, all the characters seem to be white too.
“When you see James Bond bedding foreign women do you put it down to the inferiority complex white people have when it comes to black/brown/yellow people ?“
No, it’s mostly to show white males dominion over just about anything, now that we’re analyzing. Most of the women he ‘beds’ are white anyways. to lots of indian males, white women are trophies especially if they’re blond.
“As opposed to the normal male fantasy of “I can get any woman I want, the more exotic the better…” ?” Black women are ‘exotic’ too in India, why aren’t they portrayed as such? I really doubt most Indian males fantasize about them, although I’m sure there are some, the only ‘exotic’ women in bollywood are white.
“Fair and Lovely” and all the other popular skin lightening products on the shelves up and down India – now there is a social and health cause challenge for Indian women to take on! As well as getting rid of skin lighteners for the various health risks they pose (they’re toxic, some have lead, they cause many health and skin problems including kidney disease), they could deal a death blow to Bollywood’s preoccupation with having predominantly light skinned stars. Youtube shows Shah Rukh Khan’s disastrous adverts for a skin lightning company. Crude and nasty. He lost a lot of cred outside of India with that venture.
No point in Raj Thackeray blaming production and audience desire for ever more lighter skinned women on screen unless there is a grass roots effort to see Bollywood having pride in reflecting the colour of the mass of the population.
The Thackerays schtick has always been to defend the Marathi Manoos. They show their pro Marathi opinion with open xenophobia and virulent anti South indians in the 1960s and 1970s, anti north Indians now, anti-foreigners (doesn’t matter to them if they are black, white, green red, grey) in the Hindi movie industry in Mumbai. I see they also had an anti-Australian stance in IPL cricket. Any jobs visibly done by non-marathis in Mumbai is game for them to politicise and virulently and crudely oppose to show to their voting bloc that they are pro-marathis. So if you want to find their next schtick look for clues on which visible jobs are not being done by Marathis in Mumbai and they will target it next.
Really?
1. You really belive that minorities are only in hollywood because of political correctness and not because movies should represent the actual make up of america? If that was so..youd see alot more minority males in leading roles in tv and movies and you don’t.
2. Your second statement about how indian people just objectify white women while America would never do such a thing? Really? Have you looked at a casting call lately? Here is a brief run down. Protagonist: white male, age 20-30 etc etc. Heroine: Female of any race, age 20-30 etc etc.
Hollywood objectifies minority women as much as Bollywood does if not more. Objectification is a sad but prevalent part of all modern visual media. I think its absurd to say Hollywood isnt flawed and Bollywood is because of who they objectify. As casting directors have said time and time again, they put people in movies that will get ticket sales. And a big part of ticket sales are men of all races. If ticket sales entail putting white girls in bollywood movies or hot asian american, latina american , or african american women in hollywood movies, they will do that.
.
Using this logic any white dude that loves asian women asctually hates being white and wishes they were asian or at least married to asian.
Just saying. If it works one way it works the other.
, Sorry this statement just really riles me up especially after seeing Jake Gyllenhaal get the role of the Prince of Persia over a guy of persian heritage. According to IMDB the other people up for the role were Orlando Bloom and Zac Efron. Also Gemma Arterton was chosen to be Tamina a character that was supposed to be an Indian Princess.
Or if this wasnt enough how about the movie “The Last Airbender” where all of the asian/minority main characters were replaced by white people much to the chagrin of the series creator.
Or how about the movie “21” where the main character who was supposed to be asian was replaced by Jim Sturgess.
The idea that minorities are used in hollywood because its PC is ridiculous. If anything they are still struggling to be taken seriously in roles where race of the main character is the same as theirs. If you notice however Hollywood has no problem putting minorites in the roles of sidekicks or background players or in the case of “Prince of Persia” where an indian actress was cast but as Princess Tamina’s attendant
“1. You really belive that minorities are only in hollywood because of political correctness and not because movies should represent the actual make up of america? If that was so..youd see alot more minority males in leading roles in tv and movies and you don’t.”
Okay, you either love complaining or haven’t seen many movies.
“Hollywood objectifies minority women as much as Bollywood does if not more. “
Sure, but Hollywood objectifies white, asian, Indian, black, latina women AS well as men. Bollywood just objectifies white women, spec. blonde ones. When do you see a black woman or white guy in bollywood, maybe once or twice if ever?
“ The idea that minorities are used in hollywood because its PC is ridiculous” No it’s not. It’s obvious why most movies would have white people as lead roles-they dominate the industry- but why not just make the entire cast white? If minority actors struggle so much, why do we see at least one in almost every movie/tv show? As for non white characters being replaced by white ones, was race the sole reason or was it something else? I’m sure the opposite has happened too.
I am surprised that no one has brought up the point that portraying White women in this way upholds the racist stereotype of White women being shameless, sex-crazy and easy (which is obviously not true). With the rising number of rapes of White women in India, the use of White women in Bollywood movies should be banned.
Most white guys are not obsessed with Asian women to a point where a high % of dancers are Asian-American.
Sagar. When men of one race find women of another attractive, it makes $$$ financial sense to emphasize their sexuality. Indians have a major league inferiority complex about their color and feel they are ugly, so it’s only natural to portray whites as the ideal fantasy women.