Dear Katrina,
Your recent trailer for Thugs of Hindostan, with your oiled flat fit belly and your long toned legs and a low-cut blouse really made the screen focus shiver from the story to marvel over what beauty a woman’s body can hold.
You have time and again made us believe the magnetism that follows after we have gawked over your abs in Kala Chashma over our dinner table or how graceful can one look doing an Arabic dance in the sand in Mashallah.
But when they see you, is finesse and grace all they see when you’re dancing in an item number?
Maybe not.
A Still From Sheila Ki Jawani
Remember this line from Sheila Ki Jawani?
“Paisa gaadi Mehanga ghar
I need a man who can give me all that”
Remember this line from Chikni Chameli?
“Pyaar se paros doongi toot le zaraa
Yeh toh trailer hai poori filam dikhane aayi”
When we were humming along with Chikni Chameli and Sheila Ki Jawani, what we didn’t realise is that we are humming along with a girl who’s offering her body as a free invitation to anyone willing to buy it.
A still from Chikni Chameli
I believe you to be an influence over millions and rightfully so. But along with you, comes the inspiration and idealization of objectifying their body like you. Making a business out of women’s body has been on the rise since a long time in Bollywood, and it will only go further up, until and unless people like you realise that girls out there are looking up to you and this status of yours comes with a responsibility. A responsibility to abide by what is right, respectful and what is just pure money minting business.
Making money out of people objectifying women’s body is only going up because people like you are letting it.
And the recent trailer and the songs of Thugs of Hindostan, makes me question the role of established actresses like yourself in setting the status of women in Bollywood all the more.
Does it not matter how you show your skin, as long as it’s showing and it’s beautiful? Does objectification have to be a vital part of being an actress even when somebody is as established as you are?
A Still From Zara Zara Touch Me
Going by the trickle down effect that runs in India, don’t you think for a young actress hesitating to lose out on her respect for a cheaply worded song would think “If Katrina Kaif does it, so should I!”
Thus, I ask, when you’re in a position to say NO, what makes you say YES to an item number that objectifies women? Do you not feel responsible for being in a position when a number of young aspirational girls look up to you?
Feministaa is your happy space, where you will get your daily dose of motivation!
