You can love them. You can hate them. But you can’t ignore them. Item girls are an integral part of Bollywood and item numbers are the catalysts to any movie’s success. Rakhi Sawant, a popular item girl, had said in one of her interviews that she and her item numbers are the “tadka” of Hindi movies. And she is true to quite an extent.
Movies, these days, use item numbers to gain attention and draw in more public. Whatever, the plot of the movie, an item number is a must. Skimpily clad women gyrating to sexually explicit songs are a must have for any movie these days as they can be used as bait in the promos, do not give away the plot and most importantly, ensure a hit song for the movie.
However, being an item girl in the Hindi film industry is not an easy job too. Earlier, item songs would be performed by specific artists such as Helen, Bindu, Aruna Irani etc. But as the grooves and moves got more explicit, Hindi film actresses could be seen focusing more on acting and could hardly be seen performing “item numbers”. A brigade of young women, including Rakhi Sawant, Koena Mitra, Mumait Khan etc, danced their way into their industry clad in skimpy clothes and grooving to suggestive songs.
Needless to say, the life of an item girl is not easy. The struggle to bag a deal, unending auditions, competition and casting couch issues. The constant need to re-invent and come up with something new is an essential part of an item girl’s life. With a new item girl, some of them being foreigners, entering the industry every day there is extreme pressure on these women to constantly renew and re-invent themselves to keep getting work. Even after much struggle and hard work, only a few manage to make it big in the industry, while others fade into oblivion after one or two performances.
Casting couch is another issue that these artists face. The controversy of model Moon Das threw light on the dirt in Bollywood’s underbelly. From casting couch to prostitution, a lot of young girls who intend to become actresses or item girls are misled into these dark and murky lanes. For the remaining who survive, the journey is a constant struggle fighting criticism, competition and finding work.
Item girls have been constantly criticized and disliked for the blatant portrayal of a woman’s sexuality and they have also been accused of commoditizing a woman’s body. Recently after the Delhi rape case, there was furor among activists and protestors that such lewd song and dance sequences disillusioned youth about women and resulted in such crimes. There were strong protests against commoditizing woman’s body as an object of lust and pleas were made to do away with item numbers. However, item numbers have held their ground and these days even leading actresses of the Hindi film industry have started doing item numbers.
This is again another problem that a lot of item girls are facing in Bollywood. With leading ladies such as Katrina Kaif, Kareena Kapoor etc capturing their floor, the item girls of Bollywood are struggling to find their space. The overwhelming response to Sheila Ki Jawani and Chammak Challo stand proof to the fact that the audience prefers watching these leading ladies groove to item songs over the others.
With new challenges cropping up every day, life is not quite easy for an item girl. It may be comfortable for Malaika Arora Khan and Manyata Dutt, but for the lesser privileged it is a new fight every day.
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