Ranbir Kapoor’s latest film Animal became a box office hit, but it also turned out to be the most controversial film of the year. Since its release, the film has faced criticism for its portrayal of alpha males and toxic masculinity. Javed Akhtar, speaking at the Ajanta-Ellora International Film Festival (AIFF), expressed concern about the film’s success, citing it as dangerous. However, he also pointed to the popularity of the song ‘Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai’, which was a part of the 1993 film Khalnayak, and urged the audience to choose content wisely.
He said, “Log mujhe bolne lage hai ki ‘Saab aaj-kal kaise gaane hone lage hai’. Gaane toh 6-7 aadmi mil ke banate hai. Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai, ek aadmi ne likha, do aadmi ne compose kiya, 2 ladkiyon ne dance kiya, ek cameraman ne shoot kiya. Yeh 8-10 log thodi problem hai. Problem yeh hai ki yeh gaana samaj mein superhit ho gaya tha. Yeh crore logon ko aacha laga tha. Yeh hume darr lagta hai. (People started telling me, ‘Sir, what kind of songs are being made these days?’ Songs are created by 6-7 individuals. For Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai, one person wrote it, two people composed it, two girls danced to it, and one cameraman shot it. These 8-10 people are not a problem. The problem is that this song became a superhit and was liked by crores of people. This scares us.)”
He said that the audience plays a crucial role and blaming just the filmmakers for making a particular kind of content isn’t wise. “Viewers should take responsibility for the films they choose to watch,” he said.
Choli Ke Peeche, written by Anand Bakshi and composed by Laxmikant-Pyarelal, was sung by Alka Yagnik and Ila Arun, and was filmed on Madhuri Dixit and Neena Gupta. The song gained popularity but stirred controversy due to its suggestive content, sparking debates about the portrayal of women in cinema.
In an earlier interview, director Subhash Ghai told PTI, “My closest memory of Khalnayak is when people labelled Choli ke Peeche as vulgar. It was a tragedy for me… a major shock. We treated it as a folk song and presented it in an artistic way. But when the film was released, there were protests.”
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