Bollywood has discovered a completely new avenue, just a few months back CGI had revolutionized the industry with a number of horror and action movies being released. Many years back, even the slightest hint of passion or sex shown in films made it very awkward to actually watch the movie with family and friends.
Today, producers are a bit more comfortable portraying sex in movies and the audience is much more receptive, and there are many films that are based on sexuality.
The Erstwhile Era
Although it may be difficult to believe, Sexuality and love in Bollywood is nothing new, it is just that it has been portrayed in different films at various levels of subtlety. Think way back to the 1970’s, the film Mughal E Azam, was released was about the forbidden romance between a courtesan and a king. Anarkali would always seduce Salim with her dancing and we all know what went on behind closed doors. The film in not raunchy but is probably the first film that was about love and romance.
In the mean time, directors had to rack their brains about how subtle they could be with sex in their films till the release of Fire. This film was a huge subject of controversy but nevertheless encouraged other films makers to be a bit bolder with their portrayals of sex.
Moving onto current times, many of the films show the dances as very obvious in the message that they are trying to get across. The character Paro in the film Dev D had established the boundaries and the liberty of sex, her character is seen stripping her clothes off for her boyfriend, but at eh same tie she is sleeping around with her neighborhood. In the past years we have seen women taking on bolder roles- but these were only characters and a few scenes that were added to the films.
Zooming Into The Present
Currently there are many movies that are based on sex in popular cinema. The films of yesteryear have created space for the evolution of sexual nature of the characters. Films like The Dirty Picture, Kamasutra and Mastram. These are three films that took how Bollywood portrays and uses sexuality to a whole new level.
So at one point in time, sexuality and love was very romantic with the audience assuming what would happen next, but today sex in films is a bit more “in your face and obvious.”
