FREE/DEM Community Podcast: Azad lab Ep13_Item songs and Bollywood representation of women

Azad Lab (Free To Speak) is a show that discusses issues that are often sidelined by the mainstream but that cause much disruption and anxiety among young people like masculinity, caste etc. Episode producer Heena, Freedem Community Reporter from Sundernagri, Delhi advocates strongly for women representation in the society. She is also associated with Action India, a Women Rights organization.

 

Ep13:  Item songs and Bollywood representation of Women

"I feel the only reason of including item songs in movies is to attract moviegoers specially men and earn easy money. It is a source of easy enjoyment for most men. Other than that it serves zero purpose in the whole plot."

Host Heena points out the ever existing stereotypical representation of women in Bollywood items songs and wonders what's the point of even having them if not to show female bodies as objects. She has a discussion with a few of her friends on the same.

 

Azad Lab is one of 6 shows produced as part of the Free/Dem Community Podcasts, the online avatar of the Freedem WhatsApp Radio run by community members of Tajpur Pahadi and other urban slums in and around Delhi. The shows are built around ideas of gender equity, love, freedom of expression, human rights and justice. Through the podcasts, community members discuss as well as share their lived realities. They are produced under Ideosync's FREE/DEM initiative, which provides marginalized communities - especially women and migrants - a platform to amplify their narratives and stories using audio and video.