Radhika Apte has spoken about how Bollywood romances influenced the way many people grew up looking at love and desire. A self-confessed Shah Rukh Khan fan, Radhika said she was surprised and even unsettled when she went back to some of the older films she once enjoyed and noticed how often chasing a woman or ignoring her refusal was shown as romance.
The male gaze in Bollywood’s golden era
Radhika recently spoke to News18 about how these portrayals influenced the way she understood romance while growing up. Looking back at some of the films she once enjoyed, she said scenes that were once seen as romantic now feel uncomfortable, especially when a woman’s refusal is treated as part of the chase.
“Being tied and our pallu being taken off were the dreams we used to get as teenagers. How scary is that,” she said. “No offence… I’m a huge Shah Rukh fan, but when I revisited some of the old films I used to like, I was really taken aback. Because when a woman says no, it’s never taken as no. Chasing a woman was romance. That’s what we wanted at that time, and it was really shocking” .
The conversation then moved beyond Shah Rukh Khan’s films. Shakun, who has directed a segment in Lust Stories 3, spoke about how desire was portrayed in older Hindi films. He brought up Raj Kapoor’s Mera Naam Joker (1970) and Ram Teri Ganga Maili (1985), pointing out that while Raj was open to exploring desire, those stories were still largely told from a male point of view.
Radhika agreed with Shakun but pointed out that the problem also lies in how women were shown on screen. She said they were often sexualised while also being expected to fit into a narrow idea of morality and goodness.
“But even at that time, the gaze was always male. And the women were sexualized,” she argued. “You’re putting that element down and making jokes at its expense anyway. That’s the problem — the sexualisation of women, and then by saying, ‘Don’t sexualize them’, and then calling them devi, and putting them on some pedestal of morality that you approve of. I find that problematic” .
About Lust Stories 3
Radhika Apte returned to Netflix India with Lust Stories 3, which also stars Konkona Sen Sharma, Vijay Varma and Abhishek Banerjee. The anthology brings together four filmmakers, with Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao, Shakun Batra and Vishal Bhardwaj directing the stories. The ensemble cast also includes Aditi Rao Hydari, Radhika Madan, Sana Thampi, Siddharth, Ali Fazal and Gurfateh Pirzada.