At a recent discussion, the filmmaker said no one objected when Amitabh Bachchan, playing a cop, questioned ‘whom to punish’, but Bollywood can’t normalise harassment anymore
Niharika Lal (BOMBAY TIMES; October 9, 2018)

Imtiaz Ali was in Delhi on Saturday to discuss Bollywood, and one of the things he spoke about was Hindi cinema’s portrayal of ‘eve-teasing’. The director was holding a session at the India Global Summit and explained how Bollywood, which once normalised harassment in films, can’t do the same now because ‘society has changed’.

‘LOGON KA SENTIMENT YEHI THA KI LADKI NE CHHOTE KAPDE PEHNE HAIN TOH KOI EVE-TEASING KAREGA’
In reply to a question about changes in the dynamics of storytelling in the last 20 years, Imtiaz said, “I will give an example (from the 1980 film Dostana). The situation is that the heroine (Zeenat Aman), who is really beautiful, approaches the hero, who is a police officer, and tells him, ‘eve-teasing ho gayi mere saath’. Toh jo hero hai, woh ussko pakadte hain jisne eve-teasing ki hai, lekin woh gaana gaane lagte hain. And the lyrics of the song are, ‘Bahut khoobsoorat jawan ek ladki, sadak par akeli chali ja rahi thi, fakat naam ko usne pahene the kapde, Ajanta ki murat nazar aa rahi thi. Koi diljala uss se takra gaya, mere doston tum karo faisla, khata kiski hai, kisko de hum sazaa’.”

Imtiaz added, “The policeman is asking, ‘kis ko de hum sazaa?’ Amitabh Bachchan was the hero, and it was a hit movie. When I was watching the film in the theatre, not even a single person present thought that it was wrong. Logon ka sentiment yehi tha ki iss ladki ne chhote kapde pehne hain, toh zahir hai koi na koi eve-teasing karega. Toh galti ladke ki nahi hai. Yeh 25 saal pehle ki baat hogi. Now, just 10 years ago, there was a film, Jab We Met, which was my film, in which there’s a scene where a guy helps Geet (Kareena Kapoor) board a train. Once she is inside the train, she says, ‘Ab toh mera haath chhod do, train mein aa chuki hoon main. Itni bhi sundar nahi hoon main’. So obviously, times have changed. I am not criticising Amitabh Bachchan’s film, I’m just saying that an idea becomes a hit if it is a popular sentiment of the time. The idea then stays there, and affects the audience’s mentality.”