Two Films, Two Heroines – Just Glam Dolls

Tollywood witnessed the release of two new films at the box office yesterday. After a long time, there is some buzz and hoopla at the ticket windows and the movie buffs are also largely excited for these films.

One of them is Ravi Teja starrer Mr Bachchan and the other one is Ram Pothineni starrer Double iSmart. Both the films opened to mixed reviews and unfavourable responses but one common factor for which the films are being criticised is the objectification of heroines in the film.

Usually in commercial films, heroines will never have a substantial roles and it has been a custom in Telugu film industry. However, many heroines never objected to it and are adjusted to be the glamour attraction of these films. But of late, it is crossing all levels.

It is in fact true that the objectification of women in films have been a norm for decades. In many movies, the heroes often get some good characters but heroines are always limited for glamor shows. In both Mr Bachchan, and Double iSmart, this is repeated. Both the films showcase heroine as purely glamour attractions and it does not add anything to the story.

Mr Bachchan introduced Bhagyashree Borse as the lead heroine to Telugu cinema and on the other hand, Double iSmart featured Kavya Thapar as the heroine. Both the heroines are limited to glamour roles and in fact, the filmmakers of both the films also projected heroines as the USP.

Bhagyashree and Kavya have been given a major importance in the promotions and their content has been used to pull crowds to theatres. In reality, it did not serve any purpose. Both the heroines might have voluntarily stepped forward to take up these roles for their own reasons, but it could not contribute to the positive result of the films.

If not these two heroines, some others may pick up these projects but in the end, if it does not serve the purpose, it all boils down to criticism on poor writing and making of the film. The irony is that directors like Harish Shankar and Puri Jagannath had to bank on the glamour of heroines to pull people to cinemas. The same directors scored massive hits like Pokiri, Gabbar Singh and many other memorable films.

It is high time that Telugu cinema must overcome this phase where they stop objectifying the heroines.