![Happy birthday, Dibakar Banerjee: The Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar director reflects on the evolution of rape in Bollywood; says, 'Rape scenes were used as tropes to titillate the sexually deprived male of India' [EXCLUSIVE]](https://st1.bollywoodlife.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/Dibakar_BBanerjee_Bithday_Bollywood_Rape_Scenes_Exclusive_Interview.jpg "Happy birthday, Dibakar Banerjee: The Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar director reflects on the evolution of rape in Bollywood; says, 'Rape scenes were used as tropes to titillate the sexually deprived male of India' [EXCLUSIVE]")
It's Dibakar Banerjee's birthday. The avant-garde filmmaker, who turns 52 today, 21st June, has seen many a milestone in his illustrious career so far with films like Khosla Ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, Love Sex Aur Dhokha, Shanghai, Detective Byomkesh Bakshy and Titli, not only receiving the adulation of critics, but also going on to achieve cult status amongst cinephiles. And perhaps the singular-defining aspect that makes Dibakar Banerjee's movies stand out is his smart, revolutionary approach to filmmaking, backed by a confidence and conviction to disrupt norms and tread on the unbeaten path – an approach that was again reflected in an exclusive interview BollywoodLife conducted with him, where the Director boldly spoke about how rape scenes in Hindi movies were earlier used to titillate the audience and how and why they've evolved over time.
Touching upon the need to view violence as a species, Dibakar Banerjee said, “I feel that human society craves for some amount of violence – that's left over from our revolutionary accidents; lakhs of years ago when we had to venture out and and kill animals for food ourselves, nature had no option but to add an attraction toward violence in us. Now someone kills those animals for us in a factory, but that genetic bloodlust remains. If you feed it, you'll want it, if you don't, it wouldn't become a craving as we can seek similar thrills from sports, too. The thing about rape that specifically isolates it is that someone has or feels that he has that power to not even acknowledge you as a person, but rather, view you as an object, and once it's over, it's something the victim can never totally recover from. I think that's where that scene (the sexual molestation of Parineeti Chopra in Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar and it's aftermath) came from in mine and Varun (cowriter Varun Grover)'s minds.”
There was a time when Bollywood actually shot rape scenes with the words “rape scene #1”, “rape scene #2” and so on written on the clapboard. Elaborating on how the industry had evolved and sensitised itself to this ghastly abomination, he added, “I don't think that happens anymore (people calling it 'rape scene' or such words being written on the clapboard)... I don't think that happens at all. But there are other kinds of gloating that happen by the way of an item number or graphic violence. However, earlier, rape scenes were only put in a movie to titillate the audience, and even the audience knew that it wasn't actually rape that was happening on screen. There was a pact between the film and audience to play rape-rape. It was a game of imagination, even the audience knew it – be it Sadashiv Amrapurkar or Shakti Kapoor, these were experienced actors who were given such dialogues that nobody says in real life... 'Chillao...aur chillao (scream...scream all you want),' no one says this in real life when they go to rape. So, these scenes were, I think, used as tropes to titillate the sexually deprived male of India.”
Reflecting on why such scenes died out from our movies, Dibakar concluded, “Our traditions have loosened up over the years, illogical talk of shaadi (marriage) and sati savitri (purity of women) have begun to stink so much that people have begun to realise how nonsensical they sound. And people have also become sexually free – the average 20-22 year old male is no longer waiting till marriage to have sex. People have become freer now. And basically, men and women are the same – a few physiological differences are there, which are natural, everything else is conditioned. So, even directors know now that people won't believe those scenes that were shown before.”
Saying it like it is and using his power and influence responsibily to bring about positive change through his work – that's Dibakar Banerjee for you. Happy birthday, sir, and keep doing the great work you've been adept at till now.
About the Author
Russel D'Silva
Senior sub-editor, film critic, trade analyst, anchor, host of 'Masterclass' and 'Throwback Tadka' at BollywoodLife
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