Is Bollywood racist?

There are plenty of films where Blacks are shown as villains or drug peddlers, tribals are caricatured or shown as man eaters.

Stars often had to change their name to get work here.

Success of South stars is resented with even photographers and critics mocking their accent, voice or skin colour, body shape or eyes. Male actors from South get less chances or small roles, or no due at all even if they give hits like Saagar, Chachi 420 or Ek Duje Ke Liye.

Actors from Northeast are hardly seen in BW. Danny Denzogpa was once told he was only good to play watchman with 'those looks', mocked for his Mongoloid features. Diljit, Gulzar, Manjot Singh (Oye lucky lucky oye actor), Jagjit Singh were asked to get rid of their turban or cut their hair for better prospects in industry.

Is Bollywood, the media, critics, casting agency, photographer cotetie racist? Almost all actors have had their skin lightened as well.

It is simply a reflection of our society. Most of what you mentioned is frequently observed in real life as well.

Racist no....shallow yes......like adrak said....they are businessmen and are driven by profits and hence try to bring what the public would watch.....

BW is not a tool for social change....they never were ...they never will be...I don't even understand why they are dragged there when they are not the ones who made promises and got elected to serve the public.....their business is to entertain and make money...public has the full right to not buy their products....yes there are exceptions but exceptions do not make the rule...

Regarding why more Sardars or North easterners are not cast....well if the movie is about a Bihari...they can't cast a Sardar in there....right.....same goes for the accent....if someone is making a Tamil movie....they would prefer someone speaking Tamil well...they wouldn't want someone from UP or Delhi to butcher Tamil...same goes for other languages..

Any ways....most of the top BW actresses are from South and they are gorgeous...the men maybe are not accepted so much because the difference shows much more there....I don't know...I am thinking it could be one of the reasons...that south Indian men don't fit in that mould....but they are being accepted more and more now...

Originally posted by: blue-ice.1

Racist no....shallow yes......like adrak said....they are businessmen and are driven by profits and hence try to bring what the public would watch.....

BW is not a tool for social change....they never were ...they never will be...I don't even understand why they are dragged there when they are not the ones who made promises and got elected to serve the public.....their business is to entertain and make money...public has the full right to not buy their products....yes there are exceptions but exceptions do not make the rule...

Regarding why more Sardars or North easterners are not cast....well if the movie is about a Bihari...they can't cast a Sardar in there....right.....same goes for the accent....if someone is making a Tamil movie....they would prefer someone speaking Tamil well...they wouldn't want someone from UP or Delhi to butcher Tamil...same goes for other languages..

Any ways....most of the top BW actresses are from South and they are gorgeous...the men maybe are not accepted so much because the difference shows much more there....I don't know...I am thinking it could be one of the reasons...that south Indian men don't fit in that mould....but they are being accepted more and more now...

Ya u r right..

Hope we can see a change now..Definitely audience is more accepting..acceptance was there even earlier..

Else movies of Kamal Haasan, Rajnikant, Venkatesh, Nagarjun, Arvind Swamy, Prabhas, Dhanush wouldn't have been hits.

So either the industry doesnt want to work with them..or they themselves r more interested in south.

Edit: autocorrect gone crazy..corrected the nsmes😊

The success of Katrina in Bollywood despite never learning acting is pure example of how much Bollywood audience is obsessed with white skin, especially for actresses.

Bollywood is "racist" because audience are. For male actors, we still have Ajay Devgn or Prabhas. But even they lighten their skins alot with make-up before shooting any movie.

When casting for a role which specifically requires a dark-skinned actor, they instead go with brownface.

Racism towards north-east people is not hidden from anyone and is again not just in Bollywood.

As for Sardars, I don't think we can do anything about it. Actors are usually required or expected to play a variety of roles and wearing a turban limits that. Bollywood targets a wider audience more than just Punjab.

Although I do think that the roles which specifically require them, should be given to them instead of any actor just wearing a turban for that role.

I agree but do all actors not deserve fair opportunities?

I have never seen any actor from Northeast doing normal roles in Bollywood. Danny is from Sikkim and he mostly played villain with exception of few films where he was a friendly sidekick. He was told to his face that he looks like a watchman (alluding to Gorkhas who often worked as security guards).

It is strange how Bollywood could not find a single talented actor from NE even to make Mary Kom biopic.

I think any sardar actor like Diljit etc could have been cast in Kesari, atleast as a supporting actor if not main lead.

I mean there are many ways to turn away an actor rather than asking him to change name or give up identity. Jagjit had come to be a singer. Not actor. Still he was asked to give up turban for better prospects finding work in Bombay. Gulzar also changed his name and shaved beard, gave up his turban. Till Maachis, not many in masses knew he was a Sikh. Why a script writer or lyricist or filmmaker needs to change his name or look?

Dozens of yesteryear actors changed their names and obfuscated their identity. Dilip Kumar, Meena Kumari, Mala Sinha, Madhubala, Nargis, Ajit, Geeta Bali - why? Are you taken for your talent or your identity/name?

I know BW is not doing social work but why be openly biased either?

Why is Bollywood called Indian cinema or representative of India when not all Indians are part of it anyway?

Southern actresses got flak even if they got success. Hema, Sridevi were mocked for language all the time and Rauf Ahmad, Gautam Rajadhyaksha once wrote Sridevi would have been the 'best ever if not for language barrier'. Sridevi was mocked for her voice, accent, language till the end of her career as a main lead.

Still all so called greatest actress titles go to ones from Hindi belt or who knew chaste Hindi. Rekha is probably the only South Indian actress who got Best actress in last 50 years award, perhaps because her Hindi is not weak and she has no typical accent.

Bollywood is traditionally uses hindi. It is mostly targetted to the hindi belt of India. North India is racist towards any person who does not speaks and shares same language as theirs.

Sardars live all over India and abroad. Not just Punjab. Bollywood has created another misconception that sardars are only in Punjab villages.

You can find Sikh cops, IAS, businessmen, students in every state of India. Rather Bollywood has put people in a box and sort of exoticised them in their own country.

Just like Muslims who are in every state of India but I am yet to see a BW film which showed Muslims beyond Kashmir, Maharashtra, Delhi and Hyderabad. Never seen a BW film with say, Assamese Muslims or Kerala Muslims. They would never show Gujju Muslims either until 2002 riots happened.

Christians are also in every state of India but Bollywood always shows Indian Xtians in only Goa or Bombay talking in weird accent like 'aayenga jayenga, ae man, tumko kya mangta'.

Bollywood simply boxes, caricatures and puts rigid categories on people in a vast country like India.

Rather I appreciate South films more as they do try to show Sikhs, Muslims, Xtians in Southern states also and show them settled there, not as someone on a visit from Punjab or Delhi or Goa.

Worst thing is the villainisation of ones with Mongoloid features which has caused increase in racism against NE people and Tibetans, Nepalese in India. Atleast BW can show a normal looking person from Assam, Meghalaya etc who is not a militant or linked to insurgents (like Manisha was in Dil Se). But no. They will not do it. Even in CDI I was noticing how Punjabi, Haryanvi, Delhi girls had more dialogues than team mates shown from NE (who had one dialogue on being treated as foreigner or guest in own country).