Entertainment / Deepika Padukone’s Controversial Tweet

Deepika Padukone’s Controversial Tweet

Entertainment Sep 17, 2014

by Nidhi Shrivastava

Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone's fights back.

Actress Deepika Padukone received support from fans and colleagues last week, after SundayTimes of India (TIO) Tweeted, “OMG: Deepika Padukone’s cleavage show,” with an accompanying link to a photo gallery of the star, with high camera, angled down shots. The star of films like Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani and Chennai Express and, most recently, Finding Fanny, took to Twitter to speak out against the news source: ““YES! I am a Woman. I have breasts AND a cleavage! You got a problem!!??”

The photo gallery includes other Bollywood actresses, like former Miss World Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, Anushka Sharma, and Kangana Ranaut. As another of Padukone’s Tweets reads, “Supposedly India’s ‘LEADING’ newspaper, and this is ‘NEWS’!!??”

Rightfully so, this issue has once again brought attention to one of the greatest issues that India is currently dealing with – the treatment of women. As the actress points out in another of her Twitter responses, “Don't talk about Woman’s Empowerment when YOU don’t know how to RESPECT Women!” The Sunday Times Tweet has since been removed.

Bollywood actresses like Padukone continue to be viewed as sexual objects. Perhaps, what is even more surprising, is that this post belongs to a respectful, and as Padukone points out, “Leading,” newspaper. This incident is a reminder of how women in India continue to be treated as second-class citizens in their own country. Just like earlier this year, when Kalki Koelchin, spoke out about her experiences as a victim of child of sexual abuse, this is a chance to discuss women’s rights in India, , “We don’t have the guts to do what she has done, but we believe in it and we support it," Shah Rukh Khan tells reporters at the Happy New Year music launch. "What she did was fantastic, and it would be stupid of us to talk about that. All of us have to stand by her… but we should not trivialise it.”

Recently, the Bollywood industry has been producing many films, like Shuddh Desi Romance (2013). Mary Kom (2014), Highway (2014), and Hasee to Phasee (2014), that discuss how women are treated in Indian society: issues like cohabitation, pre-marital sex, child sexual abuse, and career-oriented women who aspire to have a career, and maintain a family.

This being said, there is another strand of the same industry that promotes female actresses as sexual objects. Padukone’s particular photo gallery of her cleavage, along with other actresses, shows how women’s bodies are objectified and used for cheap entertainment.

What is endearing, however, is how Bollywood supports Padukone’s stand against TIO’s photo gallery. Ranveer Singh, Dia Mirza, Karan Johar, Anubhav Sinha, and Anushka Sharma joined in to support Padukone, bringing the issue of journalism ethics and women’s rights to the limelight.

Here are some of the tweets that Padukone received from the Bollywood industry:

Ranveer Singh: “@deepikapadukone way to let 'em know! #LikeABoss owned”

Anushka Sharma: Respect to @deepikapadukone for standing up to this vulgar 'news' and standing up for her being a woman and not being apologetic about it!

Anubhav Sinha: It is the high camera angle not a low neckline. What is low is the standard of journalism. Downright SICK

_{Feature Image Source: sbs.}

Nidhi Shrivastava

Author

Nidhi Shrivastava (@shnidhi) is a Ph.D. candidate in the English department at Western University and works as an adjunct professor in at Sacred Heart University. She holds double masters in South Asian Studies and Women's Studies. Her research focuses on Hindi film cinema, censorship, the figure o...

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Deepika Padukone’s Controversial Tweet

by Nidhi Shrivastava

Bollywood actress Deepika Padukone's fights back.

Nidhi Shrivastava

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