Since the song Besharam Rang from the Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone film Pathaan was released on the internet, it has grabbed over 50 million views on YouTube — thanks to the chaos over the orange outfit worn by Deepika, which features for about 15 seconds towards the end.
Religious sentiments of many were hurt because the bikini worn by Deepika in the song at the end is orange and the lyrics say Besharam rang. People thought it was a description of the saffron colour. However, in the song the line means 'world hasn't seen my true colours’.
The misinterpretation has caused for a call for banning the song. If the reports are to be believed, the makers have also decided to delete the song from the film. Many have burnt effigies of Deepika and Shah Rukh in North India and requested to reshoot the end with different clothes.
“After a few years, this colour politics will end because we are teaching the new generation about the importance of colour to our culture. They are disrespecting the colour calling it besharam, which is not acceptable. Colour can't be besharam, the one wearing it and one using it for the project is besharam,” says Vinod Mishra, corporator, of the BJP wing in Mumbai.
Though this is not the first time that India is engulfed in colour controversy, it has gone to unprecedented lengths. Some have called it a political agenda and way of diverting attention from more serious issues.
Amit Joshi, BJP Vice President, Village Council of Diggi in Rajasthan says that the controversy is not a political agenda but an individual opinion. “Colour is a significance of a community. Say anything wrong about the green colour and see what happens. Moreover, we believe in 'sabka sath, sabka vikas' so there is nothing about one particular community. The remarks are individual opinions. Party never wants to promote this idea.”
Point to be pondered on remains — does calling a colour in besharam actually insult a colour? And is any colour property of any particular community or political party?
Zahida Shabnam, Chairman of Congress Women's Wing says this act is preposterous and diverts people from the main issues that the country is facing. “This is ridiculous. There shouldn't be any controversy around a colour. Each colour represents one or the other community, why is it only about the saffron colour that the sentiments are hurt? Sufis wear saffron colour too... which means the colour doesn't belong to one community. I think we now need to stop promoting these ideas. This should not even be a point of discussion for a political party. They should rather talk about issues and do something about them. This is only to divert attention from main issues. I am surprised that some party members are talking about colour. No one can claim any colour,” Zahida expresses.
Veteran filmmaker Anand Patwardhan, points out that parties are using cinema for political reasons. “Political parties, especially right-wing, are using cinema left, right, centre for their personal agenda. Cinema is for entertainment but now it is used to push their right-wing agenda. It's just how they promoted Kashmir Files to spread hatred between the communities. Kashmir Files is a propaganda film which is spreading hate. I am not saying that the events are false but the way they used them the film to promote their ideologies and spread hate is not right. This colour controversy also has a political reason and this is a predigested idea. This is done in many different ways, sometimes through mainstream media, or WhatsApp or films, which are easiest to target,” says the filmmaker.
Sreemoyee Piu Kundu, an author and the founder of Status Single, an online community for single women agrees and adds that this is right-wing bigotry and misogyny. “Female nudity always comes under attack. Here is Deepika's scintillating body, the colour and the bikini. There is a song Rang de tu mohe gerua (Dilwale)... why not question that? Because that's a love song, but here, a woman is showing her body and why not, Deepika is looking beautiful in that bikini. I think it's misogyny at its best. It's wasting political bandwidth on pointing out colours and making mountains out of a molehill of an aesthetically shot song,” opines the author.
While our politicians debate over religion and colour issues, the younger generation is far from finding these dialogues important. “It doesn't matter. Colours are to embrace and not do politics over. These are not important issues and I don't think Gen Z is even worried about them. They say white is the colour of the widow, how insulting it is, but Alia Bhatt broke that and wore a white wedding lehenga, and she looked beautiful. Colours are manmade and they do not come with any religion. There is so much hypocrisy on social media and people who should be our role models do this, which is even more shameful,” says actor and social media influencer, Apoorva Singh Chaudhary.
