Bollywood ‘item songs’ have always received mixed reactions from the audience. While some artistes own up to their work, Shreya Ghoshal has a different perspective to it. The singer recently admitted that she feels embarrassed of the ‘raunchy’ dance number Chikni Chameli (Agneepath, 2012), featuring Katrina Kaif. In an interview, she expressed her throughts on not wanting to become a part of that kind of history of the music industry.
When asked about how she feels about singing such songs, Shreya said, “I have a handful of songs which could be borderline raunchy, like Chikni Chameli. There is very fine line between being sexual and sexy or being out there just making yourself objectified. Why I am a little conscious about this now over time is because I see young little girls singing this song.”
She further added, “They don’t know what it means, it’s a fun song and they are dancing to it. They come and say, ‘I love your music, can I sing this in front of you?’ And then, I feel very embarassed. A little girl who is hardly 5-6 years old, she is singing this and it doesn’t suit or sound good. I don’t want that, so I have been conscious about that.”
The singer emphasised that it isn’t wrong for women to feel sexy but the song lyrics written mostly by males should have been better. “It isn’t wrong to happily talk about how sexy I am. But, don’t write it in such a way. Maybe, if a woman was writing it, she would have written it in a gracious manner. It’s just a matter of perspective. In our society, specially in India, it is very important to set some goals or benchmarks, because you know what is going on around us,” she said.
“Films and music have a very huge impact on people, it’s a big part of our lives. Any big blockbuster film or song becomes a part of history and I don’t want to become a part of that kind of history,” Shreya concluded.
