Item number

In

An actress, singer, or dancer, especially someone who is poised to become a star, who appears in an item number is known as an item girl. While there are item boys^[2] as well, women are more commonly featured in item numbers than men.^[5][6]

In filmi Mumbai slang, the term item means a "sexy woman",^[3] thus the original sense of "item number" is a highly sensualized song with racy, dirty imagery and suggestive lyrics.^[7]

History

1930s–1970s

Up to the 1970s, Hindi cinema often relied on a female "vamp" character – usually playing the role of a cabaret dancer, tawaif/prostitute/courtesan, or male gangster's moll – to provide musical entertainment deemed more risqué. While film heroines also sang and danced, it was the vamp who wore more revealing clothes, smoked, drank, and sang sexually suggestive lyrics.^[3] The vamp was portrayed as immodest rather than evil, and her dance performances were sexualized by male producers. The trend was started by Cuckoo in films like Awaara (1951), Aan (1952) and Shabistan (1951).^[8]

Item numbers had been featured in Bollywood from as early as the 1930s.

In the early part of the 1970s actresses Jayshree T., Bindu, Aruna Irani and Padma Khanna entered into what was Helen's monopoly. Another noted feature of this era was the "tribal and banjara" item numbers such as the one in Shalimar. Such songs provided the necessary settings for the lead couple's love to bloom.^[11]

1980s–1990s

Silk Smitha was part of several successful Item dance numbers in the 1980s Indian films.^[12] Around the 1980s the vamp and the heroine merged into one figure and the lead actress had begun to perform the bolder numbers. The craze for "tribal and banjara" item numbers were soon gave way to slick choreography.^[11] In the late 1990s, with the proliferation of film songs based television shows, film producers had come to realise that an exceptional way to entice audiences into theaters was by spending excessively on the visualization of songs. Hence regardless of the theme and plot, an elaborate song and dance routine involving spectacularly lavish sets, costumes, special effects, extras and dancers would invariably be featured in a film. It was asserted that this contributed highly to the film's "repeat value".^[13]

Madhuri Dixit is often considered to be the pioneer of the modern trend. In the late 1980s, the song "Ek Do Teen" was added to the movie Tezaab as an afterthought, but it transformed Dixit and made her a superstar.^[13] Her partnership with choreographer Saroj Khan has resulted in numerous hits including the controversial "Choli ke peeche kya hai" and "Dhak Dhak" (Beta).^[14] Soon after the release of the film Khal Nayak, there were press reports stating that people were seeing the film again and again but only for the song "Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai" that featured Dixit.^[13]

Although there have been many songs that fit the descriptions of item numbers in the early and mid-1990s, the term itself was coined when Shilpa Shetty danced for "Main Aai Hoon UP Bihar Lootne" in the movie Shool. This is perhaps the first time the media actually referred to Shetty as an "item girl" and the scene as an "item number".^[15]

2000s

Since 2000, many top Hindi film stars now do item numbers, and many new women entering Bollywood find item numbers a more amenable shortcut to success, as opposed to more traditional roles with no guarantee of eventual stardom.^[

Malaika Arora and Yana Gupta are "official" item number dancers and have said in interviews that they don't want to act in movies since they already earn more than enough money just by doing one item number as opposed to full-on roles.^{[citation needed]}

Abhishek Bachchan became the first "item boy" with his performance in Rakht; Shahrukh Khan performed an item number of sorts during the opening credits of Kaal but later had an item number in a truer sense of the word with "Dard-e-disco" in Om Shanti Om, where he was shot in a more typical "item girl" manner, with Khan wearing minimal clothing (though this number did have a connection, albeit tenuous, with the plot of the film). In Krazzy 4, Hrithik Roshan has an item number during the end credits. Ranbir Kapoor made his debut in an item number in Chillar Party (2011); drawing inspiration from his father Rishi Kapoor's Qawwali song "Parda Hai Parda" from Amar Akbar Anthony. In 2005 and 2006 actress Bipasha Basu gave blockbuster hit numbers like No Entry and Beedi Jalaile.

In the 2007

In 2010, Katrina Kaif featured in "Sheila Ki Jawani" from Tees Maar Khan, and Malaika Arora featured in "Munni Badnaam Hui" from Dabangg.^[16] Parallels were drawn between Katrina and Malaika, as well as between the item numbers, in what was popularly known as the "Munni vs Sheila" debate.^[17][18] The songs became so popular, that, soon, more films began incorporating item numbers, and with more top stars now wanting to do them.^[19]

In 2012,

In 2017, Sunny Leone featured in the hit item number "Laila Main Laila" starring Shah Rukh Khan in the film Raees. It is a recreation of the song "Laila O Laila" from the 1980 film Qurbani, which featured actress Zeenat Aman with Feroz Khan in the original musical number.^[22]

In 2017,

On 21 July 2005, Indian parliament passed a bill to ban dance bars in Maharashtra. Criticizing the bill and supporting the dancers, Flavia Agnes said that bar dancing cannot be termed as vulgar, what they are doing is an imitation of what item girls are doing in films, they work there out of their own choice.^[31]

As one writer put it, "On paper, item numbers form the perfect formula for female sexual empowerment. In reality, they mostly result in the most blatant objectification. Camera angles zoom in over gyrating hips and linger over bare waists as blatantly as the eyes of the ogling men with no subtlety. The gaze in these dance numbers presents itself as vaguely voyeuristic, at best. There is a very deliberate implication present; that the item girl is not only inviting the leers and jeers, but she is also enjoying them."^[32]

In 2013, the Central Board of Film Certification issued a resolution declaring that item songs will now be rated as adult content and will not be allowed to be shown on television channels.^[33]

References