Coconut, curd and jasmine: What Bollywood thinks of the south | LME 89

Bollywood’s record on portraying south Indians has been one of stereotypes, missteps, and mockery. From Padosan (1968) to Shah Rukh Khan’s “curd noodles” in Ra.One, and now Janhvi Kapoor’s “Thekkapetta Sundari” which literally means “dumped beauty” in Param Sundari, the tropes remain the same. Loud voices, broken Hindi, exaggerated accents, and token visuals of jasmine and coconuts are passed off as representation. This week on Let Me Explain, Pooja Prasanna unpacks Bollywood’s long history of stereotyping, the cultural hierarchy it reflects, and the few times Hindi cinema got it right — when characters were written and performed with context and care.Like Pooja’s LME? Support the show: https://rzp.io/rzp/support-lmeBecome a TNM subscriber- https://www.thenewsminute.com/subscriptionIf you are watching from abroad, click this link: https://buy.stripe.com/28o01q9md0OPdtm8wRTo support our team, contribute to our reporting fund: https://pages.razorpay.com/reporting-fundProduced by Megha Mukundan, script by Lakshmi Priya, camera by Ajay R, edited by Nikhil Sekhar ET, graphics by Vignesh Manickam. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.