Mumbai: Bollywood’s casual racism has come to the fore in the controversy over the reference to Beyonce as ‘goriya’ in a song from the Ishaan Khatter and Ananya Panday starrer Khaali Peeli.
Before its makers did a double take and changed the lyric, the song ‘Beyonce sharma jayegi’ went “tujhe dekh ke goriya Beyonce sharma jayegi”. It’s the standard Bollywood pickup line used by its ‘boys’ in pursuit of ‘chokris’, ‘chamelis’, ‘goriyas’, ‘dhannos’.
But this is now, a time when woke netizens are not willing to let casual sexism or racism pass unchallenged. Sunil Gavaskar learnt it the hard way from Anushka Sharma yesterday. And not the makers of Khaali Peeli are realising that while boys might be boys, women won’t be goriyas anymore.
The offending track, which was released earlier this month, was called out by netizens for furthering the glorification of white skin and…