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It's
not quite the Razzies that "celebrates" Hollywood's worst
but the Maharashtra State Commission for Women (MSCW) offered
its own "roll of dishonour" at an award ceremony in Mumbai
yesterday.
Hindustan
Levers' advertisement for its fairness cream 'Fair and Lovely'
was adjudged the most gender-insensitive and bagged the distinction
of being the first ever recipient of the Duryodhan Award in
the television ad category. The Amitabh Bachchan starrer Aks
and Govinda's Amdani Atthani Kharcha Rupaiya bagged
the Rakshasa and Duryodhana Awards, being the
most violent and gender-insensitive films, respectively.
The
winners were chosen by a jury comprising advocate Indira Jaisingh
(chairperson), vice-chancellor of SNDT Women's university
Roopa Shah, filmmaker Kavita Chaudhary and Mumbai commissioner
of police MN Singh.
Announcing
the final awards, Jaisingh was quoted as saying "The Fair
and Lovely" advertisement suffered from a colour complex (naturally
one would think since it extols the virtues of a fairness
cream). Jaisingh said such ads propagate the myth that a woman
has to be beautiful in order to be successful or find a suitable
match.
"If
using fairness creams could help us in securing jobs, there
would be a mad rush for these creams and unemployment in the
country would soon be over," she said.
The
awards were part of the MSCW's Foundation Day celebrations.
Amdani...
reportedly "won" because it used crude humour to
imply that women were meant to be kicked around. The film
also preached chauvinism and implied that a man felt threatened
by an independent woman.
MSCW
instituted the awards to highlight the problems associated
with the stereotyping of women in films, commodification of
their bodies and glorification of violence and crime in the
media.
There
was a positive note to the proceedings though. A special jury
award to the critically-acclaimed film Chandni Bar for
its sensitive portrayal of the lives of bar dancers.
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