Radhika Apte has opened up about how classic Bollywood romances shaped the way an entire generation understood love, desire and courtship. A longtime admirer of Shah Rukh Khan, the actress revealed that revisiting some of the films she loved as a teenager left her “really taken aback”, particularly over the way a woman’s refusal was often dismissed and persistent pursuit was presented as romantic.
Radhika Apte on the male gaze in old Bollywood romances
Speaking to News18, Radhika Apte reflected on the influence of older Hindi films on her understanding of romance. While she once viewed several of these stories as romantic, she said watching them again as an adult made her reconsider the messages they conveyed about women and relationships.“Being tied and our pallu being taken off were the dreams we used to get as teenagers. How scary is that,” she said. “No offence… I’m a huge Shah Rukh fan, but when I revisited some of the old films I used to like, I was really taken aback. Because when a woman says no, it’s never taken as no. Chasing a woman was romance. That’s what we wanted at that time, and it was really shocking.”Radhika’s comments point to a broader conversation around the way persistence, pursuit and resistance were frequently used as romantic tropes in mainstream Hindi cinema.
Radhika Apte questions how women were portrayed on screen
The conversation also touched upon the representation of desire in earlier Hindi cinema. Filmmaker Shakun Batra, who has directed one of the segments in ‘Lust Stories 3’, discussed films such as Raj Kapoor’s ‘Mera Naam Joker’ (1970) and ‘Ram Teri Ganga Maili’ (1985), noting that while Kapoor explored themes of desire, the narratives remained largely shaped through a male perspective.Radhika agreed with the observation and highlighted what she sees as a deeper problem with the representation of women in older films – their simultaneous sexualisation and placement within rigid standards of morality.“But even at that time, the gaze was always male. And the women were sexualised,” she argued. “You’re putting that element down and making jokes at its expense anyway. That’s the problem – the sexualisation of women, and then by saying, ‘Don’t sexualise them,’ and then calling them devi, and putting them on some pedestal of morality that you approve of. I find that problematic.”Her remarks also highlight the contradiction between sexualising female characters on screen and subsequently judging those same characters against conventional notions of virtue and morality.
Radhika Apte returns with ‘Lust Stories 3’
Radhika Apte’s comments come as she returns to Netflix India with ‘Lust Stories 3’, the latest instalment in the anthology franchise exploring relationships, intimacy and desire.The anthology brings together four filmmakers, Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao, Shakun Batra and Vishal Bhardwaj. The ensemble cast includes Konkona Sen Sharma, Vijay Varma, Abhishek Banerjee, Aditi Rao Hydari, Radhika Madan, Sana Thampi, Siddharth, Ali Fazal and Gurfateh Pirzada, alongside Radhika.
