A seasoned actor Asha Parekh, who is currently in Goa participating in the ongoing 53rd International Film Festival of India, expressed her regret over the westernization of Indian women who have stopped wearing traditional clothes, especially for special events. According to Parekh, they replaced the gowns salwar kameez and ghagra choli and the actor is very sad about it.
Speaking at the session, Parekh said:Everything changed. Movies that are being made. I don’t know, we are so westernized. Pehen dress for wedding on aa rahi hain ladkiyan. Arre bhaiya, humari ghaghra choli, saariyan aur salwar-kameez hai aap wo pehno na. Why don’t you wear them?” (Why don’t they wear our ghagra choli, saree and salwar-kameez)
She added: “They just watch the heroines on the screen and want to copy them. Screen pe dekh ke wo jo kapde pehen rahe us tarah ke kapde hum bhi pehnenge …mote ho, ya jo, hum wahi phenenge. Ye western ho raha hai mujhe dukh hota hai (They just want to wear the clothes that actors wear on screen regardless of their body type. I am very sad about westernization).
Veteran actor Jaya Bachchan also expressed a similar opinion a few days ago. On the What The Hell Navya podcast, Jaya asked her daughter Shweta Bachchan and granddaughter Navya Nanda:Why, I want to ask you both, do Indian women wear western clothes more?
When none of them got an answer, Jaya said, “I feel that what has happened is very unconscious, we have accepted that western clothes are more… it gives the woman that workforce.” I would love to see a woman in woman power. I’m not saying go wear a saree, that’s just an example, but I think in the west, even women always dressed in dresses. This whole thing much later in life when they started wearing pants too.”
