Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai

Another very popular Bollywood song from the 90s, "Choli Ke Peeche Kya Hai" is from the 1993 movie Khalnayak and features many beautiful costumes. As you can see from the below picture, the main character wears a vibrant costume with many reflective decorations on the bodice. The top and skirt also have small coins that make noise as she moves, similar to the ones used in belly dancing. You can watch the number here.

While researching this song, I found out that it was a subject of great controversy in India for many years for the suggestive lyrics. The title translates to "what's underneath that blouse?" And was originally intended to be cut from the song. The number also caused controversy because of the "saucy" dance number, although as Monika Mehta notes in Censorship and Sexuality in Bombay Cinema, the movie was determined suitable for those 15 and over by the British Board of Film Classification. This discrepancy is interesting to examine, especially when one compares the costumes in this number to similar ones in Western films or even Western theater. It is clear that the Indian and Western standards are different in lyrics and in costumes.