When they dance in the films–the beauteous heroine and her female cohort, try to drag your eyes away from the supple Aishwarya and look at her companions. One of the enduring cruelties of Bollywood and all its Subcontinental offsprings in the national and regional cinema has been the relegation of the 'ugly' into the ranks of the dancers in accompaniment.
These support dancers must never be allowed to steal the limelight from the leading lady. This is a tacit understanding in which the producer, director, leading lady, as well as the audience by the millions are complicit. Never should the natural attractiveness of a dancer in the background – perhaps her smile, perhaps her movements – divert the viewers' eyes from Aishwarya.
The audience gets the message loud and clear, as do these professional artistes who are forced to gyrate in the background. Here is the heroine. She epitomises purity, beauty and sensuousness. Those are the backup dancers, the chorus line. They dance well, sometimes better than the leading lady, but they are not front-screen material. They are dark, have small eyes, long chins, faces that are too broad. They are short in the neck, or have kinky and oily hair.
It must be quite a feat for the chorus line to dance professionally, and yet not attract attention. It must also be rather demoralising, knowing that you are there because everyone knows you are unattractive according to the mores of the day. Nothing must detract from the queen bee being given her due – the dance movements, the attractive dress, the spotlight and the camera angles.