“Item numbers” are controversial song and dance sequences that have gained popularity in Bollywood cinema in the last two decades. Women play a central role in item numbers. They are objects of male gaze and sexually objectified. Sexual objectification of women takes place through women’s insignificant appearance in cameo roles, their placement at the center of a group of lusting and ogling men, revealing outfits, camera angles that focus on women’s body parts, exploitation of white bodies, and the use of natural elements such as mud, water, fire on or surrounding women’s bodies. Item numbers over the years have transformed from being sensual to more pornographic.
