Anxious pleasures: Reading Bollywood's item numbers through regional reception cultures

Abstract

The ‘Bollywood item number’ – a sexually charged song-and-dance sequence prevalent in Hindi films – has become an integral part of contemporary media culture across India. Drawing on qualitative research methods conducted among Assamese youth aged 18–25 in two cities of Guwahati and Mumbai, this article investigates how young audiences in regional cultures engage with item numbers in everyday contexts. Revealing the ambivalent forces of anxiety and desire that coexist within the landscape of regional reception practices, the article highlights the tension between ‘rational perception’ and ‘affective engagement’, a central paradox of engaging with erotic media texts in Bollywood. Unpacking the affective and moral negotiations youth audiences undertake in engaging with Bollywood item numbers, the article argues that the ‘item number’ serves as a site for active identity construction and conscious self-making, constitution of a ‘moral subject’ that is informed by intersecting hierarchies of class, taste, region, and gender.