Will Ranbir Kapoor wear a burqa in Saawariya?

As the release date of Saawariya is approaching, we can easily imagine the tension its director, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, and its main actors, the newcomers Sonam Kapoor and Ranbir Kapoor, are going through.

To keep this stress away, we would like to ask this simple question that may seem a joke but which has a deep meaning with regards to the history of Muslim representation in Indian movies.

Very often, Bollywood has shown its uneasiness in depicting Muslim characters. Directors usually tend to oversimplify the reality of this community. But moviemakers of the 1970s had a more healthy approach to the question, since they preferred to address this issue through humour. And most of the time, Muslim spectators are the first ones to laugh at their own expense which is a sign of tolerance, and, most of all, of humour.

In this context, a scene that has been depicted time and again in Hindi movies is the one where the hero has to disguise himself by wearing a burqa in order to be able to meet his Laila. In Mera Faisla, Sanjay Dutt wears this Muslim feminine costume in a very funny song sequence taking place in a girls’ changing-room-cum-bathroom. Much recently, in Khushi, Fardeen Khan’s friend uses this disguise to enter the house of his college sweetheart, who happens to be the daughter of a mafia don.

Even Rishi Kapoor has played a number of Muslim characters entangled in those comic situations. In Rafoo Chakkar, one can see him clad in a burqa, romancing Neetu Singh.

So, will Ranbir wear a burqa in Saawariya? We will have to wait in order to see if Sanjay Leela Bhansali pays an homage to Hindi movies of the golden era, and also to Rishi Kapoor, or if he prefers to be innovative in the depiction of Muslims in movies.