Triptii Dimri, dubbed the ‘national crush’ by various tabloids after Animal, is under fire for her “bold” avatar in the song ‘Jaanam’ from the film Bad Newz. Many viewers are slamming her for donning bikinis and sharing intimate scenes with co-star Vicky Kaushal, with some even derisively calling her a “soft porn girl”. Both actors wear revealing outfits, with Kaushal actually showing more skin, but guess who’s been getting most of the hate?
Men can build entire careers on the ‘sex symbol’ tag—from John Abraham in Dostana to Milind Soman in the ’90s Alisha Chinai hit ‘Made in India’—but when women like Triptii Dimri do the same, they’re vilified. Never mind that most audiences ignored her brilliant performances in Laila Majnu, Qala, and Bulbbul, only properly noticing her after her intimate scenes with Ranbir Kapoor in Animal.
Post ‘Jaanam’, the complaints have been endless: her outfits, the “condom ad”-like visuals, and the lament that Dimri’s popularity is simply due to ‘sex scenes’. But let’s be clear: anything that goes viral does so because people are consuming it. From Animal to the songs of Bad Newz, Dimri’s content is viral because people are watching and engaging with it. Aliens are not making her videos trend. Yet, the same audience questions why and how she is famous.
Even if Dimri is gaining fame for ‘bold’ roles, what exactly is the issue? She has the right to choose her roles. If she and even her parents are fine with it, despite their initial misgivings, why waste energy ranting and moral policing on social media? It’s just futile noise even as the views rack up.
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Sexy men & ‘cheap’ women
From Deepika Padukone for ‘Besharam Rang’ to Zeenat Aman for Satyam Shivam Sundaram, it’s always the female actor everyone likes to train their hypocrisy-laced morality police guns on.
With ‘Jaanam’, the same audience that’s chastising Dimri is swooning over Vicky Kaushal’s looks and moves. The most he’s getting are jokes about his wife Katrina Kaif’s reaction to the scenes. But there is no character assassination involved in these comments. Those are reserved exclusively for Dimri.
Some have insinuated that her success is due to the casting couch, as if a woman can’t decide what to do with her body on or off screen. There are also absurd claims of her being the “other woman” simply because Kaushal is married and her role in Animal involves an extramarital affair.
Any female actor who owns her sexuality on screen is consistently challenged with arguments of ‘Indian culture’ and being equated with sex workers. No one even gets creative in their criticism.
Meanwhile, Vicky Kaushal’s transparent shirts and topless cavorting barely draw a peep. After all, he’s a guy. From John Abraham in Dostana in his barely-there swimming shorts to the ripped Hrithik Roshan in Dhoom 2, to now Kaushal in Bad Newz, male actors can get away with being ‘sex symbols’ and no one calls them ‘vulgar’. If a male actor flashes his six-pack abs gratuitously in scene after scene, it’s seen as ‘hard work’ for building his body or ‘method acting’. As if female actors can effortlessly maintain their beauty-standard size without a regimented diet or workouts.
Male actors can grace magazines and articles with ‘sexiest man alive’ titles without career repercussions. But if a female actor gets such a title, she has to work extra hard to ‘balance it out’ with serious roles to maintain career credibility.
People need to calm down, sip some water, and take a good look in the mirror to spot their own hypocrisy. Especially since the only time they seem to react to Dimri is when she’s wearing less than a standard amount of clothing.
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A body of work
Triptii Dimri made her Bollywood debut in 2018 with Laila Majnu, playing a young Kashmiri girl in love with the son of her father’s business rival. In 2020, she played the lead in Anvita Dutt’s Bulbbul. Here, Dimri plays a victim of child marriage who transforms from a naive girl to a powerful, terrifying force, avenging women victimised by men in her village. Two years later, in Qala, she portrayed a tortured singer dealing with her mother’s rejection and the murder of her adopted sibling.
In each of these films, Dimri shone as a performer, acing every emotion, every scene. But the audience barely noticed.
It ultimately took a 10-minute appearance in Sandeep Reddy Vanga’s controversial Animal (2023) and a much-talked-about sex scene to catapult her to the status of ‘national crush’. She soon signed films like Bhool Bhulaiyaa 3, Bad Newz, and an unnamed Anurag Basu movie. Her fees have reportedly doubled since Animal, reaching close to Rs 1 crore. Her Instagram follower count crossed 5 million.
If the Film and Television Institute graduate is capitalising on this, she’s merely giving the audience what they demand. It’s a smart business move. But now, as is often the case, she has to fend off accusations of banking only on “cheap scenes”. Even women are targeting her, with one female social media user commenting: “Yeh bollywood mei acting karne aayi hai ya apne kapde utarne” (Has she come to act in Bollywood or take off her clothes)?
Maybe it’s time to tear eyes and judgment from Dimri’s occasional body-baring appearances and also finally take a look at her impressive body of work.
Views are personal
(Edited by Asavari Singh)