It is estimated that one million women across the globe are trafficked annually. Maiti Nepal, an NGO that seeks to stop this pernicious trade, estimates that from Nepal alone, 100,000 women and girls are trafficked annually to urban areas and across the borders to India, China and beyond.

The author looks at how, in contrast, commercial Hindi films historically glamorised the sex-worker, and presented iconic characters who became the good “bad” women in popular imagination. Arguably emanating from a specific cultural context of the devdasi (temple dancer), nautanki (itinerant dancing girl) or tawaif (courtesan), filmic depictions of prostitutes’ lives and choices portray a glamourised picture. The three courtesans made famous in the films, (Mughal-e-Azam [1960], Pakeezah [The Pure One; 1971] and Umrao Jaan [1981]) are romanticised. Such depictions of the prostitute were reinforced in films such as Devdas (1955 & its 2002 remake), Pyaasa (Thirsty; 1957), Chitralekha (1964), Teesri Kasam (The Third Vow; 1966) and Amar Prem (Eternal Love; 1971).  Analysing them with later films such as Mandi (Marketplace; 1983), Utsav (Festival; 1984), Chandni Bar (2001), Chameli (2003), Chingaari (Spark; 2006) and Pranali (2008), we see the industry depicting a more realistic view in recent years. Finally, documentary films such as Born into Brothels, show the real-life dimension of the children of sex-workers, wishing for futures outside this industry and Maiti Nepal’s The Day My God Died [2010], tells the grim story of this activity and Maiti Nepal’s efforts to stop it.