The best and worst of Bollywood item numbers

An item number is many things to Bollywood and the following of Bollywood. To some it is an excitement factor, to some it is a break from the plot of the movie, but to most it is a teaser and a hype-generator for the movie. A promotional plan of sorts. There are many debates as to the necessity of such songs in serious film and so on, however, they are here to stay and are an irreplaceable part of Bollywood.

Sound Box has classified songs into item songs based on three main factors:

1.)They form a part of the marketing strategy of the film: Sex sells and of course it is an effective tool to get attention for a particular release. As videos and songs are released somewhat before a film, item songs are used here to promote the film to a large amount.

2.)They have little or no relation to the main plot of a movie: This one speaks for itself. Item songs are just added into a movie because they were used for marketing and have to be in the movie somewhere.

3.)They have an outrageousness factor: This refers to costumes, dance steps, the “hotness” of the item girl (or even boy sometimes, as exemplified by SRK in Darde Disco), the lyrics and general sense of orchestrated performance.

Keeping these factors in mind, we at the Sound Box office have compiled a list of the 10 best and the worst item numbers in the history of Bollywood.

The Best (In descending order):

1.) Mehbooba Mehbooba