Traditionally, Indian festival of Karwa Chauth is rooted in rituals of fasting and prayer for the long, blissful married life, but why it is being increasingly portrayed as a festival centered around gifting for Indian married women? That’s a thoughtful and sensitive discussion, and it’s one that many women in India have begun discussing more openly in recent years.
The act of giving and exchange of symbolic gifts was always present but had a more familial context, as opposed to the current showoff and commercial focus on expensive gifts like cars, jewelry, apparel, beauty products etc. perpetuating unnecessary social pressure and expectations.
While in older Hindi films — like Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham, or Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge — festivals like Karwa Chauth, Diwali, and Holi were shown with emotional depth, symbolism, and family bonding.
However, in many recent films and web series, these scenes are being often used for comic relief, satire, or irony. For instance, Karwa Chauth is being portrayed as a “husband-testing” ritual rather than a day of mutual devotion.
The fast is being depicted as outdated or oppressive, or the rituals are mocked in dialogue or song sequences. In romantic comedies, such scenes are turned into jokes about gender roles, where the focus shifts from spiritual meaning to “modern vs. traditional” conflict.
In the last few years, several Indian ad campaigns (especially from big brands) have sparked controversy for how they depict Hindu festivals. Some ads replace or “reimagine” Hindu rituals to fit a modern narrative but avoid doing the same for other faiths, which creates a sense of selective targeting. Others show Karwa Chauth as unnecessary or outdated, often mocking the fasting or rituals as mere superstition.
There’s also a marketing tendency to use Hindu festivals as just a sales gimmick, stripping away their emotional or cultural essence — like promoting “Karwa Chauth gifts for him /her” or “fasting snacks,” turning devotion into consumerism.
While advertisers claim this is about progressive storytelling or gender equality, the tone often feels dismissive or mocking rather than respectful reinterpretation. These controversial or irreverent depictions attract social media engagement, which in turn drives instant promotion and enhanced visibility.
Many advertising and film writers who come from metro, English-speaking backgrounds and project traditional Hindu customs as “regressive” rather than sacred.
The bigger irony is that a chunk of urban, upwardly mobile, working women who get trapped in this false portrayal of financial ‘independence’ as supreme, find it difficult to understand the true essence and bliss of “inter-dependence” in marital relationship and will seldom realize the real reason to celebrate Hindu festivals like “Karwa Chauth”.
“Happy Karwa Chauth” – Celebrating the blissful interdependence !
