Editors on Bilibili have re-cut the film into bite-sized, 10-minute essays, pairing its rawest scenes with lo-fi beats or clips of powerful female anime characters. The comments section is a confessional booth. One user writes: "I watched this while my parents thought I was studying for the Gaokao. The lipstick is my secret art account."

The platform’s algorithm, usually busy recommending wholesome pet videos, accidentally stumbles into this niche every few months. A clip from the film will suddenly get 500,000 views overnight — then vanish, flagged for "sensitive content." But like the lipstick itself, it always reappears. Re-uploaded. Re-titled. "A film about fabric colors." "A fashion vlog."

Shades of Red in a Sea of Black: "Lipstick Under My Burkha" on Bilibili

For the uninitiated, Lipstick Under My Burkha is a 2016 Indian film directed by Alankrita Shrivastava. It follows four women in a small Indian town who use forbidden cosmetics and secret phone calls to claw back a sense of self from the clutches of patriarchal tradition. The film was famously banned by the Indian Censor Board for being "lady-oriented" and containing "sexual scenes," only to be released after an uproar.

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lipstick under my burkha bilibili
lipstick under my burkha bilibili
MAR 2024
lipstick under my burkha bilibili