Indian women get on their scooters

Bollywood actress Preity Zinta is on her way to university when a group of young men whistle at her as she drives past on a pink scooter. But when they arrive at class, they find that Zinta is the professor. "Never underestimate the power of pink," she says, as she looks at the camera in the TVS Scooty advertisment. The scooter has become a vehicle of female liberation in India.

TVS Scooty, Hero Honda and Kinetic Motors, the major Indian scooter makers, are using expensive advertising, female-only showrooms and a range of scooters as colourful as any lipstick collection to attract women buyers. In the early 1990's, an Indian woman on a scooter was so rare that she was known as a "scooter walli madam", says Monocle. But that's changed. India's scooter business — like the country — is experiencing a revolution.

Another Bollywood actress, Bipasha Basu, is the new face of Kinetic Motors and in its recent advertising campaign, which makes fun of the rival Scooty, a group of Barbie-doll figures sing, "We're girlie like our scooters." As Basu gets on her scooter, she says: "Today's women aren't girlie like dolls; they're smart and confident." And then she drives off.