Skipping vote for IIFA awards: 5 better reasons to pull up Bollywood

So when a staggering 53 percent of Mumbai's responsible voting population gave up important survival rituals - like refilling their cupcake supplies or making emergency calls to friends to find if they have beer stocked for the IPL match on a dry day - Hrithik Roshan packed his biceps into a clingy black tee and left for Tampa Bay, Florida.

Ah, no, not to attend the annual conference of superheroes with the most fascinating skills in the world - like wearing shiny leather trench-coats in Mumbai summers like Krrissh - but to attend a Bollywood awards function called the IIFA.

No sooner than Roshan could plug in his earphones, that tabloids, newspapers, Facebook, Twitter (and any other platform considered worthy of ranting on), shouted out in unison, expressing shock at this irresponsibility towards the country and sense of responsibility to his own bank balance. Fortunately, he was not alone in his seemingly unpatriotic misadventure. He had company in Kareena Kapoor, Madhuri Dixit, Boman Irani, Deepika Padukone, Kalki Koechlin etc.

Ah, well. So some ten Bollywood stars didn't vote and decided to make themselves some more money. Like a lot of us. Who live and work in different cities and won't vote to save us some money. Like the 47 percent of Mumbai's voting population, who too, didn't vote because laziness is a pastime our lives can't afford at all times. So, should we cry ourselves hoarse hauling Bollywood up for not having voted? Not unless there is absolutely nothing else to do in the world .

The reason being, that while Bollywood stars are cultural icons of sorts, the idea that they hold the power to influence mass behavior among fans exists only in the realm of righteous imagination. In reality, apart from maybe corrupting young India's sartorial principles by making tee shirts which validate that the wearer is human and not in fact a werewolf, there is no concrete proof that Bollywood goads people to behave like it does.

So, had Hrithik chosen to vote, would a few hundred other Mumbaikars turned up to vote? Not likely.

This doesn't mean that Bollywood shouldn't be hauled up for misleading, and hugely deceptive behavior ever. Here's a list of reasons, that doesn't include skipping vote, that Bollywood should be pulled up for.

- For making millions of Indian women believe that the human posterior is an entity, whose dimensions, much like portable inflatable pillows, can be adjusted in accordance to how skinny you are feeling when you wake up. That too by eating pizzas, if celeb interviews are anything to go by. Kareena Kapoor, the great champion of the schizophrenic human body, for once should just come out and say she lived on air and her mirror when she turned size zero.

- For making bicep lookalikes of the Delhi auto seem normal. For making the idea of having to lug your own arms around seem healthy and not detrimental to rituals of an aam Bharatiya aadmi's survival. Like flagging a cab down. In peak traffic hours during Mumbai monsoons, imagine the frustration of missing a cab, only because by the time you lifted your arm, the taxi has whooshed past you and instead spotted an aunty who has managed to wave her shopping bags before you. That's almost half of Bollywood's buffed men up for getting penalised.

- For creating the gorgeous illusion that the male Indian chest comes unencumbered by hair. And is predominantly the colour of a very nice variety of peanut butter. WHEN THEY DON'T!

- For letting Himesh Reshamiya act. And convincing Bunty-next-door that the moment he learns how to burp in public and stare into the air, he can become an actor. Basically, for shattering every Dolly aunty's dreams of having an investment banker son.

- For making Himmatwala. The second time. And Ram Gopal Verma ki Aag. The first time. And films with Sonam Kapoor. At any time.

The decision to vote, or not simply pales in comparison.