Bollywood has spoken, because Modi selfies aren’t really helping

Posted: 3 years ago

Bollywood was safe, till it wasn’t

Bollywood actors’ apolitical and rather spineless character is fairly well-known. Most of them do not speak about political or social matters outside the purview of well-organised NGO-type events. Unless of course, it is an international movement that warrants an unavoidable Instagram post. One cannot let go of opportunities to garner international woke credits, na?

“We’re all here for love, girl,” to quote Priyanka Chopra’s (not) iconic line, is basically the principle that actors espouse. This can also be translated to: ‘I don’t want any trouble’. The actor was questioned by a Pakistani woman at an event for having supported India’s military action against Pakistan despite her being a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador.

And this business of steering clear of any backlash from the political class and the general public, made several people in the industry believe that they were safe from most the untoward events, which they were for the longest time. In the past few years, no massive controversy has surrounded Bollywood as an industry. Perhaps, Modi’s selfie magic works after all.

However, I am fairly certain they did not know that the Modi ‘magic’ had an expiration date. The moment actor Sushant Singh Rajput committed suicide, the entire Hindi film industry got embroiled in the eye of a rather unexpected but massive storm. Suddenly, Bollywood was the subject of every news channel’s prime time debate with discussions on prevalent nepotism and lack of opportunities. And as everyone knows, it soon devolved into mud-slinging and vitriolic hate.

All of this was combined with a drug probe into some of the industry’s biggest stars like Deepika Padukone and Shraddha Kapoor. Actor Rhea Chakraborty was arrested and spent a month in jail.



Speaking out as self-preservation

But the industry was fairly quiet for all these months, except of course those who are already known to be vocal about relevant issues. There was also quite a bit of noise from a certain actor who took the trait of ‘making everything about herself’ to the next level. The least said about Kangana Ranaut the better.

Now, however, the cream of Bollywood has decided to take matters into their own hands. Their own rather selfish hands at that. When someone comes for your livelihood and your space, you are liable to speak up and this is exactly what this defamation suit proves.

Recently, India witnessed the tragic death of a 20-year-old Dalit woman who was allegedly gangraped and brutally assaulted. However, not many of those from the film industry, with their millions of followers or outreach, chose to speak up.

But when the noose gets too tight to breach the comfort, there is little to do but take action. They didn’t speak up when Rhea Chakraborty was getting brutally vilified, nor when Kangana Ranaut peddled hate against everyone. This privileged lot of Bollywood chose to speak up only when there was a threat to their movies and their businesses.

As political analyst Zainab Sikander tweeted, “They (Bollywood) only speak up when they’re in danger of going out of business since everyone wants to boycott them. Till now, they were silent spectators to all sorts of bullying to different sections of society.”

The timing of this legal action is also interesting. It was filed three days before cinemas reopened after being shut for seven months due to the Covid-induced lockdown. Now, that cinema halls are back in business and several big-budget films of these A-list actors are lined up (Akshay Kumar’s Laxmmi Bomb and Ranveer Singh’s 83 to name a few), no wonder a spine was found somewhere in all that apathy.

In all of this, it is important to remember their silences. Bollywood may have found a voice now, but it is a selfish one, and only for itself.

Posted: 3 years ago

Any industry in today's economy is selfish. It will think for its own survival. Now they are releasing movies, they are back with power. Some people's career is going to end as no body wants to work with a toxic person.

Posted: 3 years ago

These wannabe wokes have extremely unrealistic expectations from Bollywood. They are not politicians or elected leaders that they can speak about every random issue. What are they supposed to accomplish by speaking about a dalit woman's death? All it will do is increase the noise and rancor and nobody will listen to them anyway. 

These desperate wokes are almost as bad as the nationalists, but just in a different way. Everyone knows how much Barkha Dutt twisted and manipulated SRK's comments to make it sound different from what he said just because they are so desperate for validation of their own opinions. What good did it to? Who did it help? All it did was increase ratings for the TV channels who enjoyed the controversies. 

Even in their fight with Arnab/Republic, they are not commenting on anything. They have not made any Twitter or Instagram posts, nor given any interviews. They took the legal route and kept their mouth shut otherwise. 

Posted: 3 years ago

Originally posted by rkisnothot


These wannabe wokes have extremely unrealistic expectations from Bollywood. They are not politicians or elected leaders that they can speak about every random issue. What are they supposed to accomplish by speaking about a dalit woman's death? All it will do is increase the noise and rancor and nobody will listen to them anyway. 

These desperate wokes are almost as bad as the nationalists, but just in a different way. Everyone knows how much Barkha Dutt twisted and manipulated SRK's comments to make it sound different from what he said just because they are so desperate for validation of their own opinions. What good did it to? Who did it help? All it did was increase ratings for the TV channels who enjoyed the controversies. 

Even in their fight with Arnab/Republic, they are not commenting on anything. They have not made any Twitter or Instagram posts, nor given any interviews. They took the legal route and kept their mouth shut otherwise. 

IKR??

I dislike Barkha Dutt as much as I dislike Arnab and his ilk🤢 sab ek jaise hain..what Barkha did....SRK has been paying for it even now...for no fault of his...and people want the stars to speak..and di aa bail mujhe maar......I love how SRK ignores these people and tweets about cricket and festivals etc..👍🏼

Posted: 3 years ago

Originally posted by rkisnothot


These wannabe wokes have extremely unrealistic expectations from Bollywood. They are not politicians or elected leaders that they can speak about every random issue. What are they supposed to accomplish by speaking about a dalit woman's death? All it will do is increase the noise and rancor and nobody will listen to them anyway. 

These desperate wokes are almost as bad as the nationalists, but just in a different way. Everyone knows how much Barkha Dutt twisted and manipulated SRK's comments to make it sound different from what he said just because they are so desperate for validation of their own opinions. What good did it to? Who did it help? All it did was increase ratings for the TV channels who enjoyed the controversies. 

Even in their fight with Arnab/Republic, they are not commenting on anything. They have not made any Twitter or Instagram posts, nor given any interviews. They took the legal route and kept their mouth shut otherwise. 

talking about human rights issue isn’t politics and anyone with bigger or smaller platform should do that ... 


what will it accomplish? 
well for starters spread information on what’s happening and educate people on issues .. 

if they can speak about blm they can damn well speak about their own country’s issues ... 

one viral tweet can make hell lot of difference and that’s the reason why in Hollywood almost every celeb talked about blm 


and no if fans expect their favs to talk about human rights , to use their platform than that’s not unrealistic expectation , Jung ladne jaane ko nahi bol rahe hain , they are merely asking to share petition links or informative tweets .. 

Posted: 3 years ago

Originally posted by Stella_001


talking about human rights issue isn’t politics and anyone with bigger or smaller platform should do that ... 


what will it accomplish? 
well for starters spread information on what’s happening and educate people on issues .. 

if they can speak about blm they can damn well speak about their own country’s issues ... 

one viral tweet can make hell lot of difference and that’s the reason why in Hollywood almost every celeb talked about blm 


and no if fans expect their favs to talk about human rights , to use their platform than that’s not unrealistic expectation , Jung ladne jaane ko nahi bol rahe hain , they are merely asking to share petition links or informative tweets .. 

Enough with this BLM thing that gets taken out of cold storage at every opportunity. Only the desi attention-seekers posted about that - Priyanka, Kareena, Sara Ali Khan types. That's NOT the cream of the industry. In fact, those are people that nobody listens to anyway. It's also a cause that nobody in India cares about so they know it will be nice virtue-signaling without any risks.

India is not America. There is no true freedom of speech in India, especially if it goes against the government. Nobody is going to take risks that will cause people to throw rocks at their car and protest outside theaters. Nobody speaks up when their own livelihood is threatened. 

They know any statement will just be used by dirty politicians and twisted by news anchors and turned into a circus. American celebs have no worries like that. A thousand celebs can post against Trump or about BLM and CNN/Fox won't even cover it. Even if there is some brief mention, it will only be if you're at the Angelina Jolie/Beyonce level. That too only for 10 seconds and not 24/7 like it would be for Indian superstars. It just gets them validation from their followers/fans so there is nothing to lose. Again, not the case in India. 

Posted: 3 years ago

Not really on topic, but it's sad how everyone from media to people stopped caring (government never cared) about Hathras gang rape case. No latest updates or anything. Is it because the victim was a dalit woman or because it happened in BJP ruled state? I suppose both.

Posted: 3 years ago

Originally posted by rkisnothot


Enough with this BLM thing that gets taken out of cold storage at every opportunity. Only the desi attention-seekers posted about that - Priyanka, Kareena, Sara Ali Khan types. That's NOT the cream of the industry. In fact, those are people that nobody listens to anyway. It's also a cause that nobody in India cares about so they know it will be nice virtue-signaling without any risks.

India is not America. There is no true freedom of speech in India, especially if it goes against the government. Nobody is going to take risks that will cause people to throw rocks at their car and protest outside theaters. Nobody speaks up when their own livelihood is threatened. 

They know any statement will just be used by dirty politicians and twisted by news anchors and turned into a circus. American celebs have no worries like that. A thousand celebs can post against Trump or about BLM and CNN/Fox won't even cover it. Even if there is some brief mention, it will only be if you're at the Angelina Jolie/Beyonce level. That too only for 10 seconds and not 24/7 like it would be for Indian superstars. It just gets them validation from their followers/fans so there is nothing to lose. Again, not the case in India. 

Deepika too posted about blm so even she isn’t cream of the industry now ? Good to know  
don’t we all applaud Deepika for spreading awareness regarding mental health ( which was and still considered taboo ) so yes that’s what a celeb can do .. 

when you have a platform of millions of followers and media following you around your voice matters and it’s better than put it to a good use ..

And there’s literally no justification on why every Bollywood celeb were spineless and didn’t talk about Dalit rights .. and oh pls they always make controversial statements but when it comes to talking about important issue they are always silent 

stop trying to justify your privileged and rich af celebs , they already have their pr to do the same who btw gets paid for it unlike you all 😆

Posted: 3 years ago

Originally posted by Harley_Quinn


Not really on topic, but it's sad how everyone from media to people stopped caring (government never cared) about Hathras gang rape case. No latest updates or anything. Is it because the victim was a dalit woman or because it happened in BJP ruled state? I suppose both.

sadly the answer is both ... 

Posted: 3 years ago

Originally posted by Stella_001


Deepika too posted about blm so even she isn’t cream of the industry now ? Good to know  
don’t we all applaud Deepika for spreading awareness regarding mental health ( which was and still considered taboo ) so yes that’s what a celeb can do .. 

What are you even talking about? BLM is an irrelevant topic for India so nobody cares what anyone says on it. I don't remember DP saying anything which already shows what a non-impact it had. Commenting on American issues is just easy virtue signaling - look woke and cool without any ramifications. These starlets all jump on things like this because it gives them something cool to post about on instagram since they crave activity everyday.

Regarding mental health - it's good she spoke up but that's not a violent political issue the way Dalit murders are. In that case, even others speak about causes like acid attack victims. Whatever she said about mental health has gone down the drain anyway after the SSR bots took over. 

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