It’s time to rise to the defense of Bollywood

Recent media frenzy targeted actor Shahrukh Khan The arrest of his 23-year-old son Aryan The alleged drug possession (though it has since been acknowledged that no drug was found on his person) has led to a major campaign against the film industry ecosystem which allegedly enabled a “drug culture”. makes. While nothing has been established in court yet, this episode is yet another installment of a new drama series launched by the Guardians of Our Public Space – A War on Bollywood.

tarnish the industry

Last year there was an all-out attack on the starlet’s character Rhea Chakraborty After months of media frenzy linking her death to the suicide of her boyfriend, actor Sushant Singh Rajput, was arrested for allegedly buying drugs for her and kept in custody for several days, they claim. that he denied and which was never proved. This in turn triggered an already massive campaign against alleged drug abuse in Bollywood, with four other actresses being called in for questioning. No charges were laid, but the process, as is often the case, proved to be a conviction.

But it is not just drugs that have been used to defame the film industry. In January this year, in more than half a dozen states across the country, at least 10 police complaints were filed against filmmakers, actors and Amazon executives in the name of televised political dramas. dance of fury, which allegedly hurt Hindu sensibilities by the depiction of a character depicting Lord Shiva. Another crime thriller, mirzapur, faced similar harassment for the same reasons; a suitable boy A case was registered against him for a kissing scene filmed near a temple. In March this year, properties belonging to filmmaker Anurag Kashyap, actress Taapsee Pannu and Reliance Entertainment Group CEO Shibhashish Sarkar were raided by the Income Tax Department as part of a tax evasion probe against a company, Phantom Films, which was dissolved. Was. 2018.

Alarm bells have started ringing in the minds of some in our political class. Maharashtra minister Nawab Malik has alleged that the raids were an attempt to suppress the voice of those who spoke against the central government. Jaya Bachchan – a one-time film star, wife of megastar Amitabh Bachchan and a member of the Rajya Sabha – condemned the “conspiracy to defame the film industry”. The latest media campaign against Aryan Khan reveals that the conspiracy is still alive.

external influences

As these allegations show, it’s not really the drugs that are the issue for Powers here. Alleged violations of our drug laws are only a convenient way to dismantle an industry that is disliked for other reasons. The political establishment recognizes the cascading effect of Bollywood entertainment – and voting – on the minds and attitudes of the public. Those in power, who have for some time exhibited intolerance for viewpoints other than their own, really dislike what Bollywood does behind closed doors, but what its content is – which no political culture can do. Can say Bollywood.

when i wrote my novel show business In 1990, some Indian critics wondered if I would follow him. The Great Indian Novel With a work that tackles the trashy world of commercial Bombay cinema. But I did it because for me Indian films, with all their limitations and outright idioms, represented an important piece of hope for India’s future. In a country that is still perhaps 30% illiterate, films represent the major medium for the transmission of popular culture and values. Cinema offers all of us a common world in India that we can escape from, allows us to dream with open eyes. And with 570 million Internet users, India also offers a remarkable market for new cinema to OTT (over-the-top) platforms – directly on our laptop and mobile phone screens – a market in which Bollywood is poised to dominate. is progressing.

plot and message

In India, popular cinema has consistently reflected the diversity of the pluralistic community that makes up this cinema. The stories they tell are often silly, the plot is formulaic, the characterizations are superficial, the action is predictable, but they are created and seen by members of every community in India. Muslim actors play Hindu heroes, South Indian heroines being chased around trees by North Indian gangsters. Representatives of some communities may be stereotyped (think of the number of drunken Christians played by “character actors” like Om Prakash), but good and bad are always found in every community.

I was first struck by this quality of Bollywood in the 1973 film, shortly after the Bangladesh War chain Gave me an important clue about what Bollywood had come to represent in our society. In the film, Pran played the role of the red-bearded Pathan Muslim Badshah Khan, who exemplified the values ​​of strength, fearlessness, loyalty and courage. It was just a year after Bangladesh’s bloody birth in a war in which most of the Pathans of the subcontinent were on the other side, but far from depicting the figure of Pran, the filmmakers chose to portray not only a strong Muslim character, Rather give him the most sympathetic appearance in the film after the protagonist. This would not have been possible in many other countries, but Bollywood continued to do well in such things as becoming megahits. Amar Akbar Anthony, nearly three brothers separated in infancy, raised by different families – one Christian, one Hindu and one Muslim. The message was clear – that Christians, Hindus and Muslims are also figuratively brothers, seemingly separate but united in their common efforts for justice.

This kind of message is surprising considering who makes these movies. Many have observed that Muslims have a greater influence in Bollywood, which is most evident in the dominance of the trio of actors Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan for three decades. Mine). Many other prominent Bollywood stars – Naseeruddin Shah, Saif Ali Khan and the late Irrfan Khan – are Muslims. None of them were invited when, in 2019, Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a famous photo-op with two dozen Bollywood A-list celebrities in New Delhi for the purpose.

Possible ‘appeasement’

In today’s charged political climate triggered by the rise of Hindutva political figures, the photo-op suggests that the “A” in the “A-list” is increasingly standing in for “appeasement” of officials. Several Bollywood celebrities embarrass themselves by participating in a government-run social media campaign to denounce global celebrities like Rihanna and Greta Thunberg for supporting our agitating farmers, naming themselves “#Celebrities”.

The real problem is that the Sangh Parivar dislikes diversity, and the way the film world organizes, staffs and finances India’s idea of ​​diversity – and tells it in stories. Everything about Bollywood epitomizes a “holistic culture”, the existence of which is an insult to the one-dimensional bigotry of Hindutva. And as India’s entertainment opens itself up to more and more global influence, India’s “mainstream” cinema has taken on serious topics – caste discrimination, rural injustice, sanitation, women’s rights, menstruation, female sexuality, inter-religious marriage, Homosexuality and even global Islamophobia have appeared in recent films.

a chilling effect

This concerns those who prefer to confine themselves to formulaic entertainment for the “bread and circus” required by Bollywood to distract the general public from government failures. The plot is getting thicker. The new internet guidelines, the application and operation of which are yet to be tested, have already prompted Amazon Prime Video to postpone plans for the second season of the popular rural political series. Hades. Other releases are reported to be postponed indefinitely. Even the prospect of an official rejection has already had a cooling effect.

Bollywood, which produces over 2,000 movies annually, has long been India’s calling card in the entertainment world. Our films and TV shows have the potential to go global on the small screen the way Korean cinema has, but Chinese does not – because censorship and intimidation suppresses one set of filmmakers and not another. The remarkable creative talent available in India can make the country a global leader for such worldwide offerings. But to do this we must give creative freedom to our filmmakers, stop harassing them and stop encouraging media oppression. It’s time to rise to the rescue of Bollywood.

Shashi Tharoor is the third Member of Parliament to represent Thiruvananthapuram and is the award-winning author of 22 books, most recently, Teathe fight of he related